Murray Looking To Add Top 9 Forward? (buffalo sabres)

buffalo sabres

Murray Looking To Add Top 9 Forward?

By GARTH'S CORNER

Sep 7, 2014 • 8:21 pm

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The Ottawa Senators are said to be close to sitting down to hammer out a contract extension with the agent for top line winger Bobby Ryan who will earn $5.1 million in the final year of his current contract. Ryan has told the Ottawa Sun that he likes the Ottawa experience and that he’d like to remain a Senator beyond the 2014-15 season. Getting Ryan locked up now will go a long way to insuring success in Ottawa this season.

Its also being reported that Sens GM Bryan Murray has been looking to add a veteran top nine forward to his roster in the weeks to come. Murray traded his captain Jason Spezza to Dallas earlier this summer for promising youngster Alex Chiasson and two prospects Chiasson is a nice player, however, he’s not in Spezza’s class at this point in his young NHL career. Murray knows that he’s going to have to add more offense to his top nine forward group if the Sens are going to make noise in their highly competitive division this season.

Recently re-signed Clarke MacArthur will join Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan on the top line. The Sens like youngster Mika Zibanejad to center for Milan Michalek and Alex Chiasson. The Sens also like prospect Mark Stone to make a name for himself in training camp, however, he and other kids can’t be expected to replace Spezza’s point production right off the opening faceoff of the regular season.

Murray and his lieutenants aren’t going to find a suitable veteran forward on the UFA market at this point in the summer. Former Bolts power forward will be attending informal skates with the NY Rangers beginning this week.. Malone would come with off the ice baggage that will cause NHL GMs to pass on signing him to a training camp trout contract. On Friday, the Boston Bruins announced that they will be inviting former Sabres sad sack forward Ville Leino to their upcoming training camp on a tryout contract.

The trade route seems like the most likely avenue that Murray will travel to find his man.

The Sens and Bruins have a history of working together in the past. Might Bryan Murray be working on a Brad Marchand deal? It wouldn't come as a surprise. The Bruins are $810,000 over their salary cap right now and have to immediately subtract a salary or two in order to re-sign their RFAs Torey Krug and Reilly Smith.

Murray and Peter Chiarelli can help one another out by agreeing to a Marchand trade, however, what compensation would Murray be willing to send Boston’s way in exchange for Marchand?

The Ottawa Sun reports that NHL sources are saying that Buffalo’s Drew Stafford and Chris Stewart are available, as are Carolina’s Alexander Semin, and New Jersey’s Damien Brunner.. Semin is cost prohibitive with his disgusting $7 million per-season contract which is guaranteed through the 2017-18 season. Talk about a ball and chain. Semin is untradeable at this point. Then there’s Stafford and Stewart who each have one year remaining on their respective contracts. Stafford and Stewart are reasonably prices in the $4 million neighborhood. Brunner is the most affordable player at $2.5 million.

Would Tim Murray be eager to help out Uncle Bryan by trading him a forward? Tim has said repeatedly that he would like to eventually do a deal with his former boss. I can see Tim Murray keeping ahold of Chris Stewart in Buffalo for this season. Stewart suffered a major knee injury last March after he was traded to Buffalo in the Ryan Miller-Steve Ott blockbuster. Stewart played only two games for the Sabres. He’s been working out in Buffalo all season long and is on the record proclaiming his Sabres squad a team that is going to shock people in the NHL this season. Murray and Ted Nolan are big fans of Stewart’s unique blend of brawn, finesse, scoring touch and leadership. Nolan also loves the huge chip that Stewart has ben carrying around on his shoulder this summer. Stewart has re-dedicated himself to his fitness routine. Stewart is in the best shape of his career and is chomping at the bit to get it on. I predict that Tim Murray will likely want to hold on to see Stewart play a leadership role on his young, impressionable team. Stewart is healthy and ultra-motivated to prove his critics (see former St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock) wrong.

Murray signed veteran leaders Brian Gionta and Matt Moulson as free agents. He also re-signed RFAs Tyler Ennis and Marcus Foligno.

Man child Zemgus Girgensons will play center and wing, and will command more ice time from Ted Nolan. Cody Hodgson will likely slide to the wall where his defensive game will be simplified and his scoring chances will increase.

When you add it all up, the Buffalo top nine group will be a crowded house. That will place a bright red bulls eye target on Stafford’s back as trade bait. Stafford struggled mightily in 2012-13 and then started poorly in 2013-14. He found his game after Ted Nolan assumed the Buffalo bench in November 2013. He played well for the Sabres team that systematically traded away its veteran leaders Vanek, Moulson, Miller, and Ott last season. Stafford has scored 30 goals in his NHL career and still has offensive upside to his game. He may be the odd man out of Buffalo’s top nine forward group now that youngsters like Sam Reinhart, Mikhail Grigorenko, Nic Delauriers, Nick Baptiste, Joel Armia, Brendan Lemieux and others will be looking to make names for themselves in the Traverse City Tourney and in Sabres' training camp to earn Buffalo roster spots. For the first time in a long time, there are job vacancies in the Buffalo top nine forward group and on their blue line. Only the strong will survive.

“Making a trade at this time of year is always tricky because teams are usually happy with what they’ve got,… a league source told the Ottawa Sun last week.

“Nobody has lost a game yet. They’ve spent the summer shaping their team and everybody is excited going into camp. Dealing is pretty difficult"

The Sens currently have $54.8 million in cap space committed to 23 players for the 2014-15 season. They are projected to spend to the $56-to-$57 million.

Keep and eye on and an ear out for Ottawa trade chatter with Buffalo’s Tim Murray and Boston’s Peter Chiarell.

***

Welcome to September 7. It was on this day in 1986 that Machine Gun Jim Kelly made his Hall of Fame career debut for the Buffalo Bills.

Seems like yesterday to me. I can remember the fever pitch and the electricity in the air at Rich Stadium that day as I sat in my season ticket seats in section A-12, row 30. God, thank you for eradicating Jim Kelly's cancer. Thanks be to God.

There's so much to be thankful for on this sunny, pleasant summer afternoon.

The Buffalo Bills are kicking off their 2014 NFL season on the road in Patrick Kane’s kingdom in Chicago.

Do you know who the new owner of the Buffalo Bills is?

It’s looking more and more like Buffalo Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula will become the next owners of the NFL franchise that Ralph Wilson had founded in 1960. Mr. Wilson passed away in March and his family trust, alongside Morgan Stanley, have vetted the prospective ownership candidates and have finalized its list of would-be owners. Real estate magnate Donald Trump and Hair-bander Jon Bon Jovi, along with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and Rogers Communications, (Tannenbaum and Rogers) leads the Toronto group who are interested in buying the Bills. The Toronto group are well aware of the Bills’ lease with Erie County that expires in 2020. Bon Jovi and his partners will likely try to relocate the Bills to Toronto after the current lease expires in Orchard Park. Rabid life long Bills fans have expressed their public disdain and hatred for Bon Jovi and his Toronto business partners. So much so that Bon Jovi tunes have not played on Buffalo radio for the past 100+ days. Bills have spoken.

Bills fans have long memories and they will continue to hate on the Bon Jovi group until the NFL owners appoint the Pegulas the successors to Ralph Wilson’s five decades old legacy in Buffalo, New York.

All three ownership groups have made their initial non-binding proposals to Morgan Stanley and have met face to face with the Wilson Family Trust. All that remains now is the final proposal phase of the biding process. The Pegulas are expected to be the leaders in the binding bid process by submitting a proposal in the neighborhood of $1.2-$1.5 billion. Pegula has the necessary financial resources to up the ante on the bids being submitted by Trump and Bon Jovi. It’s believed that Pegula will see the respective bids and raise them until he wins the prize. Pegula is committed to keeping the Bills in Buffalo for posterity. He’s the peoples’ choice to become the new owner of the most valuable assets in the Buffalo community.

According to reports, binding offers are due to Morgan Stanley by Tuesday September 9. The NFL owners will vote on the new Buffalo Bills at its October ownership meeting. If all goes according to plan, the Pegulas could be officially announced as the new owners of the Buffalo Bills round about the time that their Buffalo Sabres will be dropping the ceremonial first puck on their 2014-15 season when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at First Niagara Center on October 9.

I'm looking forward to the Sabres home opener with eager anticipation. Imagine how loud and proud the crowd of 18,690 in attendance will be when the FNC P.A. announcer opens his mic and passionately delivers the following lines as an emotional video board Sabres-Bills-Pegula vignette runs:

"Ladies and gentleman. Please welcome the new owners of YOUR Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres.... Terry and Kim Pegula!"

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