If you are an NHL GM, and you are looking to fortify your blue line with a veteran defenseman at the NHL trade deadline, you should call Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray. Who am I kidding? You already know that Murray has UFA defensemen available because you have been speaking with him for the past couple of months.
Is Murray looking to trade his pending UFAs for assets to be used to fund one last playoff push this season? Murray isn't showing his cards. If I were you, I'd stay the course and keep peppering Murray with cell phone calls, texts, Twitter DMs, smoke signals, emails and carrier pigeon messages.
Dmitry Kulikov, Cody Franson, Justin Falk and Taylor Fedun will become unrestricted free agents on July 1. Need a goalie? Anders Nilsson will likely be available. Buffalo captain Brian Gionta is also set to be become UFA at season's end. Gionta has been in beast mode this season. He has 12 goals and 13 assists in 50 games played. Gionta is dragging his players into battle every night. He wants to finish he started in Buffalo. He has been the captain during the team's darkest, taking days. He has been the inspirational leader. I can tell you that GMs from other NHL teams hold Gionta in high regard. He's a winner. He deserves to play postseason hockey this spring. His first choice is to lead his Sabres to a wild card berth. However, the onus is on him as the captain to inspire his teammates to block out all outside noise during this 13 game playoff run. If at the end of the 13 game run the Sabres can't gain ground on. A playoff spot, he should ask Murray to pursue an opportunity elsewhere.
Would Murray trade away his captain while the Sabres are in the hunt with several other teams for a wild card berth?
"If we are a seller, I will have the conversation with him (Gionta) at the deadline and I hope this team takes this right to the deadline," Murray told Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News before Thursday night's loss to the NY Rangers.
"I've had that conversation with every guy when we've been sellers in the past. Most of them have wanted to move on and have a chance to win but I can't tell you what the answer will be."
In other words, Murray will convert his pending UFAs into draft choices and roster players.
Gionta is enjoying the best offensive production season of his three year tenure in Buffalo. Gionta is a Rochester, NY native and loves playing in the backyard of his boyhood home. However, Gionta may want one last kick of the skate at Lord Stanley's Cup. Contending teams like San Jose, Minnesota, Anaheim, Montreal and Pittsburgh may want to rent Gionta for the next four months. Like Colorado's in-demand elder statesman Jarome Iginla, Gionta could leave now, take a spring break with a contender then and re-sign with his current team. That is the beauty and nuance of being a 38 year old veteran in a young man's NHL.
Murray has shown a propensity to trade away his pending UFA. I suspect he will return his empties and convert them to quick cash, so to speak, in the same in the come weeks.
Buffalo have earned 50 of a possible 100 points available to them this season. That puts his .500 team on pace for 82 points this season. Close, but no cigar. The cut line for the final Eastern wild card spot projectsvto be at 88 to 91 points.
Murray isn't going to declare whether he is buying or selling on March 1. He's leaving that heavy lift to his players who played exponentially better in the OT loss to the Rangers than they did in the Montreal Massacre on Tuesday night.
Do the Sabres have 13 games remaining on their truncated February schedule between now and the March 1 NHL trade deadline. Can Dan Bylsma inspire another 7-5-1 like the Sabres performed in January? Can they put together a 10-3 or 9-4 run in the next 13 games?
Bylsma and his coaching staff have their work cut out for themselves navigating treacherous waters. The Sabres will play 13 games in the next 25 days. Opponents include Ottawa twice, New Jersey, San Jose, Anaheim, Toronto, Vancouver, Colorado twice , St. Louis, Chicago, Arizona and Nashville.
I can honestly say that I believe the Sabres can win 18 of the next 26 points. Health is on their side, save Bogosian injury.
Hydrate, rest, and recover.
That is what it's going to take to nail down a wild card berth. Play .655 to .700 to get in the dance or get sent home. No pressure, eh, Bylsma?
“We’ll see how we play here in the next week or two,… Murray told WGR radio on Thursday afternoon.
"Obviously making calls from both sides – buyer and seller – to see what’s out there. It’s very quiet right now. People are talking, but there’s a lot of teams that are, I think, in the same boat. They’re not sure what they’re going to do. I talked to a couple of GMs at the prospects game in Quebec City the other night and it was the same thing. I think there’s a lot of fence-sitting right now in the National Hockey League.…
Murray will continue to plan his work and work his plan. He won't be trading away young stars anor top prospects like D Brendan Guhle nor sniper Alex Nylander.
“We’re still going to stick to the plan,… Murray said. "We’re not going to sell the farm for a one-off playoff shot. So we could still be buyers and still get a young player that fits going forward. That might be tough".
Murray is a horse trader when not at the hockey rink. He isn't about to tell you what he is planning to do. Will he trade Evander Kane for a star D like Olli Maatta, Shayne Gostisbehere or Shea Theodore? Will he trade away Franson, who has six points in his last six games? Will he off load Kulikov, who played 27 minutes TOI the past two games?
That's for Murray to know and you to find out.
“So really, I’m exploring all avenues. But I don’t have a sense of exactly what I’m going to do. Certainly if I’m a seller, there are certain guys that their contracts are running out. They’re UFAs and won’t be back. Those things will be easier to do. But buying might be tough. There’s going to be a lot of buyers, I believe, because there’s so many people that think they’re in the hunt. There’s so few quality players out there.…
Murray is also considering flipping his depth. He has star wingers in Eochester in Justin Bailey, Nick Baptiste and Alex Nylander. Trading Kane now for a top four D would make good business sense because Murray could elevate Bailey's entry level deal to Buffalo and remove Kane's $5.25M AAV from his salary cap. Bailey has scored 17 goals with them Amerks this season and is ready for prime time in Buffalo.
“I know there’s a lot of teams scouting our team,… said Murray. “I talked to a couple of GMs yesterday that thought that they’d be watching our team a lot this month. So we’ll see. We’ll see if we have something to sell that makes sense and makes us better in the future. Or if something happened here and we won six of our next seven games, then we might be able to buy and stay within the plan, and that’s the future and the near-future and to keep our team young and move forward.…
The Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild, Colorado Avalanche, Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers are some of the contending teams who make it a habit to scout the Buffalo Sabres this season. Murray's iPhone is always charged and it's always on. Now he waits for his counterparts and peers to phone him.
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Injured D-men Jake McCabe and Josh Gorges are nearing their return to the lineup.
We may see both D in Newark on Monday night.
McCabe's shoulder is improving while Gorges is almost full recovered from his hip ailment.
When McCabe and Gorges return, there will be waivers for Justin Falk, Taylor Fedun or both.
Zach Bogosian injured his "mid body" on Thursday night. Bogosian missed the final 54 minutes of the 2-1 loss to the Rangers.
If Bogosian is out long term, I can see Murray waving Fedun, a right shot D. Bogosian, a righty, has been playing LD with Cody Franson. Falk is a natural lefty who can skate with Franson in a pair.
We will know more about Bogosian's diagnosis and prognosis today.