"Do you want to get tougher to play against?"

So posed the question from Buffalo Sabres Assistant General Manager/Head Amateur Scout Kevin Devine to the brain trust seated at the 2013 NHL Draft table.

It was a question that both GM Darcy Regier, seated at Devine's right, and Owner Terry Pegula, seated at his left, emphatically said yes to.

That was the scene from Beyond the Blue and Gold at Sabres.com. BBG is an award-winning series that takes us behind the scenes of the Sabres hockey world.

"Tougher to play against" has been a goal of Pegula and Regier ever since the Milan Lucic/Ryan Miller incident exposed Regier's weak, fragile team. It's something that they could see, but just couldn't touch.

Devine, on the other hand, knew the type of player they'd need to draft to help fulfill that goal.

The Sabres had already selected "their guy" (according to Devine) with their first pick in the draft, big Finnish defenseman, Rasmus Ristolainen.

Sabres 2013 draft pick, defenseman
Nikita Zadorov said on draft-day,
"Yeah, I really like to hit."

Another defenseman with their second first-rounder, said Devine "wasn't even in their plans," but hulking defenseman Nikita Zadorov kept slipping. And as he got closer to No. 16, where the Sabres sat with their next pick, Devine posed that question, "Do you want to get tougher to play against?"

Make no mistake. This was Kevin Devine's draft.

I'd asked Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com, about that and he said that it was a team effort, which of course is true. But it was clear in that Devine had the final decision.



Kevin Devine, who played for
the Indanapolis Checkers, was
 "a gritty winger who could score"
 indyhockey.blogspot.com

In the BBG piece, Devine talks about the work they as a team put into the process and how, maybe unlike other teams, they go as far as they can up until draft day working them to the point where he probably "drives his staff crazy with all the meetings." But, he says, "we want to get this right."

It's always been assumed that Regier has the final say in player personnel matters including the draft, and it would seem as if that had been the case for most of the 16 years he's been on board as Sabres GM. But the winds of change are beginning to howl at the foot of Washington St.

The team is moving away from the passive qualities of Regier, as displayed by in his soft, underachieving "core" over the last six seasons, towards a more aggressive team.

"Kevin's a fierce competitor," said Reiger, "fiery.

Baker said that Devine has tons of say when it comes to team building and that Regier gives him full trust, a trust that stretches back to the 2008 draft where the Sabres sat at No. 13 and only one team standing between them and "their guy."

At that draft, Devine convinced Regier to move up one spot to select defenseman Tyler Myers.

We all know that Myers hasn't been playing well the past few years, but as a rookie in 2009-10, he won the Calder Trophy at age 19. As a scout, that's about as good as it can get.

Since then, Devine has been taking on more responsibility within the Sabres organization.

Kevin Oklobzija of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle said back in 2012 that Devine needs an "amendment to his job title."

"Devine," he said, "oversees the operations in Rochester. His duties span well beyond just amateur scouting."

That was on the heels of a Regier interview with WGR's Schopp an the Bulldog the previous month where he amended Devine's title while answering a question. "I was talking with Kevin Devine, Director of...Assistant General Manager who still oversees the amateur scouting."

As of yet, there's been nothing official with Devine's promotion to AGM even though he's listed in the Sabres 2012-13 media guide as being in that position for two years.

Why?

Perhaps they're taking a page out of the Buffalo Bills playbook.

Earlier this year, Bills AGM Doug Whaley seemed to be the acting GM while Buddy Nix still had the title. It was pretty clear that the reigns of the franchise were in the hands of Whaley, especially at the draft, and soon it was official. Nix stepped aside and Whaley officially took the title of GM soon after the draft.

Regardless of the title, Devine has some serious input into the team.

It's said that a team is a direct reflection of it's GM, and as we look at the Sabres and the types of players that they're rebuilding with, one can deduce that it's more of a Devine team than a Regier team--more aggression, less passivity.

Even something as little as how he briefly describes Ristolainen reveals how Devine looks at a player, "he has size, grit and skill" he said of 8th-overall pick in the 2013 Draft (the "grit" part being placed before the "skill" part.)

There are other little nuggets in the Beyond the Blue and Gold piece as well.

Overall it presents Devine between Regier and Pegula at the draft taking full command of the table.

And he is definitive in his beliefs.

On the Ristolainen pick:  "We're taking Ristolainen at eight, unless he's gone. We've got our guy, we're not moving to 10. They're gonna take our guy."

But what is also revelatory in respect to his somewhat new stature within the organization is that he's a bit spirited at one point, something one would see in a "rookie."

When the Nashville Predators are headed to the podium to make their pick at No. 4 he gets somewhat animated.

"They've got their f-in' Finn scout up there," a nervous Devine bemoans as he anticipates the Preds taking Finnish defensman, Ristolainen. "Holy sh!t."

After Nashville takes Seth Jones 4th overall, he exclaims, "Thank God."

It's pretty obvious that Kevin Devine has scouting and player development (overseeing Rochester) under his belt. Do his duties stretch beyond that into the big club and their player choices at the NHL level? Is his fingerprint on the Derek Roy for Steve Ott trade? A trade that may end up being a franchise landmark in regards to team-building?

For fans like myself who've been dying for a change in the culture of the Buffalo Sabres, specifically at the GM position, I would say that this change has already begun. It's not a firing and hiring, but a transition.

Present GM Darcy Regier seems to be on his way out of that title and Kevin Devine seems to be the man who will take control.

"Do you want to get tougher to play against?" asks Devine, innately, confidently knowing how to address that.

The answer from Sabres-nation is a resounding yes and we know that it starts with the GM and the team he'll  fashion in his image an likeness.

That likeness is not of Regier, but of Devine.



From the 2012-13 Buffalo Sabres media guide:

Kevin Devine begins his 15th year with the Buffalo Sabres and his second as assistant general manager. In this role, Devine oversees the organization’s seven-member amateur scouting staff and is instrumental in making Buffalo’s NHL Entry Draft selections.

Prior to becoming the assistant general manager, Devine spent, five years as director of amateur scouting, six years as a professional scout in the Sabres organization and two as an assistant amateur scout.

Before joining the Sabres, he spent three years coaching the Prince Edward Island Senators of the AHL. He also coached in the UHL, with stints in Port Huron and Thunder Bay.

Much appreciation to the Buffalo Sabres and the producers of Beyond the Blue and Gold.