This is the first of a two-part series looking at the Sabres prospect pool as of today with Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com.
After chatting about the Sabres prospect pool with Kris Baker of sabresprospects.com, one is left with the sense that the organization has come a long way in the last three years but that there is also still plenty of work to do.
Right now there's a symmetrical dividing line between the Tim Murray regime and that of present general manager Jason Botterill as each was in charge of three NHL Drafts. The difference between Murray's picks from 4-6 years ago and Botterill's from the last three years can't be fully compared as not enough time has elapsed for the players selected to reach their ultimate hockey potential, but what we do know is that Botterill took over as general manager with a thin prospect pool and that he pretty much had to rebuild a rebuild.
"It took some time to reset some things when Botterill came in," said Baker via a phone interview yesterday. "The previous regime didn't really draft and develop all that well. Murray's group had a couple of guys out of [those drafts] but you're not really gonna screw up when you're picking at the top of the draft with players like [Sam] Reinhart and [Jack] Eichel. They go through the prospect ranks fairly quickly. When that happens you don't have a lot of depth behind them."
