Reprinted with permission from hockeybuzz.com
There was a time earlier this calendar year when Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray had three first round picks heading into the 2015 NHL draft and five total stretching from the second overall down to pick No. 51. Then came the blockbuster trade for Evander Kane on February 11th that saw one of those picks, the lower of the two not Buffalo's, head to Winnipeg.
Even so, he still landed in Fort Lauderdale armed with two first-rounders (Nos. 2 and 21) and two second-rounders (Nos. 31 and 51) in what's being considered as a very deep 2015 draft. Odds were slim that he wasn't going to use all those picks as the Sabres had accumulated many picks and prospects over the last few years. When he came on board 18 months ago, the Sabres had already been stocking their cupboard and he added to that with his moves around the 2014 trade deadline. He continued adding at the 2015 deadline saying, "our time is the future."
That future came pretty quick. After finishing in 30th place and finding out where they would be from the draft lottery the theme went from "our time is the future" to the future begins now.
Murray gave us a preview of what might happen on the draft floor during the first round. At a pre-draft press gathering held at First Niagara Center he said he was looking to do something with the 21st pick--either move up or use it for a young veteran. One of his ideal scenarios would have "a team call and they're having problems with one of their players, that are having problems with their cap situation," he would say that day, "and they offer us a 23- or 24-year-old top-six forward or top-three defenseman or No. 1 goalie, and they'd be willing to take [the 21st pick] for that."
Friday morning, Murray announced that he did find a taker for that 21st overall pick and that he traded it for the type of player he had mentioned. Murray sent that pick to the Ottawa Senators for 23 yr. old goalie Robin Lehner and F, David Legwand, a move that set the chat rooms ablaze. A first round pick in a deep draft is a huge price to pay for a goalie who went 9-12-3 with a 3.02 gaa and a .905 sv% last season before shutting it down because of concussion issues. Overall, in Lehner's 86 NHL games he has 30-36-13 record with a 2.88 gaa and .914 sv. %.
There were plenty of rumors that other goalies were available, but the Sabres locked in on Lehner, a player Murray scouted when he was with the Senators. "He was the No. 1 goalie available from our estimation," Murray said. "I think he's a very talented, big, strong man that is just scratching the surface."
Murray called Lehner "high-end competitive" and sees him as their starter. "I think he's a No. 1 goalie. I think he becomes a starter," he said, then defined what he meant. "When I say a starter or a No. 1 center or a No. 3 defenseman or whatever, I mean on a good team, on a contending team, on a competitive team, on a playoff team."
As for the high price he paid, Murray "the scout" said it wasn't an easy decision. "It's not like the draft doesn't matter to me," he said of moving the 21st overall pick. "It matters. I've said all along you draft and develop to win. [That pick] was important."
Important enough for Murray to go in front of his scouts to get their input. "I asked my pro scouts [Thursday] night point-blank, 'Do you want to do this or not? Is this the right thing to do, or not?' I knew what I wanted to do and it matched."
With that deal done, Murray, who had three first round picks in this draft, was headed into the BB&T Center with a top-line LW in Kane and he'd found his starting goalie before hitting the floor to draft his future No. 1 center in Jack Eichel with the second overall pick. "If you'd have told me that the last day we had the three (picks) before the Kane trade that on this day we were getting Eichel, Kane and Lehner, I would have said, 'You're on mushrooms,' " he said. "I would have said, 'There's no way that's going to happen.' "
Bust out the black lights and Moody Blues, man, Murray wasn't finished with his trip.
There's been one known quantity (99.9% known) since the Sabres were set to draft second overall--Eichel would be the pick. And in Murray's typical, straightforward manner he went to the microphone, even before the Sabres contingent could get fully settled, and uttered four words "Buffalo selects Jack Eichel."
For Sabres fans, or how NBCSN's Liam McHugh put it Buffalo's "tortured fans," there was a sense of relief. A huge cloud had been lifted with those four words and like the Sabres website proclaims, it's a "new chapter" beginning with, but not solely because of, drafting Eichel.
If Kane, Eichel and Lenher were mushrooms, Murray had gone all Ken Kesey with this next (A) bomb. Less than a minute after the Sabres left the stage, the commissioner trotted back on to announce a trade. The Colorado Avalanche had traded C, Ryan O'Reilly and LW Jamie McGinn to the Buffalo Sabres for D, Nikita Zadorov, C, Mikhail Grigorenko, center prospect JT Compher and a 2015 second round pick (No. 31.)
As much as a relief it was for the Sabres to say goodbye to two years of suffering, so it was for the Avalanche and their fans to finally move on from O'Reilly. Mile High Hockey's Ryan Murphy summed it up, "It's over -- finally," wrote Murphy. "Like a blue sky after a terrible storm, we can all exhale as the Colorado Avalanche relieve themselves of young center, and perpetual discontent, Ryan O'Reilly. General Manager Joe Sakic tried for years to sign his budding star to a long-term extension, but no agreement could be reached."
That long-term agreement is the Sabres problem now. Murray knew what he was getting into contract-wise from the get-go, but O'Reilly was a player that he, the scout, really wanted. "He's got tremendous hockey sense," said Murray of why he likes O'Reilly, "I think his hockey sense is off the charts. I think he makes everyone around him better. I love his work-ethic on and off the ice. I love his skill-level. There's nothing I don't like about him.
"The consensus I got when talking with a lot of players who've played with him, who've been around him, is that 'he was the guy.' [For] a second round pick that has achieved individually what he's achieved so far speaks volumes. He changes a lot of things for our organization."
One of those things will be the salary structure.
Rumors had it that O'Reilly had come to the table in Colorado recently wanting an 8-yr./$60 million contract from the Avalanche. Whether that was posturing or not isn't known, but what we do know is that a statement like that pretty much punched his ticket out of Denver. And when the 'Lanche traded for and re-signed third-line center Carl Soderberg, it was no longer a matter of "if" O'Reilly would be traded.
Considering Colorado dropped a five-year $23.5 million deal on Soderberg, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Sabres end up handing O'Reilly a deal in the $7 million/year range come July 1st. Not long after the trade was announced Murray went over to O'Reilly's representatives and introduced himself and in a few days he'll be introducing himself to a contract that will be the highest on the team.
When asked if he was prepared to make O'Reilly the highest paid player long-term Murray hesitated a bit then said, "yeah." He then qualified that. "I assumed I'm going to have to. You know going in when you make a trade like this, negotiations are going to be starting at a high number. So we're fully prepared for that."
The contrast between the former regime and this one is marked and when Murray talks about his scouting background he attacks personnel from a scout's perspective as opposed to an administrative view. "Scout" Murray sees attributes he likes and decides this is the guy he wants. "GM" Murray goes and gets him. Luckily for the Sabres right now, not only were players like Kane, O'Reilly and Lehner available, but he had plenty of assets to get them.
All-in-all the Sabres gave up six first round picks ranging from Nos. 12 to 25, two 31st picks and a 35th for a No. 4 overall (Kane,) No. 3 overall (Zach Bogosian,) 33rd overall (O'Reilly) and a 46th overall (Lehner.)
Yet, even though they purged all of those first and second rounders which includes the 2012 12th overall (Grigorenko,) 2013 16th overall (Zadorov,) 2015 21st overall as well as a 2013 second rounder (35th) in Compher and 2014 second rounder (31st) in Brendan Lemieux, the Sabres still have a healthy look from their rebuild class:
2012 1st round--C, Zemgus Girgensons (14th-overall)
2012 2nd round--D, Jake McCabe (44th)
2013 1st round--D, Rasmus Ristolainen (8th)
2013 2nd round--C, Connor Hurley (38th,) RW, Justin Bailey (52nd)
2013 3rd round--C, Nick Baptiste (69th, signed ELC)
2014 1st round--C, Sam Reinhart (2nd)
2014 2nd round--C, Eric Cornel (44th,) RW, Vaclav Karabacek (49th)
2015 1st round--C, Jack Eichel (2nd)
2015 2nd round--No. 51
Kinda looks like a pretty normal four draft years with four first rounders and six seconds, doesn't it?
The prospect cupboards are still pretty full, but there's a lot less clutter. It's much tighter now and it's anchored by two, second-overall picks in Eichel and Reinhart, which hopefully for Murray is the end of the lottery picks (unless something unforeseen happens.) He had been saying all along that he only wanted two drafts like that and doesn't want to be a perpetual lottery team. He also had said numerous times over that if he could get a young veteran to speed up the rebuild he do it. He's done it three times in just over four months.
The three young veterans placed atop the core of youngins has everyone excited, but Murray's tempering expectations.
Is he looking at a playoff team next year? "No," he said, "I'm not going to say that at all. Again, my cliche' is we're trying to improve a little bit every day and today I believe we've improved. There's a new coaching staff in place and there's going to be a lot of meshing and gelling that has to go on here.
"The reason you prepare yourself, you draft properly and you make trades like this is so you can get better and move up the standings and I expect that's what we're going to do."
One would think that with their makeover yesterday, the Sabres did indeed get "a little bit better."
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