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Former Sabres dot the 2020 Stanley Cup semi-finals |
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Nearly every National Hockey League team can lay claim to former players in the NHL's 'final four," and Buffalo is no different. However, the Sabres have the dubious distinction of trading away a player in center Ryan O'Reilly who ended up being a 2019 Conn Smythe winner for playoff MVP while helping to lead the St. Louis Blues to their first-ever Stanley Cup. O'Reilly also won the Selke Trophy for best two-way forward in 2018-19 while the Sabres were extending their playoff drought to eight seasons.
Egg meat face.
It happened. And there's no sense in re-hashing the details as that horse has been beaten to the point of cremation. Yet, as we move along in the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, there's another player from former Sabres general manager Tim Murray's "young-vet" group of acquisitions that is helping power his team to possibly their first Stanley Cup.
Murray took over as GM in 2014, made sure the Sabres finished dead last in 2015 (guaranteeing either Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel in the Blue and Gold,) and went for a quick rebuild after gutting the entire organization of talent. The process ended up setting Buffalo back years where they still haven't fully recovered and while the Sabres are stuck in the bottom third of the league, closing in on an NHL playoff drought-tying record, some of the players Murray counted on to speed up the rebuilding process have advanced with their teams.
The 2015 NHL Draft was a whirlwind of activity for the Sabres as not only were they planning on drafting Eichel second-overall, but also had Murray working the phones and pulling off trades for O'Reilly from the Colorado Avalanche and goalie Robin Lehner from his former team, the Ottawa Senators. Lehner actually kicked off the day for the Sabres as Buffalo traded the 21st-overall pick for a 23 yr. old goalie who was caught up in a three-way battle to man the crease in Ottawa. Murray called Lehner "high-end competitive" and believed he would become "a No. 1 starter...on a good team, on a contending team, on a playoff team."
True words, but not in Buffalo where he went 42-61-22 with a 2.77 goals-against average and .916 save percentage for the Sabres. It was a tumultuous time in Buffalo as not only was Lehner battling inconsistencies in front of him on the ice, but he was also, as we would come to find out after the Sabres let him walk in 2018, battling debilitating demons within. He finally landed with the Vegas Golden Knights after a 2018-19 season with the New York Islanders and a partial 2019-20 season with the Chicago Blackhawks who traded him to Toronto before the Leafs moved him to Vegas. Lehner would win the trust of Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer in these playoffs and wrestled the starters job away from three-time Cup-winner, Marc-Andre Fleury. He just led Vegas to a Game-7 shutout win over the Vancouver Canucks last night and heads to the Western Conference finals with an 8-4-0 playoff record, a 1.99 GAA, .918 sv% and three shutouts.
Was Murray right in trading for O'Reilly and Lehner back in 2015? Yes and no. Right players, bad timing might be the best way to look at it.
Another Murray-trade that turned out poorly for Buffalo was trading defenseman Brayden McNabb (2009, 66th-overall,) along with two second-round picks and Jonathan Parker, to the L.A. Kings for Nicolas Deslauriers and prospect Hudson Fasching, whom he acquired as "heavies" for the team. Although this wasn't a direct egg-in-the-face trade, embarrassment did come later. The Kings wound up leaving McNabb exposed to the 2018 NHL expansion draft, the Knight's promptly snatched him up and McNabb has been a mainstay on the top-pair displaying definitive chemistry with top Vegas d-man Nate Schmidt.
Another member of Vegas who was once in the Sabres organization is forward William Carrier, whom Buffalo left unprotected at the expansion draft. New GM Jason Botterill made a deal with Vegas GM George McPhee sending a 6th round pick to Vegas to protect goalie Linus Ullmark. McPhee took that pick and Carrier who has now played in 162 regular season and 32 playoff games over three seasons for the Golden Knights.
Carrier and Vegas recently agreed to a 4yr./$5.6 million contract extension.
Staying out west, the veteran laden Dallas Stars will take on Vegas with two former Sabres patrolling the blueline in lesser roles.
Defenseman Andrej Sekera was a 2004, third-round pick of Buffalo and at 34 yrs. old is doing that journeyman thing. Sekera left Buffalo after the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season and has had stints in Carolina, Toronto, Los Angeles, Edmonton and now Dallas with the Stars using him in a lower-pairing role with heavy penalty killing duties. As a player who was much maligned in Buffalo by a fan-base that over-emphasized his short-comings while de-emphasizing his positive qualities, it would bring this writer some pleasure seeing him skate around the ice with the Cup in his hands.
Taylor Fedun is another former Sabres d-man playing for Dallas. The undrafted free agent initially signed with the Edmonton Oilers out of Princeton University and played for the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks before landing in Buffalo in 2016. Botterill traded Fedun to the Stars in November, 2018 where he's been contributing as expected in a reserve role.
The NY Islanders have no former Sabres on their team as they head to the Eastern Conference Championship series but their opponent, the Tampa Bay Lightning, does.
Defenseman Zach Bogosian was another young-vet, Murray acquisition and though he wasn't the primary piece received in a blockbuster deal with the Winnipeg Jets in 2015 (winger Evander Kane was the key player,) he was expected to, at the very least, be a top-four defenseman who would be with Buffalo a long time while Murray worked young players through the system.
Bogosian was in Buffalo for a relatively long time, six years, but only played in 243 games for the Sabres due to a rash of injuries that hit like clockwork on a yearly basis. The former first round pick (2008, third-overall) was drafted as a big, gritty defenseman with excellent skating and some real good offensive touch but little of that showed in Buffalo as he was either playing injured, on injured reserve or recovering from injuries. Eventually it came to the point where the Sabres wanted to trade him, but his $5.14 cap-hit made him immovable.
When he came back from his latest injury, head coach Ralph Krueger gave him a shot but eventually made him a healthy scratch (for the first time in the defenseman's career) prompting Bogosian to ask for a trade. With no takers the 29 yr. old was waived, failed to report and was given his unconditional release. Bogosian hooked up with the Lightning for an NHL-minimum salary.
Like O'Reilly before him, Bogosian walked into a situation where the team was set and he had his defined role within that setup and he's performed well with nearly all of his advanced metrics either at the top amongst Tampa Bay defensemen or in top-three.
Odds are that at least one former Sabre will be skating around with a big smile on his face while lofting the Stanley Cup high above his head. Which one will it be?
We shall see.
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