New GM Watch

[kas23]

 

@Matt_Bove

.@DarrenDreger tells @WGR550 that something might be clogging up GM search because interview process to his understanding is done #Sabres

I think it's the Pens-Caps playoff series. The hiring of an AGM right at a critical point of the series shouldn't be a distraction to the players, but it could. They are just being respectful towards the coach and players.

[WildCard]

I've seen a few people advocate that's it's the playoffs, but that just doesn't make any sense to me. What is Botterill doing that's so important for Pittsburgh right now?

[Radar]

Might be he's been picked and has yet to officially sign a contract because of team in playoffs. My guess is after this series with Washinton he will join the Sabres. He had a second interview and no one else has as far as we know. Dreger hearing the interviews have ended tells me it would be a shock at this point if Botterill is not the guy.

Edited May 5, 2017 by Radar

[IKnowPhysics]

If Pittsburgh were to win it all (barf), Botterill would get his name on the Cup and better position himself in salary negotiations in Buffalo.  I'm not surprised that any candidate would wait until their team were out of the show.

 

The guy's been there for 10 years; from his perspective, it'd be a nice capstone to get the Cup for a day.

Edited May 5, 2017 by IKnowPhysics

[Radar]

If Pittsburgh were to win it all (barf), Botterill would get his name on the Cup and better position himself in salary negotiations in Buffalo.  I'm not surprised that any candidate would wait until their team were out of the show.

I doubt this really. His name would go on the cup in any case and salary not effected by what happens with Pens in playoffs. My guess is their waiting for this series to end and the Pegulas have also been occupied with Bills interviews.

[WildCard]

If Pittsburgh were to win it all (barf), Botterill would get his name on the Cup and better position himself in salary negotiations in Buffalo.  I'm not surprised that any candidate would wait until their team were out of the show.

 

The guy's been there for 10 years; from his perspective, it'd be a nice capstone to get the Cup for a day.

Eh idk about that. I really doubt that his winning this year would have any impact on his negotiation, and he gets his name on the Cup regardless of when he leaves there. Besides, if that's how he wants to play it, he's never going to have a GM job. No team can wait that long and close to FA and the draft to fill a GM vacancy

[Jsixspd]

I think we're starting to forget how bad this team was when he took over. Take a look at this thing:

72 Luke Adam

88 Cory Conacher

27 Matt D'Agostini

44 Nicolas Deslauriers

10 Christian Ehrhoff

37 Matt Ellis

63 Tyler Ennis

P 1 Jhonas Enroth

65 Brian Flynn

82 Marcus Foligno

28 Zemgus Girgensons

25 Mikhail Grigorenko

31 Matt Hackett

19 Cody Hodgson

36 Patrick Kaleta

49 Connor Knapp

24 Zenon Konopka

22 Johan Larsson

23 Ville Leino

50 Nathan Lieuwen

4 Jamie McBain

29 Jake McCabe

8 Cody McCormick

44 Brayden McNabb

30 Ryan Miller

17 Torrey Mitchell

26 Matt Moulson

57 Tyler Myers

34 Michal Neuvirth

17 Linus Omark

9 Steve Ott ©

12 Kevin Porter

3 Mark Pysyk

55 Rasmus Ristolainen

5 Chad Ruhwedel

32 John Scott

21 Drew Stafford

80 Chris Stewart

52 Alexander Sulzer

20 Henrik Tallinder

78 Corey Tropp

26 Thomas Vanek ©

84 Phil Varone

6 Mike Weber

61 Nikita Zadorov ru D 18 6-5 230 L/- R April 15, 1995 1 G, 0 A, 1 P

 

 

Several of those players were gone already, including Vanek. I mean, jesus, there is almost nothing there.

 

EDIT: Oh god, that looked so much better when I pasted it, give me a minute to edit it into something readable.

 

EDIT#2: Fixed. Also, I counted, there are 6 players on that team that still play for them now. 6. Out of 46. Thats an 87% overhaul of the roster, and thats not including the fact that at least one of those players Murray brought in.

That's a wonderful perspective - this was a horrifyingly bad team when Murray took over.  87% is a tremendous change.

 

On the negative side, he'd saddled the team with some bad contracts - but I didn't think that was enough to fire him so soon.

 

The only thing - if MURRAY were behind the hiring of Bylsma, and supporting Bylsma at the end of the season, then he should have been fired.  

 

Pegula tried to shuffle Bylsma's hire onto Murray's desk in the post-Murray presser.  But consider the Bills -  Pegula was involved in the hire of Ryan AND McDermott.  Rather odd to think him staying out of the coach hiring at his beloved pet Sabres.  

 

 

[sabills]

That's a wonderful perspective - this was a horrifyingly bad team when Murray took over.  87% is a tremendous change.

 

On the negative side, he'd saddled the team with some bad contracts - but I didn't think that was enough to fire him so soon.

 

The only thing - if MURRAY were behind the hiring of Bylsma, and supporting Bylsma at the end of the season, then he should have been fired.  

 

Pegula tried to shuffle Bylsma's hire onto Murray's desk in the post-Murray presser.  But consider the Bills -  Pegula was involved in the hire of Ryan AND McDermott.  Rather odd to think him staying out of the coach hiring at his beloved pet Sabres.  

 

 

 

Yeah, this is what I believe happened. And I defend his firing in that case. But I'm not going to rewrite history and say he was a bad GM just to make myself feel better about it.

[JohnRobertEichel]

Aside from the Bylsma issue, how history will judge Murray depends a lot on the outcome of the O'Reilly, Lehner, and Kane trades. He gave up quite a large number of assets in a short amount of time. Some of those assets, if kept, could have gone toward quality defensemen that could have saved this season and his job.

 

However, it should also be noted that no draft pick Murray traded ever ended up being higher than the 21st overall pick. O'Reilly, Lehner, and Kane are already proven starters in this league and still have lots of room to grow. None of Pysyk, McNabb, Zadorov, or Weber are likely to end up as top-2 defensemen at this point. And none of Grigorenko, Armia, Lemieux, Compher look to be top-6 NHL forwards.

 

Was Murray the right man for the job at the right time? Maybe. His trade aggression was a breath of fresh air compared to the overly timid Regier. The winners of trades are usually the GM's who received the best player. O'Reilly, Lehner, and Kane all may end up as top-100 NHL players who play critical roles in future Cup-contending Sabres teams. Or maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here....

 

I still think Murray could have saved himself by firing Bylsma and having some coherent answer to Pegula's question of how he was going to fix the team. But I am ready to move on and look forward to Mr. Botterill, if some of the rumors are to be believed.

[WildCard]

Anyone else find it a little odd and annoying that the Pegulas appear to be more immersed in the Bills' GM hunt than the Sabres'? Or maybe they've actually finished the Sabres' hunt, and Friedman is right : there really is something holding this all up. 

[Eleven]

Anyone else find it a little odd and annoying that the Pegulas appear to be more immersed in the Bills' GM hunt than the Sabres'? Or maybe they've actually finished the Sabres' hunt, and Friedman is right : there really is something holding this all up. 

 

Funny you say that.  Just earlier this week, Donald Jones was saying the opposite.

[Radar]

Anyone else find it a little odd and annoying that the Pegulas appear to be more immersed in the Bills' GM hunt than the Sabres'? Or maybe they've actually finished the Sabres' hunt, and Friedman is right : there really is something holding this all up.

 

I think their attention to Bills business now is because they've finished the Sabres GM business.

[sodbuster]

Anyone else find it a little odd and annoying that the Pegulas appear to be more immersed in the Bills' GM hunt than the Sabres'? Or maybe they've actually finished the Sabres' hunt, and Friedman is right : there really is something holding this all up.

I think the Bills GM search didn't require nearly as much work as the Sabres. McD clearly is running the show over there. I'm sure he suggested some targets and the Pegulas hit the ground running. The sabres, otoh, had to start from ground zero.

[Brawndo]

 

The Sabres GM Search absolutely should be a priority, with the amount of work to do in the next few weeks. Six weeks until expansion, seven until the draft and eight until FA.

 

Pittsburgh controls when the announcement can be made as Botteril is under contract, so that's probably the hold up

Edited May 5, 2017 by BRAWNDO

[WildCard]

The Sabres GM Search absolutely should be a priority, with the amount of work to do in the next few weeks. Six weeks until expansion, seven until the draft and eight until FA.

 

Pittsburgh controls when the announcement can be made as Botteril is under contract, so that's probably the hold up

Where did you see this? If that's true (I'm I trust it is because you're usually good with this stuff), it's insanity. There is so much to be done and what? Pittsburgh is going to screw us because they don't want to have an announcement yet?

[kas23]

Anyone else find it a little odd and annoying that the Pegulas appear to be more immersed in the Bills' GM hunt than the Sabres'? Or maybe they've actually finished the Sabres' hunt, and Friedman is right : there really is something holding this all up.

Yep, there is. It'll take some time for Botterill to clone every hard drive in the Pens amateur and pro scouting departments.

 

Kidding aside, the official hires means less than him working overtime right now to get his together. Perhaps GM and HC will both be announced.

Where did you see this? If that's true (I'm I trust it is because you're usually good with this stuff), it's insanity. There is so much to be done and what? Pittsburgh is going to screw us because they don't want to have an announcement yet?

Or Crybaby Crosby says "How about this nut shot, Terry: There will be no such announcement. Too soon."

[TrueBlueGED]

Where did you see this? If that's true (I'm I trust it is because you're usually good with this stuff), it's insanity. There is so much to be done and what? Pittsburgh is going to screw us because they don't want to have an announcement yet?

Pittsburgh only screws us if they make us hold the announcement until the end of the playoffs, which I doubt the league would allow. I'd guess when their series is over, or at worst this round, the announcement is made. I'm getting antsy too, but another few days isn't going to matter, and there's a good chance Botterill is working on his staff and/or coaches behind the scenes if it is indeed a done deal.

[GoPuckYourself]

I've seen a few people advocate that's it's the playoffs, but that just doesn't make any sense to me. What is Botterill doing that's so important for Pittsburgh right now?

 

He's getting Mario Lemieux's dry cleaning.... duh!

[Radar]

Pittsburgh only screws us if they make us hold the announcement until the end of the playoffs, which I doubt the league would allow. I'd guess when their series is over, or at worst this round, the announcement is made. I'm getting antsy too, but another few days isn't going to matter, and there's a good chance Botterill is working on his staff and/or coaches behind the scenes if it is indeed a done deal.

Agree.

[Wyldnwoody44]

Guys.... Clearly we're upgrading our sugar packets, to the fancy sugar in the raw for new GMJB.

 

It'll be NSP instead of OSP

[WildCard]

@lakingsinsider

The impression that the Kings and Mike Futa have is that Futa is no longer under consideration for the open Buffalo GM position

[Brawndo]

 

 

And Wild I'm embarrassed by this...

 

https://twitter.com/andrewpeters716/status/859144355965272066

Edited May 5, 2017 by BRAWNDO

[WildCard]

And Wild I'm embarrassed by this...

 

https://twitter.com/andrewpeters716/status/859144355965272066

Not sure why, looks like you were right. Even if it's coming from Peters :lol:

[nfreeman]

So I guess Petey's recent troubles at the peewee tournament didn't cause him to change his twitter wallpaper, eh?

[PASabreFan]

Pegula tried to shuffle Bylsma's hire onto Murray's desk in the post-Murray presser.  But consider the Bills -  Pegula was involved in the hire of Ryan AND McDermott.  Rather odd to think him staying out of the coach hiring at his beloved pet Sabres. 

What's that old quote about Satan's greatest trick? Convincing people he never existed? We're supposed to believe Pegula wasn't all over the Murray and Bylsma hires? Unless...

 

Anyone else find it a little odd and annoying that the Pegulas appear to be more immersed in the Bills' GM hunt than the Sabres'? Or maybe they've actually finished the Sabres' hunt, and Friedman is right : there really is something holding this all up. 

...the Bills were what they were really interested in.