All hail the General. Murray puts his stamp on the Sabres

The Buffalo Sabres roster is pretty much set for the rest of the season as the 2014 trade deadline has passed.

GM Tim Murray finished what his predecessor had started--stripping the team of every UFA asset that would bring back something of interest in return. At the end of the day he said, "the big players on our roster that were available were traded."

When asked at his post-deadline presser when the rebuild ends and the building begins, Murray smirked a bit and said, "You're never done. We have to add players. We have to create inner-competition. The start of building for me was Friday (with the Ryan Miller/Steve Ott trade, his first trade as a GM.) Today was a continuation of it."

Make no mistake, Murray is the General, and this is his build. Darcy Regier's core group is gone and the NHL players that came back in Regier's core deals--Ott and Matt Moulson among them--are no longer with the team.


Murray has two NHL'ers from his Miller trade that are with the team--F Chris Stewart and G Michal Neuvirth. Neuvirth was the return from Washington when Jaroslav Halak was flipped.

The no-nonsense GM went into his first trade deadline day with a plan but with no expectations. He had already spent a lot of time on the phone well before yesterday.

That's how the trade of Brayden McNabb to the LA Kings came about.

"I didn't come into [traded deadline day] expecting to trade draft picks," said Murray of the picks he sent with McNabb to the Kings.

He had talked "at length" to Kings GM Dean Lombardi numerous times stretching back to before the Olympic break about Moulson.

Murray said that they'd talked "probably about 10 times over the last two days and [the McNabb trade just evolved."

As they were talking about UFA to be Matt Moulson and the possible return, Murray saw the talks turn into a hockey trade as opposed to a rental trade.

"We had one of the guys' names he had agreed to move in a lesser deal and we just continued to hacking at it and it came to that," Murray concluded.

Moulson would end up being traded to the Minnesota Wild, a team in need of scoring.

From what was said by Murray at the presser, it would seem as if there was a standing offer of two second rounders for the three time 30-goal scorer.

Here's what Murray said about the McNabb trade and what he was looking at, "we could have kept those seconds and then made the trade for two more seconds (presumably the Moulson deal.)

"So then we would have a hundred seconds," he quipped.

Murray came into a situation where the Sabres had some holes in their development chain.

The Sabres have a strong group of youngins, mostly on defense, and they had some veterans in their primes. But there was a gap in the 23-26 yr. old range up front that he was/is intent upon filling.

Nicolas Deslauriers is a 23 yr. old converted defenseman playing left wing, a weakness in the Sabres organization.

Deslauriers was leading the Manchester Monarchs, LA's farm team, in goals with 18 and had
39 points through 60 games. "If you look at his stats," said Murray of the Deslauriers, "he's taken to that (LW) position nicely. The way he plays. And he can still run the point on your powerplay."

Another player that Murray traded for who's a little bit farther along is Neuvirth.

He'll be 26 yrs. old later this month and already has 134 games under his belt.

He comes from a Capitals organization that has had trouble figuring out the goalie situation. They've had nine goalies since 2008 take a shot at the #1 position.

Said Murray of Neuvirth, "I like [Neuvirth]. Plain and simple. He's a young goalie that I've seen for a long time, that played in the OHL, and for whatever reason, he was a backup (in Washington) and was not as important (to them) as he wants to be."

"I think," Murray continued, "when he gets to feel some love again, and has an opportunity, that he can get his game back. His stats are pretty good right now (4-5-1 record this year, 2.82 gaa, .914 sv.%) on a good team, but not a great team.

At 25 yrs. old he's got a background playing in top competition in his age group and now it's our job to get him back to playing against top competition in his age group which is the NHL."

Murray did some fine work fortifying left wing, a glaring weakness in the organization.

In addition to Deslauriers, he added LW Hudson Fasching in the McNabb trade.

Granted, Murray could not pry away top prospects from any of his trade partners, but he is confident that the players he acquired will be contributors in the future.

He had his prices going in to the deadline and was flexible enough to let varying scenarios evolve. He moved assets and filled holes in the organization including two players--Deslauriers and Rostislav Klesla (Halak/Neuvirth trade)--who will be headed to Rochester to help the Amerks with their Calder Cup aspirations.

That part is over.

Murray is now focusing upon the upcoming GM meetings, college free agency and the 2014 draft.

Right now he has a bevy of picks in the next two drafts including four first rounders (with a possible fifth if the Miller condition is met) and he has two second-rounders in this draft.

Overall, Murray summed up his first deadline day and the immediate future of the Sabres this way, "I think it [was] a good day. I think the combination of picks we've added and the young players we've added gives us a ton of ammunition going into the draft. There will be players available then that weren't available at the deadline. We have a ton picks to be players in that, young players to be players in that. We were focused today and we'll be focused at the draft."

All hail, the general.