Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
Look. We get it.
Some Buffalo Sabres have lost their minds in all of this. Some fans couldn't care less. Most feel that this is where the team is at and there's no sense in not finishing the job.
As for the organization, their duty is to do what's in the best interest of the franchise. Sabres GM Tim Murray is in charge of on-ice product for the team. He came to Buffalo smack-dab in the middle of the season last January with the team in full rebuild-mode. He was hired to finish the job of blowing the whole thing up then starting all over again. He said it would take two drafts and the 2015 draft will be the second of those two.
Murray has said it before and he'll say it again, "Our time's the future." He's not fixated on a long building process to get to the future. If the opportunity presents itself for the team to hasten the rebuild without ripping out pieces he deems necessary, he'll jump at it (see Evander Kane/Tyler Myers trade.) But make no mistake, this is a crucial draft. It was so important that when the league was changing the lottery odds as well as terms, Murray was lobbying to keep the terms in place for one more season. In doing so, should his (probable) last place team not win the lottery, the having the second pick is a solid, possible franchise-altering, consolation prize.
We all know the odds. Even if the Buffalo Sabres finish in last place there's only a 20% chance they get the first-overall pick in the draft. They finished last in 2013-14 and wound up picking second as the 29th-place Florida Panthers won the lottery. Buffalo selected center Sam Reinhart with their pick.
We also know that there's been a tremendous amount of attention being paid to Connor McDavid with words like "generational player" being attached to him at every turn. McDavid's Erie Otters are facing off against the Barrie Colts in the OHL playoffs and Hockey Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk, who coaches the rival Colts, said of McDavid: “He skates like Bobby Orr. He has the vision of Wayne Gretzky. And he handles the puck like Mario Lemieux.”
Hawerchuk knows a little about being a prodigious scorer to whom much attention is paid. He was selected first overall in 1981 by the original Winnipeg Jets after scoring 81 goals and 183 points for the Cornwall Royals of the QMJHL.
In his first season with the Jets Hawerchuk finished just outside the top-10 in scoring with 45 goals and 103 points. Gretzky lead the league that year with an astounding 92 goals and 120 assists. Second best was Mike Bossy with 64g, 83a followed by a group that includes other Hall of Famers like current Sabres assistant coach, Bryan Trottier, Dennis Savard, Marcel Dionne and Dino Cicarelli.
Hawerchuk had an outstanding nine-year career with in Winnipeg before he was involved in a blockbuster trade at the 1990 Draft. The Jets sent Hawerchuk and their 1st round pick (Brad May, 14th overall) to Buffalo for their 1990 1st rounder (Keith Tkachuk, 19th,) defenseman Phil Housley, Scott Arneil and Jeff Parker. He spent five seasons in Buffalo, before signing a one-year contact in St. Louis. He finished his career after playing two seasons for Philadelphia.
Hawerchuk finished his career with 1409 points, a total that places him 19th on the all-time scoring list.
There's a legitimacy when Hawerchuk throws lofty platitudes McDavid's way. As a kid growing up, Hawerchuk was old enough to watch and remember Orr. He was also a contemporary of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
The obsession with McDavid has bordered on lunacy this season especially when the Sabres are mentioned. What was once an "unhealthy lust for McDavid" morphed into outright "turncoat" last week as Buffalo fans cheered the visiting Arizona Coyotes, a team that sits in 29th place and threatened their "savior." Now comes word from Matt Higgins of the New York Times.
He caught up with Sabres GM Tim Murray at a recent Otters game. Murray told Higgins that he'd not seen a better junior player in his 23 years of scouting and he admitted 'I watch him too much and I think too much about him,' said Murray to Higgins. 'I wish I could help myself.'
From that quote came the Buffalo News headline, Murray admits his obsession with Connor McDavid, with the opening line from Jon Vogl reading, "Tim Murray has admitted he has a problem: He's obsessed with Connor McDavid."
That, in turn has lead to rampant speculation that Murray will do anything to land McDavid should the Sabres lose the lottery and end up with the second-overall pick.
My, what a tangled web we weave.
Murray is a scout at heart and from that perspective he should have "a problem," (albeit small one in this case) when he goes to a game and finds himself continually watching one player as if he was a fan. If Murray finds himself watching McDavid "too much" how can he be blamed? Our eyes always follow a player that stands out and if said player stands out every shift, we can't help ourselves. That Murray still finds himself fixated on McDavid after 23 yrs. of scouting, while admitting that as a scout, "he wishes he could help himself," says something about the talent that's there.
And if you're the GM of a hockey club that sits in last place and looking at McDavid as a possibly wearing your colors next season, wouldn't you "think too much about him?" Maybe use the term "our franchise changing player?"
It's not like Murray is stalking McDavid, taking in every Otters game he can. Sabres' prospect Nicholas Baptiste, a third-round pick (2013,) skates for Erie will be going pro next season and I'm sure Murray wanted to see where he was at. Plus there are other 2015 draft-eligible players on both Erie and Barrie that are of interest and it may end up being the last chance he'll get to see them in action before the draft. Then again, none are McDavid.
Murray has also been on the prowl in New England taking in Boston University games which feature consensus second-overall pick, Jack Eichel. While scouting another "generational player" in Eichel, he also got a good look at soon to be free agent goaltender Matt O'Connor. Once O'Connor finishes this season for BU he'll be looking to sign a pro contract and the Murray has a keen interest in signing him.
Murray has recently talked about possible movement at the top of this year's draft and included his team as possibly being in the mix. So when he's said to have and "obsession" or "infatuation" with McDavid, 2+2 equals Murray looking to do whatever it takes to move up to the first overall pick should the Sabres have the second overall pick. At least that's what the media is drumming up.
The last time there was a gargantuan trade of the first overall pick involving a "franchise cornerstone" was with Eric Lindros who was selected first overall in 1991 by the Quebec Nordiques. Lindros was heralded as one of the greatest players ever to come out of junior and was mentioned in the same breath as Gretzky and Lemieux.
Despite the Nordiques being warned that he wouldn't sign with them, they drafted Lindros anyway and a veritable soap opera emerged involving Quebec, Lindros, the NHL, the Phildelphia Flyers and the NY Rangers. When all was said and done Lindros was traded at the 1992 NHL Draft to the Philadelphia Flyers for six players, two draft picks and $15 million. (On a side note. The Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado and eventually won two Stanley Cups. The Philadelphia Flyers went deep into the playoffs on more than one occasion with Lindros, including making it to the Finals and being swept by the Detroit Red Wings.)
The very fact that the Nordiques would not trade a "generational player" like Lindros even when he said he wouldn't sign with them, shows just how rare and valued a player like that is by NHL teams. When the opportunity to draft a once in a generation player, you don't mess around. You draft him. And if any GM from Buffalo, Arizona, Toronto, Edmonton, Columbus, etc. were to trade away the opportunity to draft a player of that caliber at the draft, they'd probably be drawn and quartered.
That first overall pick, my friends, the one that has Connor McDavid's name on it, is not going to get moved this year.
But, just for the sake of argument, let's say that the Sabres finished with the second-overall pick and the team ahead of them would, in fact trade it.
Other than their second-overall pick, which would be Eichel, the Sabres would be giving up their other first-rounder this year, a first rounder next season, maybe another one in 2017 for starters. Of note is that the 2016 NHL Draft will be held in Buffalo for the first time since 1998.
In addition, names in the mix would include building blocks Rasmus Ristolainen, Zemgus Girgensons, Tyler Ennis, Sam Reinhart, Nikita Zadorov
Even then, the team in receivership of the trade opportunity will notice that although there is potential and plenty of it associated with those players, what's missing from the equation is a bonafide elite superstar. Names like Jonahtan Toews, Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin or Drew Doughty are not on that list so team would be hard pressed to trade in the first place. Think of it from the Sabres perspective. Would you trade McDavid for futures and players with star potential, but are lacking elite status?
Secondly, say said team with the first overall pick were to trade with Buffalo. If the Sabres had to give away three or four of those building blocks in the process, what would it do to their prospect pool. Add in those first-rounders and the system would be hard pressed to recover anytime in the near-future.
It would be better long-term to throw Jack Eichel in with a mix of the aforementioned Sabres players, while adding in another 23-24 yr. old that was traded for with their other first round pick and continue on a path that allows a steady movement of NHL'ers working their way up the ranks. There are too many variables when it comes to winning the Stanley Cup, but one thing all contenders have are exceptional rosters and plenty of depth. Keeping the pool intact is paramount to increasing the odds that things will eventually fall into place.
Although no one needs to tell me a franchise cornerstone is a definitive and key component in the equation, selling the farm for that key piece doesn't make all that much sense for either the buyer or seller at this draft.
But, hey, it keeps the conversation going.
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