Tim Murray still has a bounty of assets heading towards Wednesday's trade deadline

Sabres GM Tim Murray didn't fool around with his first official trade as a GM.

Sabres GM Tim Murray isn't fooling around

He sent goalie Ryan Miller and forward Steve Ott to St. Louis for goalie Jaroslav Halak, forward Chris Stewart, forward Prospect William Carrier and a 2015 first round pick. Also involved is a conditional 2014 first round pick. Should the Blues either re-sign Miller or make the Western Conference Final, the Sabres will receive that pick. If not, that pick can be no worse than a 2016 third-rounder.

It was a good hockey trade.


The Blues were considered amongst the Cup contenders heading into the season. They presently sit third in the league behind Anaheim and Chicago.

St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong has built a big, fast team and his coach Ken Hitchcock has them playing a defensively sound/offensively opportunistic game. They are the stingiest, or one of the stingiest teams when it comes to shots against.

Putting Miller behind that strong defense, complete with a bevy of two-way forwards, creates a formidable wall.

The addition of Ott provides them with a strong bottom-six forward who leads, fights, is a pest to play against, plays defense and scores. Ott is the type of player that every Cup-contender likes to add for the push.

As for the Sabres, they're officially in full rebuild-mode, as former GM Darcy Regier's core is no more.

Nearly a year ago we speculated that Miller would be a good fit in St. Louis citing their goaltenders save percentages and Miller's play behind a seriously inferior team. The premise was simple, if Miller can play that well behind a poor team, he could probably be a Vezina candidate once again behind a stellar Blues team.

It was said back then that Regier and Armstrong were talking but couldn't get it done. We thought last July that they should be locked into a room until a deal got done.

Murray came in and got it done, despite being under pressure to move the soon-to-be unrestricted Miller.

He got a prospect back, although not one of the Blues top ones, a highly coveted 2015 first rounder and a potential 2014 first-rounder with either of those conditions being probable.

Murray also received two players in return.

Halak is a 1A-type goaltender. Teams who want to upgrade their back-up goalie position (like Columbus) may look into trading for him.

Stewart is a little bit different in that he's signed through next season and he was openly coveted by at least a couple of teams--Ottawa and the NY Rangers.

He is a big forward who can play a rough and tumble game and has scored 28 goals in a season.

Stewart's problem, though, is his inconsistency. Kinda like a bigger, tougher, meaner Drew Stafford.

Murray has plenty of options with him.

He can flip Stewart now or wait until the 2015 trade deadline. Or they can keep him and use the 26yr. old/potential top-six power forward as a building block, which would be my choice.

Probably the best thing that came out of the blockbuster with St. Louis is that Murray really doesn't need to do too much more. "Need" being the operative word.

When you take that word out of the equation, the return gets higher.

Which is important when it comes to impending free agent Matt Moulson.

Moulson is a sniper and three-time 30-goal scorer who continues to pot goals on the last place team in the NHL.

Teams covet players like that as a rental, especially with his $3.1m cap-hit.

Most importantly for the Sabres is that Moulson has said he likes the direction of the team, especially with head coach Ted Nolan at the helm. (although, as of now, the resignation of Hockey Ops President Pat LaFontaine may have an impact.)

He has also stated that his family feels comfortable in Buffalo.

Plus, the Sabres will be able to meet any of his financial demands (within reason) on his next contract. In fact the team will need to throw some money around just to get to the cap floor next season.

He is another player that they should consider a building block as 30-goals scorers don't fall into your lap every day.

But that's the beauty of Murray's position.

He doesn't need to trade Moulson unless there's a clear indication that he won't re-sign in Buffalo.

The next few days should be very interesting as rumors will fly and players will be traded. Especially for the Buffalo Sabres.

Whatever the case, Murray put himself in a real strong position heading towards the wire and has even more assets to move, if he feels the price is right.

And, the best part about Murray as opposed to Regier, it would seem as if he's not gun-shy like the former GM.