Congrats to Jason Botterill on his new venture as the Sabres GM. He was a integral part of the Pens over the past 10 yrs. We wish him well.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 11, 2017
Congratulation to Jason a Botterill, the GM of the Buffalo Sabres.
I told you three weeks ago that Botterill was a serious candidate for consideration to succeed Tim Murray as GM of the Buffalo Sabres. My sources were correct.
The waiting was the hardest part.
While the Pegulas were searching for their next Buffalo Bills GM, they were concurrently seeking an experienced practitioner to succeed Tim Murray as Buffalo Sabres GM. Botterill is the only GM candidate to be interviewed twice by the Pegulas during the courtship process. Botterill could not officially accept the Buffalo Sabres GM position until such time that his former employers was either bounced from the Stanley Cup Playoffs or they advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. Botterill's exit strategy from Pittsburgh became available when the Penguins bounced the Cpas in Game 7 last night.
I'm ecstatic that The Pegulas have hired Pittsburgh's former Associate GM. From what I'm told by his former NHL teammates, Botterill is an intelligent, passionate leader. He is smart, savvy and knows the NHL landscape and that of Central Registry like the back of his hockey glove. Botterill is an architect and a builder. He is known to be a hands on administrator at the NH Land AHL levels. Botterill's thumb prints are all over the Pittsburgh penguins present day roster. He was tasked with identifying, drafting and developing young prospects to play and succeed in Pittsburgh's trademark structured, 200-foot system. Botterill's draft choices like Bryan Dumoulin, Brian Rust, Connor Sheary and Matt Murray have all played integral roles in the Pens' Stanley Cup victory in 2016. Without those kids making immediate contributions as AHL injury call ups, the Pens do not win the Stanley Cup, nor do they advance to this season's Eastern Conference Finals against Ottawa.
More on my thoughts on Botterill later. He will be officially introduced at a 4pm press conference.
"Jason has built a solid reputation as a leader that connects strongly with players and staff around him." More â–¶ï¸ https://t.co/XX4nSR6KU3 pic.twitter.com/adsjak94TH
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) May 11, 2017
Here is the official press release from the sabres:
Buffalo Sabres Owner Terry Pegula today announced the team has hired Jason Botterill to be the team's General Manager.
"We are very happy to welcome Jason Botterill to the Buffalo Sabres family," Owner Terry Pegula said. "Jason's hockey knowledge, experience drafting and developing players, and his approach to management stood out to us during our interview process. Jason has built a solid reputation as a leader that connects strongly with players and staff around him. We are confident he will have a positive impact within our organization and will help us get to our ultimate goal."
An 11-year veteran of NHL front offices, Botterill joins the Sabres after spending the last 10 seasons as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, where he played an integral role in building the roster of two Stanley Cup Champion teams (2008-09 and 2015-16).
In his most recent post as Associate General Manager, Botterill was involved in scouting, player development, contract negotiations and salary cap management. He also served as General Manager of the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins from 2009-10 to 2016-17, guiding the team to two division titles and eight consecutive playoff appearances.
Botterill joined the Penguins as their Director of Hockey Administration in July 2007 after serving as a scout for the Dallas Stars in 2006-07. He was later promoted to Assistant General Manager in 2009 before becoming the Associate General Manager in 2014.
A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Botterill also developed a championship pedigree during his playing career. He won a gold medal as a member of the Canadian World Junior Championship team in 1994, 1995 and 1996, and was a part of the University of Michigan's NCAA Championship squad in 1996. Botterill later won a Calder Cup in 2001 as a member of the St. John Flames.
Botterill played in the Sabres organization during his final three professional seasons, posting eight points (3+5) in 36 games for the Sabres and 100 points (59+41) in 118 games for the Rochester Americans (AHL).
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Shortly after the Botterill announcement was made public by the Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins GM Jim Rutherford was a guest on "The Instigators" program with Andrew Peters and Craig Rivet.
"Jason is a number one pick as a general manager", said Rutherford of his former associate general manager.
Rutherford explained the process the Sabres implemented to recruit and hire Botterill.
Rutherford said that he recently received a phone call from "the president" (Russ Brandon) who was seeking permission to interview Botterill for the recently vacated Sabres GM job. Rutherford granted permission for Botterill to meet with the Pegulas. Rutherfoird stressed that his approval was needed by the Sabres to interview Botterill because he was under contract to the Penguins. Ritherford was impressed that the Sabres brass kept him informed of teh Botterill interview and courtship at every juncture of the process.
"Jason doesn't need my advice. He knows because he is on top of each team".
Rutherford said that Botterill will skate right into Buffalo and start making a difference. He said that Botterill knows all NHL teams and their respective rosters. Rutherford described Rutherford as being "methodical".
“Jason Botterill was my guy that I went to all the time,… said Rutherford. “He’s worked with more than one GM. I think he has seen different ideas, different ways to do things, and he has his own ways of looking at it.
“Because he’s on top of each team, he knows basically what’s there with the Sabres, what the needs are. As general managers and as fans, we all like to fix things within a week. It doesn’t happen that way. But I do think the fact that the Sabres had some key injuries this year and they have a really good core of players there, with Jason there leading things I think this team will get turned around very quickly.…
**
The Pegulas interviewed six candidates for the GM job.
Botterill was the only candidate to earn two face to face meetings.
They also interviews Tim Fitzgerald (NJ Devils AGM), Mike Futa (LA Kings AGM), Bill Zito (Columbus Blue Jackets AGM), Paul Fenton (Nashville Predators AGM) and Craig Conroy (Calgary Flames AGM).
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Will Rick Tocchet be the bench boss in Buffalo? Botterill will have to wait until the Pens win the Cup or get eliminated from the playoffs.
Former Sabres and Amerks player/coach Doug Houda would make a great lieutenant for Tocchet to partner with in Buffalo. Houda won a Stanley Cup with Claude Julien in Boston in 2010. houda worked for the Bruins for 10 seasons. He is currently an assiatnt coach with the Detroit Red Wings. Botterill and Houda played together in Rochester.
Will Botterill be changing head coaches in AHL Rochester?
Dan Lambert was hired by Tim Murray. I'm hearing that Botterill may reach out to Wilkes Barre/Scranton for their assistant coach Chris Taylor to be the bench boss in Rochester. Botterill and Taylor were Amerks teammates. Taylor is an assistant in WBS.