Sabres Can Follow Penguins Path To Rebuild

Follow me on twitter Follow @GunnerStaal

The Buffalo Sabres will be welcoming the Pittsburgh Penguins into town in the midst of a blizzard, or what we in Western New York call Wednesday.

The Sabres and Penguins are on opposite sides of the spectrum. The Penguins are battling for a Stanley Cup championship this season while the Buffalo Sabres are trying to best position themselves for the draft lottery. It was not long ago that the Penguins were in a similar boat.

The rise of the Penguins through their lottery picks is a well-documented situation that can be described as both smart and incredibly lucky.

It was smart in the sense the Penguins understood that by drafting at the top they were guaranteed to acquire difference making talent. It was incredibly lucky that their timing coincided with such high end talents as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Marc Andre Fleury. Crosby and Malkin are generational talents and not every draft class has somebody of that caliber waiting to be selected.

The Buffalo Sabres are currently in a great position to mimic the renascence of the Penguins. It won’t look exactly like the Penguins rise to the top, but the general concepts still apply. The Sabres are going to have a top 3 pick this year and have veterans that they can trade away for additional high end assets.

Given that the Oilers have to/should take a defensemen (Ekblad) this should leave the Sabres with their choice of one of the top 2 forwards, most like Reinhart or Bennett (I don’t believe the Sabres will draft lower than 3rd). A high end forward talent is just what the doctor ordered for Buffalo.

Buffalo will need to trade away their veteran players at the deadline this year much like the Craig Patrick led Penguins did with their stars. The difference for the Sabres will be that they will actually get solid value back unlike some of these Penguins gems from yesteryear:

Jaromir Jagr and František Kučera to the Washington Capitals for Kris Beech, Michal Sivek and Ross Lupaschuk

Alex Kovalev, Dan LaCouture, Janne Laukkanen and Mike Wilson to the New York Rangers for Mikael Samuelsson, Rico Fata, Joel Bouchard, Richard Lintner

Martin Straka to the Los Angeles Kings for Sergei Anshakov and Martin Strbak

Darius Kasparaitis to the Colorado Avalanche for Rick Berry and Ville Nieminen

Matt Barnaby to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Wayne Primeau. Wayne Primeau was later flipped for Matt Bradley effectively making the Barnaby trade for Bradley.

Andrew Ference to the Calgary Flames for a 3rd round pick.

All of these trades were the direct result of an ownership group looking to cut salary. None of these trades brought quality value back to the Penguins. This was a dark time to be a Penguins fan. Ownership with money problems combined with a league with no salary cap put the Penguins on the endangered species list. It was only the fortuitous lottery ball which landed Sidney Crosby that saved the franchise.

Ironically enough Craig Patrick is currently employed by the Buffalo Sabres as the Special Advisor in the Hockey Operations Department. Patrick is probably relishing the chance to rebuild a team without having a fruitless fire sale.

The Buffalo Sabres may have an on ice product that mimics the 2003-2004 Penguins this season, but they are in a much different situation. The Sabres have terrific ownership, a new GM in Tim Murray who is more than capable of making quality decisions, and the ability to acquire value back in trades.

So far the Sabres have done a terrific job in getting value back when dealing veterans (unlike Pittsburgh):

Thomas Vanek to the New York Islanders for Matt Moulson, a conditional 1st round pick (2014 or 2015), and a 2015 2nd round pick

Jason Pominville to the Minnesota Wild for Matt Hackett, Johan Larsson, 2013 1st round pick (Nikita Zadorov), and a 2014 2nd round pick

Derek Roy to the Dallas Stars for Steve Ott and Adam Pardy

Robyn Regehr to the Los Angeles Kings for a 2014 2nd round pick, and a 2015 2nd round pick.

Jordan Leopold to the St. Louis Blues for a 2013 2nd round pick (Justin Bailey) and a 2013 5th round pick (Anthony Florentino)

Paul Gaustad to the Nashville Predators for a 2012 1st round pick (Pick used to trade up and select Zemgus Girgensons).

Darcy Regier was much better at selling players off than Craig Patrick was. Regier was not very good at “buying… players. Tim Murray is going to do a whale of a job with his plethora of draft assets moving forward. Tim Murray has worked underneath is father Bryan Murray for a number of years and can lay claim to drafting such players as Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Erik Karlsson, Mika Zibanejad, and Robin Lehner.

Murray also has no reservations about trading young talent to acquire proven star players, as shown with the Bobby Ryan trade. This is an area in which Murray’s predecessor, Darcy Regier, was miserable at.

The Sabres still have the ability to deal players like Ryan Miller, Steve Ott, and Matt Moulson. These are players that will fetch a decent return and further stock Buffalo’s asset pool. It is feasible that each of those 3 players could acquire a 1st round pick.

Currently the Sabres will have at least one additional 1st round pick in either 2014 or 2015 as a result of the Vanek trade; they will also have three 2nd round picks in the next two drafts.

Losing is winning for the Sabres right now. If the Sabres stay the course and do not rush their rebuild, they will have a very bright future with the ability to compete for a Stanley Cup each and every season.

Tim Murray will have to avoid the temptation of acquiring players like Ryan Callahan (WNY native) that he will have to over pay in both assets and money.

The Sabres should have enough people in their front office who were a part of the Penguins rebuild (Ted Black, Ken Sawyer, and Craig Patrick) to keep the ship heading in the proper direction.

Patience will be a virtue that pays huge dividends. Being terrible for 3 seasons is worth a decade plus of being a Stanley Cup contender, ask any Penguins fan.

****

As for the matchup tonight it obviously pits one of the league’s best against one of the league’s worst. However, there is some intrigue with a potential Sidney Crosby/Ryan Miller pre-Olympic showdown. I don’t think it is an accident that the NHL scheduled these two teams for a national TV matchup right before the Olympic break.

Kris Letang did not make the trip for the Penguins and will not play. Taylor Pyatt is out until after the Olympics with a lower body injury.

The Sabres Tyler Myers is dinged up did not skate this morning.

Here are the projected lines for the Penguins:

Kunitz-Crosby-Gibbons Jokinen-Malkin-Neal Glass-Sutter-Megna Kobasew-Adams-Engelland

Orpik-Martin Scuderi-Bortuzzo Maatta-Niskanen

Sabres projected lineup:

Omark-Ennis-Stafford Ott-Hodgson-D’Agostini Flynn-Girgensons-Varone Scott-Foligno-Ellis

Tallinder-Weber Ehrhoff-Sulzer McBain-Ruhwedel

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter Follow @GunnerStaal