Archives for June 2014

‘“The fact that he quite frankly doesn’t want to be here makes it easy,” Murray told The News. “I’ve said at the start that if you don’t want to be here we’ll make it happen. He’s made, I believe, $22 million in three years and feels that we’re not going in the right direction, but he really hasn’t had much part in the direction the team has gone. So time to move on.”’

‘“He’s a no-nonsense kind of guy, as you know,” Ottawa GM Bryan Murray, Tim’s uncle and former boss, said after the draft. “It looked like just watching and talking to a few people, it looked to me like they were organized, knew what they wanted and went about doing it. There’s no question in my mind Tim’s an outstanding evaluator, and that team will turn around fairly quickly.”’

‘“We had never discussed a possibility of a compliance buyout,” Richard Curran, Ehrhoff’s agent, told the Times Herald by phone. “So was I surprised this morning when I woke up and realized that was the solution to their problem? Yeah, certainly.”’

‘Reinhart becomes the highest drafted member of his family, as Griffin went fourth overall (NY Islanders, 2012) and Max went 64th overall (Calgary Flames, 2010), while dad Paul Reinhart went 12th overall (Atlanta Flames, 1979).’

‘By buying out Ehrhoff and Leino, the Sabres parted ways with Darcy Regier’s last two major acquisitions as general manager. Regier was fired in November after 17 years with the Sabres.’

‘According to capgeek.com, the German will get $857,143 a year over the next 14 years in the buyout, which won’t count against the Sabres’ cap.’

‘Ehrhoff, who turns 32 on Friday, had seven years left on a 10-year, $40 million contract.’

‘ I was hoping they would take a forward, as I’m sure most of you were, and I didn’t really have a strong feeling on any of the top three which is why Murray was in that “no lose” situation. No matter who the Sabres selected, they were going to get a player who should turn out to be a top six forward, something they desperately need.’

‘John Vogl was lucky enough to be on Tim Murray’s plane Sunday morning when this news broke. Murray told John that Ehrhoff’s desire not to be a part of this team and his inability to improve this team are huge.’

‘Had you had any sense prior to Buffalo was interested? No, nothing. When I was over and did the tests at the NHL Draft Combinen in Toronto I talked to very many teams, but I got no sense that any team was more hungry than anything else.’