Jason Botterill’s tenure with the Buffalo Sabres will go down as a failure and disappointment. He did not do enough to improve a bad franchise with incredibly inept ownership. This is the likeliest path for new general managers in the NHL. You aren’t being hired because the last guy did a good job. You aren’t going to be given five years to figure it out. You have to not only be bold, but you need to get the bold decisions right. Botterill did not. You also can’t be overly picky when going for a job with only 32 positions in the world. When one opens up you have to entertain it. That’s how you end up working for people like Terry and Kim Pegula.
The Pegulas actions have shown a narrow focus on their bottom line that could be interpreted as greed. This has been highlighted during the pandemic and evident to those paying attention before it. They have treated their employees as if they were subhuman servants despite all the talk about "One Buffalo". Their great wealth (which comes from fracking) was supposed to be the reason Buffalo was going to be Hockey Heaven. A self proclaimed title the hockey world rolled their eyes at. They bought the team nine years ago and have yet to make the playoffs. They have gutted their game day staff, part time workers, and have also gutted service employees at the Harbor Center. Those leaving have spoken about a toxic work environment which sounds like anything but heaven.
Pegula, current and former employees say, explained that return on investment included maintaining the family’s lifestyle.
“People were walking out of those meetings like they’d been punched in the gut,” a Bills management source said. “We just made the playoffs in the NFL, where it’s impossible to lose money. We’re firing on all cylinders. Now we have to pinch pennies?
“The morale after those meetings was lower than the day Ralph Wilson died.”
“What that told me,” said one current PSE employee, “is I’m getting laid off before they cancel that family trip to Tahiti.”
“I used to feel proud to tell people I worked for PSE,” said a current employee. “Then there was a point I just had to force a smile when talking about my job. Now, when people ask me about openings, I tell them not to apply.”
“But, top to bottom, it doesn’t excuse the fact they’re trying to make shortcuts within these large entities. Any feeling of a true One Buffalo should be out the window. The whole thing just feels like a scam.”
The family trip to Tahiti may still be on, but the building of their super yacht in Amsterdam appears to be on hold. Don’t worry though the Pegulas will get by they already own a yacht in Florida.
Why do I have to drag the Pegulas name through the dirty street snow of Western New York? Because they have abandoned the core principles they espoused when they initially bought the team. Consequently the results on and off the ice have been underwhelming and source of embarrassment for the region.
The two biggest decisions Jason Botterill had to make as Sabres General Manager were trading Ryan O’Reilly and not trading Rasmus Ristolainen. He came up woefully short.
The first one was the Ryan O’Reilly trade. It was a huge disaster. He got nothing in return for the future Conn Smythe and Selke winner. You could argue he got negative value considering Vladimir Sobotka and Patrik Berglund were both bad players with bad contracts at the time. Tage Thompson and Ryan Johnson (31st overall pick), the other two players involved, are unlikely to make a significant impact on the Sabres future success. On the surface it would be pretty easy to blame Botterill for this shameful return, but that would be leaving one huge variable out of the story. Ryan O’Reilly was due 7.5M in signing bonus cash on July 1st. The O’Reilly trade was announced ~10PM on June 30th. Coincidence? Absolutely not with what we know about the Pegulas. The braggadocios Pegulas once again bailed on their mantra of just “drilling another well” for money. The trade was forced because Pegula took O’Reilly’s comments about losing his love for hockey personal (who could blame someone for feeling that way on the Sabres). Terry saw this as a moment to save money, not make the team better Did I mention O’Reilly went on to win the Conn Smythe and Selke trophies? You cannot recover from trading a star center for nothing in return. Botterill’s tenure died June 30, 2018 largely because of his boss’ shallow commitment to Hockey Heaven. The rest of Botterill’s tenure was spent working around the huge chasm created by O’Reilly’s departure. Impossible to overcome. It is akin to moving Evgeni Malkin for something like David Backes and TJ Oshie and wondering why the team isn’t a Cup contender anymore.
Botterill owns all the blame for the Rasmus Ristolainen situation. Can’t blame the owners for his mishandling of that situation. This was a layup and he completely missed the backboard and rim. Ristolainen’s underlying numbers in the NHL have been bad from the start and remain poor. Regardless, Ristolainen’s perceived value remained high and it was so high that during Tim Murray’s tenure the Oilers offered Taylor Hall for Ristolainen, but were shot down. There was plenty of opportunity to sell high on Ristolainen, but Botterill sat on it and the Sabres sucked the value out of the asset. Instead of getting an impact forward they desperately needed they continued to give Ristolainen top minutes and he continues to come up short.
One of Botterill’s better moves was acquiring Jeff Skinner from the Carolina Hurricanes, until it wasn’t. He acquired the gifted goal scorer for minimal assets and Skinner immediately played great for the team. You could argue Skinner’s contract extension is absurd and on the surface it is, but I don’t really know what you want a team like the Sabres to do. They are starving for impact forwards and have struggles attracting those kinds of players to the team outside of the NHL Entry Draft. The issue has less to do with the contract and more to do with deployment. This past season Skinner only played 103 minutes with Jack Eichel at 5v5 compared to 845 the year before. Skinner also saw his power play time go from 251 minutes in 2018-19 to 143 this year. What? He went from scoring a career high 40 goals last year to 14 this year, a career low for an 82 game season. It was a self-own by the Sabres. They pump up Skinner’s quality of teammate (Eichel) in a contract year, skyrocketed Skinner's value as a result, and then stripped him of the QoT that drove the success that earned him the contract. Complete madness. The results spoke for themselves. At the same time Sam Reinhart was glued to Eichel in a contract year the same way Skinner was. All it accomplished was skyrocketing Reinhart’s next contract AAV. He is a pending RFA and will likely double his salary from the 3.6M he had been receiving. Wouldn’t you want to find out if Reinhart could sink or swim away from Eichel? Apparently not. These types of mistakes add up.
Now it wasn’t all bad for Botterill. He did the things many mediocre general managers do and that is make a few good moves on the fringe. Adding Henri Jokiharju, Colin Miller, Marcus Johansson, Conor Sheary (and then Domink Kahun) were positives. Drafting Dylan Cozens seems to be on a good track to pan out. This isn’t enough to overcome screwing up the big moves and the other underwhelming choices on the fringes of the lineup (Vesey, Montour, Simmonds, Frolik, losing Pilut to KHL). You can’t tread water when you inherit a bad situation and expect to keep your job. Treading water means the team is still bad. This was more than justification for Botterill to lose his job.
Except you have to remember ownership isn't well versed in owning the team and their decisions do not come from a place of expertise. The on-ice decisions aren’t why Botterill lost his job. Three weeks ago Kim Pegula stated Botterill’s job was safe.
“I realize, maybe it’s not popular with the fans, but we have to do the things that we feel are right. We have a little bit more information than maybe a fan does, some inner workings that we see some positives in.”
Yeah OK, Kim.
The Pegula’s can’t even turn something the fans desperately wanted (Botterill to be let go) into positive PR. Maybe because they laid of the PR guy, but anyways. They have lost the plot to the point where they still take an L.... Botterill was fired because he didn’t want to gut hockey operations for his cheapskate owners. The Pegula’s turned Botterill into a sympathetic character when the pitchforks were rightly out for him. The carnage of firing an unprecedented amount of people in one day is something Botterill wanted to avoid and is the reason he was let go. I don't blame him. He signed up to work for owners who are worth 4.5 billion. Not owners who talk the talk and then dispose of employees...
Here is the human side of the inhumane Pegula choices
The person quoted is now former Amerks head coach Chris Taylor. He was 116-65-33 the last three years. The three years prior the team was 95-120-8. One of Jason Botterill’s few bright spots running the Sabres was getting the Amerks back on track and competitive again. It was one of the selling points for bringing in Botterill on in the first place. Botterill ran the Baby Penguins quite successfully as their GM throughout the years. Many Baby Penguins were key contributors to the Penguins consecutive Stanley cups. You may have heard some of them: Jake Guentzel, Matt Murray, Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary, and Brian Dumoulin. It is important to have a quality AHL pipeline. You need quality ELC players to be a perennial contender. The Penguins had that under Botterill. It also helps when you can call up an AHL head coach to take over the NHL job. The Penguins did just that with Botterill hire, Mike Sullivan.
The Pegulas are immune to taking a win on the hockey side of things if it means saving thousands of dollars these days. You can be objectively good at your job for PSE like Chris Taylor and the other Amerks employees were, but you will only be viewed as a number on a spreadsheet and not a human being. You are an inconvenience blocking the completion of the super yacht.
Botterill wouldn’t do the firing so the Pegula’s hired a yes man who would. The new GM is Kevyn Adams who has worked his way up the Pegula Sports Entertainment ladder the previous nine years. The team did not conduct an external search to fill Botterill’s vacancy. Adams was tasked with firing everyone because the Pegula’s don’t have the courage to do so themselves.
In classic Pegula fashion they waited to announce these firings until the press conference was already over. Again, Because the Pegulas show no accountability to their employees and treat them as disposable trash.
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So what lies ahead for Jason Botterill after his unsuccessful tenure running the Sabres? Could he return to Pittsburgh?
It is certainly within the realm of possibility. Does it make sense? Sure, I think so. However, bringing Botterill back won't be because he was responsible for all the good moves and Rutherford was responsible for all the bad ones when they worked together. Don't be one of those people.
The reality has layers. It is hard to argue with the results the Penguins had with Jason Botterill working under Jim Rutherford. The two seem to balance each other out nicely. They have wildly different styles and bring different things to the table. Rutherford runs a roster like he has a bad case of ADHD. He is one of the most active GM's in the league. There are a copious number of players he moves before they are able to accrue a second year on the team. Some hit and some miss. That is the reality of having a very active and average GM, which is what Rutherford is. Buffalo is currently gunning for the most consecutive seasons with missing the playoffs. The team they are chasing?
It's almost like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang make the job way easier.
It is tough to ignore the immediate fallout of the Penguins winning a consecutive Stanley Cup was to pull a complete 180 in the team philosophy. Whether or not the 180 is tied to Botterill's departure doesn't change the fact it was illogical and it happened. Gone was the focus of skill and speed. In was a transition to grit and toughness to placate hurt feelings about Tom Wilson. The Penguins chased their tails for a couple of years. The Jack Johnson thing also happened and continues to happen. The Penguins are 2-8 in their last ten playoff games which includes an embarrassing sweep to a lesser talented Islanders team. It hasn't been smooth sailing.
It wasn't until recently the Penguins focus returned to speed and now when healthy they are considered a legit Cup threat again. It is a fool's errand to predict which teams will come out of the months long layoff and compete at a high level right away, but the Penguins are set up as well as anybody to do so with all their major players healthy including Jake Guentzel.
Bill Guerin has moved on to Minnesota (Godspeed) so there is definitely room to bring Botterill back. Although I could totally understand if Botterill wanted to kick back and keep cashing the Pegula checks. Just knowing how cheap the Pegulas are and how much it probably bugs them that as of this moment they are currently on the hook for three general managers on the payroll. Having three GM's on the payroll speaks to a franchise that lacks any direction or purpose. It speaks to the leadership and ability of the owners.
At the end of the day Botterill is just another name among the mediocre GM’s who get their three years in a tough situation, don't do enough good things to move the needle, and are let go. The Pegulas however remain a blemish not only for the Sabres, but for the entire Western New York community. They deserve all the scorn and vitriol they receive. They are a lot like the product Terry made his fortune from. Terrible for the environment and cheap.
Thanks for reading!
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