From the sound of it, Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula wasn’t travelling from campus to campus to get to know his new head coach, Sean McDermott.
With the Bills playoff drought at 17 years and counting and
with a quarterback in Tyrod Taylor who may or may not be the answer, Pegula
joined McDermott on the Franchise Quarterback Tour to see just what his scouts
are looking for at QB.
Terry and his wife Kim, who’s technically the big dog in the
Bills hierarchy, have their hands full this dual off-season for both of their
franchises. They’ve put the future of their football team in the hands of
McDermott, a first time head coach playing the role of “one voice” while their
general manager has been relegated to figure head, and they’re also in the
process of trying to fill the GM and coaching positions for their hockey team.
With Pegula joining McDermott at various campuses looking at
potential franchise quarterbacks, it was assumed that the Bills were serious
about finding one and may have been looking at picking one with the 10th-overall
pick in this year’s draft.
Lo and behold, they did not. The Bills apparently weren’t
all that impressed with what they saw, but there was another team that was. Kansas
City Chiefs head coach, and McDermott mentor, Andy Reid liked Pat Mahomes so
much that he traded up from No. 27 to No. 10 to get him. The Bills received two
picks in this year’s draft—Nos. 27 and 91—as well as the Chiefs first rounder
in 2018.
It was a trade that worked for both teams as the Chiefs will
be able to groom a very raw Mahomes for a couple of years while the Bills not
only add picks in this draft, but also added a very valuable second
first-rounder in a 2018 draft that’s said to be quarterback-heavy.
Perhaps when Pegula was shuffling around on T-Pegs I, what
he really was doing was looking at potential GM candidates for his Sabres
hockey team. Both Kim Pegula and Sabres President and Alternate Governor Russ
Brandon stressed that the team is working hard on the GM search. “We’re keeping it under wraps,” said Kim Pegula to the
media on Wednesday, “but definitely put a lot of work this week in, and next
week.”
The Pegula’s through Pegula Sports
and Entertainment, parent company to the Bills, Sabres and other enterprises,
were also busy announcing other ventures that had come to fruition including a
joint venture with Labatt USA and another partnership with Uber.
When it comes to the GM search,
there wasn’t anything coming out of PSE but we did get some tidbits from
reporters on Twitter.
Here’s how the GM search is going
so far:
--One report had the Los Angeles
Kings saying that the Sabres had not yet contacted them about fired two-time
Cup-winning GM, Dean Lombardi
--Another said the Sabres inquired
about the availablility of Phoenix Coyotes GM, John Chayka, but were rebuffed
as the ‘Yotes told them the league’s youngest GM was unavailable.
--Buffalo
--The Sabres did get one interview
in with Pittsburgh Penguins AGM, Bill Guerin. The two-time Cup winner as a
player began his front-office career in 2011 after retiring from the game. He
spent three years as player development coach for the Penguins before getting a
promotion to his present position in 2014.
Still on the docket for the
Sabres, supposedly, are:
--Chicago
--Penguins Associate General
Manager, Jason Botterill
--Senior VP of Hockey Ops for the Montreal
There are other names like TV
analyst Pierre McGuire, Columbus Blue Jackets AGM, Bill Zito and, maybe others
who’ve not come to the fore as of yet.
Not much is coming out of PSE on
the search and we’re not even sure what they’re looking for. Terry Pegula said
at his end of season presser that they’d be leaning towards experience while
NHL insider John Shannon tweeted that the Pegula’s are looking for “new blood
as opposed to veteran manger.”
Pegula and McDermott put up a
pretty good smoke screen at the NFL Draft and got a haul in the process. As for
the Sabres GM search, it’s pretty foggy right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment