Murray: "I Love Jack Eichel" http://t.co/Il7hVBz8CW pic.twitter.com/pwiAj8VnbH
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) April 20, 2015
The day after the NHL Draft Lottery extravaganza, Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray wanted to clear his throat and make something very clear:
The Buffalo Sabres are ecstatic with the prospects of selecting Boston University super centerman Jack Eichel with the second overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft.
"We love him," Murray told Pierre LeBrun on Sunday.
Murray hates losing. He hates it. I can’t blame him for being pissed off at being the runner up. For the second season in a row, the Sabres finished in 30th place in the NHL standings. For the second season in a row the Sabres will be selecting second overall at the NHL Draft. Murray raised eyebrows when he said:
“I feel for the fans,… Murray said Saturday night at his post-lottery presser. “I mean, we went through a tough year, and I think that they were extremely excited about Connor.…
On Sunday he added context to his previous comments about losing McDavid to the Edmonton Oilers.
"People took my comments last night as an insult to Jack Eichel, that's the furthest thing from the truth, I love Jack Eichel," said Murray.
"Do you want to win the lottery? I mean, absolutely. I mean, we haven't even had our (NHL draft) meetings yet. We haven't done our list yet. I wanted to win the lottery and pick who we pick. Maybe after we have our meeting in two weeks, maybe we have Jack Eichel at number one.
"But when you go to anything, you want to win, that's all. We knew full well we probably weren't going to win. We had an 80 percent chance of losing it. So we knew that."
Murray isn’t settling for Eichel. He is embraces selecting the Boston native.
"To me it's not a consolation prize," said Murray. "There's two guys in the draft (who) stand out, we'd be extremely happy with either one of them. That's the way we came into the year and it hasn't changed one iota since. They're both great players. They're both impact players if they're not franchise players; I think they're both franchise players. But at worst, they're impact players. I've said that about both guys all year."
Murray has been in the NHL for twenty years. He knows that he is going to be receiving phone calls and text messages from his horse trading NHL GM counterparts, if he hasn’t already.
"Will I get a couple of calls? You always do," said Murray. "I'm sure that teams will call and ask what it will take to trade the pick. I'm pretty sure that there's not an offer out there that you would trade the pick."
Murray has yet to speak with Jack Eichel since the NHL Draft Lottery concluded. He’s going to wait until the NHL Draft Combine to do so.
"We'll speak to him at the combine and we'll probably bring him to Buffalo after the combine," said Murray.
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Murray is still searching for his next head coach. He fired Ted Nolan and 95% of his coaching staff last Sunday after meeting with players on locker clean out day. He told LeBrun that he is waiting patiently for coaches to be bounced from the NHL playoffs.
"I would like to interview five very good candidates, probably," he said. "So I think to do that you have to wait and see who else becomes available."
Ahem. Mike Babcock. Yes, that Mike Babcock. Tim Murray and Babcock have a relationship that dates back twelve years. Murray and Babcock worked together at the AHL Cincinnati Mighty Ducks and again when Babcock was promoted to head coach of the Anaheim Ducks. Terry Pegula will give Babcock the keys to his G6 Gulfstream jet as well as a Rex Ryan contract to coach the Sabres. Pegula identified his man Ryan and swopped in to close with a 5 year, $27 million contract. Babcock would look good with $27 million in his pants pocket on the Buffalo bench.
The San Jose Sharks may be parting ways with their head coach Todd McClellan. Murray would be wise to speak with him if and when he becomes available. The Boston Bruins may decide to send Claude Julien packing. The B’s fired GM Peter Chiarelli last week. Former Tampa Lightning head coach Guy Boucher may also get an interview.
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Are you ready for a Connor McDavid draft lottery scandal?
Was an extra ping pong ball pulled on Saturday night?
Visual evidence.
McDavid Scandal - Album on Imgur http://t.co/wYD0PawsU1
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) April 20, 2015