Published by hockeybuzz.com, 7-14-2019
When Jason Botterill was hired on May 11, 2017 as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres, the first-time GM had a lot thrown at him. The Sabres had been without a GM since April 10, they needed to find a head coach, the Vegas expansion draft was just days before NHL draft, which was coming soon, and there was the start of free agency on July 1st, less than two months away. Botterill had inherited a team that woefully underperformed the prior season and rumors of locker room tumult underscored a 33-37-12 record and a last place finish in the Atlantic Division (26th in the league.)
It wasn't supposed to be this way. In 2015, the Sabres greeted the post-tank years with the hiring of a Stanley Cup-winning head coach and their GM was able to land a true franchise center and a No. 2 center all in the same day as Buffalo announced the selection of Jack Eichel second-overall in the 2015 NHL Draft just after announcing they'd traded for Ryan O'Reilly. Then GM Tim Murray added other pieces and put together some fine individual players to surround Eichel and 2014 second-overall pick Sam Reinhart with but it never came together.
Botterill was left with a mess on his hands. The big club was floundering in a state of disarray despite a good amount of talent on the Sabres with Buffalo's minor league teams left decimated by the tank years of 2013-15. When he took over the job Botterill stressed a number of things which included the Sabres getting better, a rebuild of the farm system and a reliance on drafting and developing players. Much to the dismay of the fanbase and some in the media, this process would take time and when he told a local radio station the evening of his hire that "I think I have more of a patient, systematic approach to making decisions," he wasn't just whistling Dixie.
The Sabres found themselves at the bottom of the league in Botterill's first season with his first head coach-hire, rookie Phil Housley. A lot of change had gone on that off season with year-two promising more and it delivered. The Sabres welcomed a franchise defenseman in Rasmus Dahlin, who was selected first-overall in 2018, but parted ways with O'Reilly. After a rousing start to the 2018-19 season the Sabres tumbled and they were right back where they started two years prior with the firing of Housley.
However, the Sabres have two key pieces in the fold in Eichel and Dahlin with Botterill building around them in his own way. There's been a huge roster turnover since he first took over the job in 2017 and despite some gnashing of teeth in Sabreland at recent signings for the fourth line (as well as the slow pace of a potential major trade,) there should be much more roster turnover next off season.
Of the 35 skaters that played at least one game for Buffalo in 2016-17, only 10 are under contract for this season. One more, defenseman Jake McCabe is an unsigned restricted free agent while forward Sean Malone is on an AHL contract with the Rochester Americans. That's 23 skaters Botterill moved on from and that total could rise next year as four more are pending unrestricted free agents.
When we look at the roster this season it will be anchored by a young nucleus of Eichel, Dahlin and Reinhart augmented by Jeff Skinner who was traded for last summer and was re-signed to an eight-year contract extension. Buffalo also has 24 yr. old d-man Rasmus Ristolainen (the rumored major trade piece) who may or may not be a part of that core moving forward. Botterill still has the burdening contract of Kyle Okposo (four more years at $6 million/season) and also added the likes of forward Marcus Johansson (two years) as well as defenseman Colin Miller (three years.) Every other skater is either a pending UFA or RFA (Reinhart, Brandon Montour, Casey Mittelstadt) or is unsigned at the moment (McCabe, Evan Rodrigues.) As of now the Sabres have only seven players signed beyond 2019-20 with only three of them (Eichel, Okposo, Ristolainen) carrying over from the previous regime.
That might be described as a major overhaul.
Underneath it all is a Rochester team that was rebuilt with free agents and draft picks dating back to the 2013 draft (Sean Malone) with the bulk of it coming from the work of Botterill and his assistant general manager (and Amerks general manager,) Randy Sexton. The Amerks broke a three-year playoff drought in 2017-18 and have back-to-back playoff appearances.
The Sabres organization has gone through a lot of ups and downs these past two years and it hasn't been pretty with some in the local media calling Buffalo a laughing stock in the NHL and they deserve the criticism. However, one must give Botterill a lot of credit as he remains focused upon his stated goals and continues to build the team using his vision. As we look at the light at the end of the tunnel getting ever so closer, Sabres fans (who are accustomed to situations like this lately) are left to wonder whether it's daylight or an on-coming train and as impatient as we are to find out where this is all headed, it still might be another year or two until Botterill's mark becomes pronounced.
Until then...
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According to CapFriendly, the signing of forward Johan Larsson put the Sabres' projected cap-hit at about $76.4 million which is roughly $5.1 million under the cap ceiling. Buffalo has three more restricted free agents to sign--Jake McCabe, Evan Rodrigues and goalie Linus Ullmark. All three have been given qualifying offers and all of them have selected arbitration although odds are slim that the process will play out as most contracts are settled upon before their arbitration dates.
Projections for the trio of RFA's would include a decent raise of $400K to $2 million for defenseman McCabe, who's played very well but has missed over 20 games the last two seasons because of injury. The soon to be 26 yr. old Rodrigues has shown moderate, marked improvement throughout his pro career and there's reason to believe that the utility forward might be pushing the $1 million mark this season, dependent upon the length of his contract. As for Ullmark, he had a rough go of it in his first full NHL season and a small raise from $750K to slightly less than $1 million might be in the offing for him.
Add it all up (on the generous side) and that's $4 million tacked on giving the Sabres an $80.4 million cap-hit and a projected $1.1 million of wiggle room under the ceiling.
There's a glut of NHL forwards and defensemen on the Sabres right now leaving little room for rookies like Victor Olofsson, Arttu Ruotsalainen, Rasmus Asplund and Will Borgen as well as young players like Tage Thompson, Lawrence Pilut (who's recovering from surgery and will miss a portion of the season) and recently acquired Henri Jokiharju. The entire group mentioned is waivers-exempt and most of them will be in Rochester to start the season, unless some trades open up spots. The two or three exceptions might be Olofsson and Thompson.
Two players of interest who are not waivers-exempt are forwards C.J. Smith and Curtis Lazar, both of whom could push for an NHL spot at training camp.
In all there looks to be at least 17 forwards looking for 13 spots on the Sabres come training camp and although two defensemen are injured with one definitely missing the season opener (Pilut,) there will be 11 defensemen ultimately battling it out for eight spots.
With over two months to go before camp, there's a lot of time to sort things out but that's where they stand.
One final note, the Sabres have used up 41 of their allotted 50 standard player contracts and 61 out of 90 reserve list total.
All contract and cap info via CapFrienldy
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