Still not enthralled with the Matt Moulson trade to Minnesota. On a number of levels.

Last night vs. Vancouver the Sabres were down 2-1 and had a three-on-one break.

Torrey Mitchell was on the left side and had the puck headed into the Nucks' zone. He sent a pass to Cory Conacher who was streaking up the right side.

The lone defenseman was in retreat and there was tons of space. But...

Mitchell's pass was off the mark. By a mile. Not even remotely close.

Murray adds depth on the wing. A look at his three new forward additions

The Buffalo Sabres acquired three big wingers leading up to and at the 2014 trade deadline--William Carrier, Hudson Fasching and Nicolas Deslauriers.

All three are power forwards at least 6' tall and weigh in at about 200 lbs. or more.

Hockey's future slots Carrier and Deslauriers as the Nos. 2 and 3 LW behind 5'10" 180 lb. Daniel Catenacci (2011, #77.)

Fasching, the youngest of the three, has the most upside. He's #4 on the right side behind Joel Armia (2011, #16,) who just came over from Finland and has been with Rochester this season, Justin Bailey (2013, #52) and Nicolas Baptiste (2013, #69.)

All hail the General. Murray puts his stamp on the Sabres

The Buffalo Sabres roster is pretty much set for the rest of the season as the 2014 trade deadline has passed.

GM Tim Murray finished what his predecessor had started--stripping the team of every UFA asset that would bring back something of interest in return. At the end of the day he said, "the big players on our roster that were available were traded."

When asked at his post-deadline presser when the rebuild ends and the building begins, Murray smirked a bit and said, "You're never done. We have to add players. We have to create inner-competition. The start of building for me was Friday (with the Ryan Miller/Steve Ott trade, his first trade as a GM.) Today was a continuation of it."

Make no mistake, Murray is the General, and this is his build. Darcy Regier's core group is gone and the NHL players that came back in Regier's core deals--Ott and Matt Moulson among them--are no longer with the team.

With the big trade out of the way, Murray sits on his assets

Last Friday, Sabres GM Tim Murray got the big deal done.

By sending Ryan Miller and Steve Ott to St. Louis for a real solid bounty, Murray took the pressure off of himself and the Sabres at his first trade deadline.

Since then Murray has afforded himself the opportunity to lay in wait for the right offer as other GM's play a bit of catch-up.

Front office turmoil won't derail Sabres vision

Head coach Ted Nolan stood their full of emotion, eyes welling up.

He had just gone through his first practice without franchise goalie Ryan Miller and team captain Steve Ott. Both were traded to St. Louis on Friday just before their game with the San Jose Sharks.

On Saturday, he got word that his "dear friend" Pat LaFontaine had just resigned from his position as the Sabres President of Hockey Operations. Nolan was the first person LaFontaine brought on board back in November to guide the on-ice product.

A lesser man would have stood there spewing clichés while reporters dug for answers as to how the front office split came about.

He simply told the media that too much had just transpired for him to go into any kind of detail. Having LaFontaine depart was too much of a blow to even comprehend at that point, much less talk about.

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.

"LaCore" is no more

During the 2004-05 lockout, former GM Darcy Regier had a core group of youngins down in Rochester that he would look to as his "core" of the future.

Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad and Ryan Miller were all down in Rochester and had a remarkable year for the Amerks.

When the lockout ended they all came up together to Buffalo and joined a group of veterans that would eventually make it to game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2005-06 season. They would make the ECF again in 2006-07 before the summer that changed the franchise.

July 1, 2007 would see the departures of two veteran leaders--Chris Drury and Daniel Briere. Regier's core now had the reigns of the franchise.

What ensued were years of mediocrity and underachievement. They made the playoffs two times out of five seasons getting bounced in the first round each time.

It was clear that this wasn't working.

WGR's Paul Hamilton said it best when he referred to the team as a collection of excellent individual talent that just never gelled as a team.

After extreme patience and a 2011 off-season spending spree that was designed to add to Regier's core, owner Terry Pegula had seen enough failure during the first half of the 2011-12 season.

One by one, the core was dismantled.

• Feb. 27, 2012--Paul Gaustad and a 2013 fourth-round pick to Nashville for a 2012 first-round pick (#21 and #42 traded to Calgary for #14--Zemgus Girgensons)
• July 2, 2012--Derek Roy traded to Dallas for Steve Ott and Adam Pardy
• March 3, 2013--Jason Pominville and a 2014 fourth-rounder traded to Minnesota for Johan Larsson, Matt Hackett a first round pick in 2013 (#16-overall, Nikita Zadorov) and a 2014 second round pick
• Oct. 27, 2013--Thomas Vanek traded to the NY Islanders for Matt Moulson a conditional 2014 first-round pick and a 2015 second-rounder.
• November 14, 2013--Darcy Regier fired
• Feb. 28, 2014--Ryan Miller and Steve Ott traded to the St. Louis Blues for Jaroslav Halak, Chris Stewart, William Carrier, a 2015 first round pick and a conditional 2014 first-round pick*

In the end, the Buffalo Sabres received quite the haul for the core, although they've paid quite the price as they're in last place this year.

As a long-time fan of the Sabres, I say good-riddance to "la core" and to the man who assembled them--Darcy Regier.

It's not to say that I hate on these guys individually, to the contrary I've been one of Miller's biggest fans and liked Pominville as well. But this group should have been dismantled three years ago as it just wasn't working.

We can now close the book on one of the most uninspiring Buffalo teams of all time. So much talent, so little intestinal fortitude.

Viva LaCore!!!



*Edit:  the conditional 2014 1st round pick:  if the Blues make the Western Conference Finals or Miller re-signs, the Blues surrender their 1st rounder with the Sabres giving their 2014 2nd and 3rd round picks to the Blues. If the Blues do not make the WCF and Miller re-signs after the draft, the Sabres will receive a 2016 2nd round pick. If neither conditions are met, the Sabres will receive a 2016 3rd round pick

On Ryan Miller

If I were to use one word to describe former Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, that word would be unappreciated.

Buffalo fans can be brutal out of frustration and/or ignorance and/or jealousy, and on many occasions they took their frustrations out on Miller.

I have written 49 pieces on the Miller, most all in his defense so I'm not gonna go there. If you want, you can scan his link by clicking here.

I had started this blog back in August of 2010 with my Sabres 40th Anniversary team.

Miller was an honorable mention in net behind Dominik Hasek and Don Edwards.

At the time he was still relatively young win a only a decent amount of games under his belt and he had just had his Vezina year. But more was needed.

And over the last three and a half years, more was found, with no better a season than the present one in which he faced a year of uncertainty backstopping the worst team in the league.

He heads to St. Louis and immediately makes them one of the top contenders for the Cup this year.

And I hope he gets it.

There's nothing I'd like better than to see Miller tooling around Buffalo in the Mr. Softee truck with the theme song blaring and Stanley Cup in tow.

Good luck to a true pro and a helluva goalie.

On the Tyler Myers rumors

Sabres GM Tim Murray famously said at his presser that anyone can be traded on a last place team.

While Ryan Miller, Steve Ott, Matt Moulson and Hank Tallinder may be looking at their last home game in a Sabres uniform, 24 yr. old defenseman Tyler Myers' name got thrown into the mix.

From TSN's Darren Dreger via the Howard Simon Show this morning, "It's not that Tim Murray has put out the league-wide disclaimer that Tyler Myers is absolutely, 100% on the trade block. That isn't the case. Tyler Myers is a hot commodity, not just to other teams, but to the Buffalo Sabres. But, because [the Sabres] are rebuilding every option needs to be considered. Murray would consider trading Tyler Myers. In saying this, it would take a massive offer for Murray to move Myers."

As is Dreger's M.O., in a lot of words he basically said, "Myers is not being shopped. He's a real good player and will continue to get better. If a team wants him, back up the truck."

So typical.

With the 2014 trade deadline approaching, Sabres GM Tim Murray may want to focus upon the 2015 draft...

if he's not doing that already.

Kyle Woodlief of the Redline Report was on WGR this morning talking draft and he doesn't think that the 2014 draft has players slated for superstardom.

He said that none of his top-grouping of four players--Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Leon Draisaitl, and Sam Reinhart--would have been in the top-grouping last draft.

All of them, according to Woodlief, are less than perfect and when it comes to forwards, Draisaitl--the big German center--piques his interest the most.

He thinks it's a good draft, but believes that the 2015 draft will be loaded with NHL'ers through the second round.

We all know about Connor McDavid--consensus #1-overall/Sidney Crosby-like center--and have heard a bit about American Jack Eichel. But, Woodlief thinks that there's a better American-born player than Eichel--defenseman Noah Hanifin.

From Sochi to the Sabres: some of this and some of that

The Sabres kick off the post-Olympic NHL schedule with a make-up game at home vs. the Carolina Hurricanes tonight, the only game on the NHL schedule.

With the trade deadline a mere eight days away and a number of teams positioning themselves for the stretch run, Buffalo joins the NY Islanders, Edmonton and Florida as definitive sellers at the deadline.

Rumors are beginning to fly, including juxtaposed positions on the fate of Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, and trade scenarios are coming out left and right. That's what makes the NHL trade deadline the most interesting and the most fun of all the four major North American sports.

But before we get into that, we'll touch upon one more thing from Sochi.

Tim Murray catches a 5-4 Rochester comeback win yesterday

Sabres GM Tim Murray caught yesterday's 5-4 OT win by the Rochester Americans in Rochester and spent about 10 minutes with members of the media discussing Buffalo's pro hockey teams.

Matthew Coller, who does an outstanding job covering the Amerks for WGR 550 penned a quick summation and provided some audio as well.

Basically Murray said that not much talk is going on between NHL GM's and he assumed that the veteran ones are using this time to recharge or focus upon other aspects of the organization. For his part, Murray is following a pretty full scouting schedule focusing upon the top-30 picks in the upcoming 2014 draft.

Buffalo Sabres open for business

"This team's in last place right now, everyone can be traded."
--new Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray


The NHL has two trade deadlines this season, the traditional one that will take place on March 5th and the pre-Olympic break roster freeze which happens on Friday.

"Everyone can be traded" was a quote from Murray at his introductory press conference, and according to TSN there are more than three Buffalo players who will be of interest.

Any way you slice it, the Sabres have valuable players that playoff-bound teams would be interested in

Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray will be headed into the Olympic break--and the eventual trade deadline--with a plethora of players that playoff-bound clubs will find attractive.

Goalie Ryan Miller and scoring winger Matt Moulson are obvious candidates to fill high-profile needs like goaltending and scoring while gritty veteran Steve Ott would provide intangibles like sandpaper and leadership to go along with tangibles like faceoffs skills, hits and secodary scoring.