Tim Murray dropped a bombshell at the GM meetings when he told Pierre LeBrun that he wants another first round selection in the upcoming draft and that he’s willing to take on salary in order to accomplish that goal.
Perhaps it wasn’t a bombshell so much as an indication that Murray plans on being busy ahead of and through this month’s draft. Here’s his quote from LeBrun’s column:
“I can’t imagine I would trade the second overall pick,” Murray said. “I’d like to get a couple of more first-round picks and I have those three third-rounders to us. I certainly know you can’t trade a second for a first, but you might take some money back in a deal to do that and I do have to get to the [cap] floor. There are different ways to get to the floor so I’m exploring all that.”
As the final two weeks tick away until the Sabres make the first pick in the Tim Murray era, Tyler and I decided to team up to offer an all-encompassing analysis of how the most recent Cup winning teams were constructed. We started with the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Penguins and went straight through this year’s Kings and Rangers rosters.
We found a number of different trends and traits on each of these teams. One trait they all shared was the possession of at least one high pick (fifth or higher) who was either drafted by the team or became a priority acquisition at one point or another. However, just as important as these players were to their respective teams, proper acquisitions via trades or free agency served as an equally important trait for each and every one of these teams.
Anze Kopitar: picked 11th overall in 2005.
Our goal was to offer a comprehensive analysis of each of these teams to illustrate exactly where the Sabres still need to improve their roster outside of simply winning the Draft Lottery.
Chris: The current state of the Sabres has inspired a lot of debate regarding rebuilding and the best course of action to take. One particularly incendiary stance taken by Jeremy White is that it doesn’t matter who your GM is so long as you’re picking at the top of the draft. While I’m sure his point was that anyone can pick first since you’re likely to land a surefire stud with a top-three selection, the comment has turned into a rallying cry both for White and his critics.
I know we both disagree with his premise given that hockey teams are comprised of 23 players, not one or two. Without giving away the entire argument in two paragraphs, I feel it’s important for anyone to understand that shaping a championship team takes a hell of a lot more than simply picking first a few times. It’s a perfect storm of drafting, trades, free agent signings and cap management. Comparing the state of the Sabres to other teams who have enjoyed a turnaround after picking high – Colorado comes to mind as a great example – it’s safe to say that Aaron Ekblad or one of the Sams aren’t going to turn things around by themselves, no?
Tyler: Whoever Tim Murray opts to take at 2nd overall at the end of the month will not come in, put the team on his back, and carry them to a top three finish (and automatic playoff spot) in the Atlantic Division. I’d venture to say that even if Murray were to acquire another top five pick in June (as Mike Harrington believes they should) they still would find themselves outside of the playoff picture. That is not an indictment of the skill of any of the top prospects, but of the current roster. The Sabres have a multitude of holes to fill, and while one or two of Bennett, Reinhart, or Ekblad would no doubt but the team on the right track there’s still a long way to go. Continue reading →
If you mosey on down to the Sabres Store at any point during the regular season you’re bound to find a decent selection of game used sticks. Sometimes you can even find brand new sticks that haven’t been cut down, let alone taped up. The sticks cost about $100 the last time I checked, which happens to be a sweet price for a piece of pro stock equipment. Factor in that these sticks retail for over $250 in most cases and the deal really can’t be beat.
Unfortunately this is about as far as the Sabres are willing to go when it comes to selling their overstocked equipment. In the early weeks of the summer the selection is a bit deeper – with socks, gloves and pants available for purchase – but usually that stock runs dry quite quickly.
That brings me to my main point. Why is it that the Sabres don’t run an equipment sale each year? Continue reading →
This is part two of my series of re-drafting the first round of the NHL Draft between 2004 and 2009.
One thing I noticed as I was working on this project was how quickly the bottom of the round thins out. I never had much trouble lining up candidates who had been selected in the second round and beyond, but filling the holes left by the first round misses led the bottom of each first round to be tricky to round out. Luckily there were a healthy number of mid-round picks to choose from in 2005 as the draft itself was very deep.
This draft, particularly at the bottom, became more of a need-based selection process as opposed to simply listing the best players. However, having a happy medium of re-ranking and actually selecting players for need was my goal going into this.
I saw a similar graphic with a list of some of hockey’s greatest names earlier today. The instructions were the same; you had $20 to pick the starting six players you would want based on the dollar amounts next to each name. So I thought it would be fun to do this with the Sabres. Go ahead and leave your picks in the comments or on Twitter after you pick your group.
This will be the first in a series of posts that revisits the first round of the NHL Draft. I did something similar with previous Sabres drafts for Buffalo Wins last year and NHL Network Radio on SiriusXM has been doing something along these lines the last few weeks.
I wanted to look back on the first round of recent drafts and to figure out which players worked out, who turned out to be a sleeper and who wound up as a bust. So I took each draft between 2004 and 2009 and re-selected the first round based on the players from the entire draft.
I evaluated and drafted by following a handful of guidelines. The overall goal was to identify where some prospects would be picked if the draft could be reconducted today. I attempted to strike a balance of simply reordering the top 30 players from each draft and making some selections based on who would best aid certain teams.
I didn’t consider each and every team’s draft strategy since I can’t speak to the draft strategy of each team in any particular draft. However, if there was a player that would address a very specific need, goaltenders being the best example, that was taken into consideration. I also looked at each draft independent of those in the preceding or following years. A player’s original draft selection didn’t factor into their new position in this practice.
The first draft I chose to reevaluate was 2004. This draft was headlined by Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. As you’ll notice, I will list the team’s new pick first followed by the pick they made originally with a brief explanation for most, if not all of the choices. I will also list where the new pick was originally selected.
The move that sent Jaroslav Halak to the Capitals was one that ensured Tim Murray ensured that he had a goaltender who would be with the organization past this summer’s free agency period. Little did many know that Halak would wind up becoming a contributing factor in which first round pick the Sabres receive from the Islanders.
Halak was swapped by the Capitals for a fourth round pick yesterday in a move that gives the Islanders two full months to negotiate with Halak ahead of free agency. This is a move geared towards improving the Islanders now. Their lack of goaltending last year kept the Islanders from competing for a playoff position and ultimately pushed them towards the top of the draft. While this isn’t a final piece of a Cup run puzzle it’s certainly a move that indicates that Snow won’t be taking the scenic route towards reshaping the roster.
That route likely includes using their 2014 first round pick.
There’s still the possibility that Halak chooses to test the market despite the Islanders efforts to get in him ahead of time – remember, the Islanders failed to get Christian Ehrhoff under contract after trading a fourth round pick for his rights in 2014. Should that be the case Snow would be stuck pursuing a contingency plan in net. Either way, it’s obvious that he wants to make immediate improvements to his roster which tells me they aren’t necessarily in the tanking business for 2014-15. Continue reading →
A few weeks back I was contacted by PumperNicholl from The Royal Half about participating in the first annual Professional Hockey Bloggers Association awards voting. They put together 65 blogs (65!) to vote on the seven big awards.
Each blog was given one entry to select up to five players for each award. Here’s how the voting played out:
In the past you’ve read posts on this site titled as pipe dreams. They were a string of ideas I had envisioned for various parts of the city that featured a wide range of ideas which varied in terms of feasibility.
I hope that this post serves as a starting point for a number of different ideas that I’m pitching for the Sabres. In fact, I’ve ran some similar posts in recent weeks and months. So it’s not as if this is a foreign concept to this space.
So I kept brushing him back.
Perhaps one of these ideas will strike a chord with a member of the Sabres front office (unlikely) or even just drum up conversation amongst the fan base that could gain momentum down the road. I enjoy coming up with various ideas and floating them for conversation. Especially when it’s something that could benefit the city or, in this case the Sabres.
The Sabres currently hold an annual event called the Corporate Challenge that is a three-on-three tournament that features alumni headlining teams sponsored by local businesses. The cost per team is $3500 and the players receive a jersey along with a number of other amenities that accompany the tournament. This includes food and drink throughout the day and at the culmination of the event. It’s a terrific even and I’d like to see the Sabres build on the success and momentum of the Corporate Challenge by instituting a fantasy camp. Continue reading →
There’s no question that the NHL Playoffs are the greatest part of every season. An easy argument could be made that the postseason tournament is the best amongst the four major sports. The series format, structure and seeding are nearly perfect with the change back to the divisional format this season.
While there isn’t a thing I’d change about the playoffs in their current form, I’ve wondered recently about an adjustment to the series structure. The idea shuffles the order in which the games are played to not only add value to home ice advantage, but to give the higher seed an extra opportunity to clinch a series on home ice.
The NHL model, as it stands now follows a 2-2-1-1-1 format with the home team hosting games one, two, five and seven. It is far superior to the NBA’s awful, horrible, no good 2-3-2 order that sees the higher seed forced to the road for three straight games. The system that I’m proposing would see the lower seed host the first two games while giving the higher seed four of the final five games. Continue reading →
Tim Murray dropped a bombshell at the GM meetings when he told Pierre LeBrun that he wants another first round selection in the upcoming draft and that he’s willing to take on salary in order to accomplish that goal.
Two in the Box 