Monday April 29, 2013.
Now that the calendar has flipped to 2015, it seems like forever ago, doesn’t it?
Then Sabres GM Darcy Regier first asked for our patience and our understanding during the Buffalo Sabres end-of-season presser. Regier looked into the cameras and uttered the one word that heretofore created widespread panic and anxiety along the Niagara Frontier:
"Suffering".
Do you remember that day? Regier officially activated the “tear it down to build it back up” process. It stung like a bitch, like a two-hander across the wrists. So began the management of our expectations. No longer were the Sabres in the business of adding veteran players to their core in order to “make a playoff run”.
Regier:
"It may require some suffering," Regier said repeatedly on that memorable day.
"I understand what we're talking about here. I understand our fan base. And I would like to think that people will give up some suffering in order to win the Stanley Cup."
Like the amazing and breathtaking HARBORCenter development project, the transformation of the Sabres from losers to winners isn’t being built in a day. It’s happening in phases. You can’t eat a whale in one mouthful. You have to use a fork and a knife to cut it up into small pieces. The HARBORCenter project started with a simple dialogue which turned into a strategy, then a blueprint. Today, the project has manifested itself and the action plan is being executed brilliantly.
Brick by brick, Tim Murray is assembling a winning team. His template for success is the post-lockout Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings, who were not grown hydroponically in some dark room or laboratory on a college campus. Their “seeds” were carefully selected, watered daily, and nurtured. Success was not easily achieved. It tool time. Each roster was assembled meticulously by human hands. There was no way to TiVo to the good parts. The NHL entry draft provided difference makers and free agency serves as the caulk that glued all of the young pieces together to form Stanley Cup winning teams.
It took the time and talents of hundreds of men and women to collaborate and to work together to achieve the common goal of economic re-development and quality of life improvements in and around downtown Buffalo. As a means to preserve my own sanity, I have always used the Terry Pegula construction and development model as a yard stick to judge the progress of the rebuilding of the Sabres. The timelines of the two rebuilding projects are very similar. They seemingly have run concurrently. Last year at this time, there were cranes lifting steel, cables, textiles, glass, cables, duct work, wood and heavy equipment to the in heights of hallowed Hockey Heaven. Hundreds of laborers and skilled tradesmen and women worked passionately through the coldest, most bitter polar vortex weather that Western New York has experienced in nearly 100 years. Weather be damned, the project stayed on time and on budget. It’s amazing to see the progress that has occurred in just one calendar year. The Rinks, “716 Food & Sport”, Tim Horton’s, the outdoor rinks at Canalside. It’s amazing to experience the new attractions and the new assets in the community.
The project is far from complete as the Marriott hotel will be grand opened later this year. It took dozens of months of advanced planning to assemble the project elements like architectural renderings, meetings with the city, zoning, building permits, the hiring of contractors, and other integral processes to advance the project to the point of prosperity that it is at today. Before the first shovel full of soil was turned for the game-changing HARBORCenter project, there were hundreds if not thousands of hours of conversations and planning meetings. The site had to be razed and cleared. Down to the bones.
The Sabres re-build in many ways is mirroring the HARBORCenter development project in that Pegulaville was not built in a day. Just like fine wine, it takes time to perfect. It’s an excruciating process to perfect. There are no shortcuts, nor “cheats”. It’s been an investment of time and multiple millions of dollars.
Darcy Regier never got the chance to see his plan through to its end as he and then coach Ron Rolston were shown the door in November 2013. Regier ran out of excuses, and his seemingly endless roll of duct tape that he had been using to hold his team together in the final season of his long tenure in Buffalo had finally run out. He played every card in his deck. It was time for a change. New leadership was necessary to take the team in a new direction. Regier may be gone, however, his contributions are still being appreciated today. He began the arduous task of deconstructing the team that he created. The trading of Jason Pominville wasn’t easy for Regier. It was essential. It was the first of many critical decisions that Regier had to execute. Saying goodbye to the past would allow Regier to skate into the future with many pieces of hockey currency. The Sabres traded their captain and a fourth-round draft pick in 2014 to the Minnesota Wild before the 2013 NHL trade deadline for prospects Johan Larsson and Matt Hackett plus a first-round draft pick in 2013 that eventually morphed into Nikita Zadorov and a second-round draft pick in 2014. Regier certainly left the cupboards stocked and gave Tim Murray some valuable foundational pieces to work with when he first accepted the GM job and thus assumed ownership of the leadership mantle of the “suffering” campaign.
Regier left the Sabres in better shape when he left than what he inherited on the way into the organization. That’s all you can ask of a leader.
His draft choices and player acquisitions have blossomed and come to fruition in recent years. Jhonas Enroth, Tyler Myers, Tyler Ennis, Marcus Foligno, Mike Weber, Cody Hodgson, Drew Stafford and Johan Larsson are providing value during this season of change. In this most difficult of season from a win and losses standpoint, we are reminded of how great the future really is going to be when we look at the young kids who seemingly are coming of age before our very eyes. Remember when Regier drafted two granite pillars in Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft? Where would this team be right now without the two towers of power? The year before, he selected future captain and soon-to-be NHL All Star Zemgus Girgensons and the crafty, 200 foot power center Mikhail Grigorenko in the first round of the entry draft. In 2011, Regier invested his first round pick in the strong sniping power winger Joel Armia. At the 2010 NHL Draft, Regier selected steady, cerebral D-man Mark Pysyk in the first round. How about sniping scoring machines Nick Baptiste and Justin Bailey who can seemingly score at will. Baptiste and Bailey both deserve to be playing for their respective Team Canada and Team USA at the WJCs right now, however, hockey politics took their opportunities away. My guess is that they will use the snubbing to fuel their NHL fires. Jake McCabe, the former captain of Team USA’s gold medal winning WJC team from 2013, has invested his time wisely in Rochester and is champing at the bit to play an everyday role on the Buffalo blue line. McCabe, in my opinion, is a plug and play NHL D-man right now. His day will come in the very near future. Don’t sleep on J.T. Compher either. The University of Michigan feisty, physical center has been impressive for Team USA at the WJCs and will be Steve Ott Version 2.0 when he finally makes it to the NHL in the next couple of years. Let’s super Swedish goalie Linus Ullmark who will be making his transition to North America next season. He’s big strong, and supremely skilled. Forward prospects Gustav Possler and Connor Hurley are intriguing, as is big, burly D-man Brady Austin and skilled D Anthony Florentino. Goalie prospect Cal Petersen is one-to-watch, as are forwards Sean Malone and Eric Locke.
The prospect prosperity doesn’t end there.
Tim Murray wasted little time imposing his own thumbprint on the organizational depth chart. Sabres fans have a lot to be thankful for because Murray immediately began adding more size, skill, strength, and character. If you haven’t watched Sam Reinhart dominate at the World Junior Hockey Championships then shame on you. Reinhart, Murray’s first ever draft choice as an NHL GM is the leading scorer in the international tournament (3G, 5A in 4 games played) and is Team Canada’s MVP right now, in my opinion. So what if he wasn’t strong enough to play in the NHL this season. The kid is 19 year old and will be ready to be a full time contributor next season. How about Murray trading Brayden McNabb to Los Angeles for power forward Nic Deslauriers and Team USA star Hudson Fasching? Talk about achieving maximum value for his assets! Murray hit a home run when he took possession of Deslauriers and Fasching, two big, strong, skilled warriors who will be mainstays in the Buffalo lineup for years to come. Murray’s first draft as Sabres GM yielded several diamonds. Brenden Lemieux is tearing up the OHL right now and his game will transfer seamlessly to the AHL and to the NHL. He’s big, nasty, fearless, and has fast hands and fast feet. He too was snubbed by Team Canada for the WJCs. He plays with a massive chip on his shoulder just like his legendary father Claude did. Murray grabbed two way center Eric Cornel in the second round; he also selected wingers Vaclav Karabacek, Victor Olofsson, and Max Willman.
Six months to the day that he made his now famous “Suffering Speech” in Buffalo, Regier made a shrewd, uncharacteristic early season trade to shake up his listless lineup when he traded Thomas Vanek to the NY Islanders in exchange for sniper Matt Moulson and a conditional draft choice. Looking back on that trade of assets for assets, one has to applaud Regier for achieving maximum value for his disgruntled Austrian goal scorer who likely would have pursued unrestricted free agency had he stayed in Buffalo. The Islanders decided to keep their 2014 first rounder and used it to select power winger Micheal Dal Colle. Meaning, Garth Snow opted to give Buffalo his first round draft choice in the upcoming Connor McDavid draft this June.
Though he is gone, his words and his plans for the prosperity of the Sabres are not forgotten. Regier’s vision of suffering has manifested itself before our very eyes. It’s been fourteen months since the Pegulas and Pat Lafontaine began the stewardship towards finding the solution to the suffering. They wasted little time in hiring Ted Nolan to mentor and guide the youngsters in the organization. Lafontaine wisely hired Tim Murray away from the Ottawa Senators and so began the next phase of the re-building of the Sabres. When Lafontaine abruptly resigned last January, it allowed Murray to exacerbate the re-constructing process. Thus the trade of UFAs to be Ryan Miller and Steve Ott to St. Louis in exchange for Jaroslav Halak, Chris Stewart, prospect William Carrier, their 2015 first-round pick, and 2016 conditional third-round pick. The Sabres ended the 2013-14 with the NHL worst 21-51-10 (52 points) record, their worst ever record in franchise history. Today, the Sabres occupy 28th place in the NHL standing with a 14-21-3 (31 points) record in this season of “EichDavid”. At this moment, Murray holds the 3rd, 22nd (St. Louis) and 25th (NY Islanders) picks in the 2015 NHL Draft. The Sabres are in excellent position to select several difference makers like Jack Eichel, Connor McDavid, Noah Hanifan, Lawson Crouse, Dylan Strome, Mitch Marner, and others. If you haven’t watched the World Junior Hockey Championships, do yourself a favor and do your homework. Go see McDavid play in Erie. Go to an OHL game and do your advanced scouting. Rest assured that Tim Murray and his scouts are scouring every rink from New England to the Maritimes. They are jumping over snow piles to get into local rinks to watch the top rated prospects as well as doing their diligence on the many outliers who will be raft eligible in June.
Murray will be active in the weeks to come. He will be making deals for his three pending UFAs Chris Stewart, Drew Stafford, and Michal Neuvirth. Murray is asking all motivated and willing trade partners for top organizational prospects and high draft picks as currency in exchange for his pending UFAs. He will end up getting what he wants in the end because there are so many teams who are either struggling (Boston, San Jose, Columbus, Philly, Minnesota, Ottawa), on the bubble of a wild card berth, or are looking to add veteran depth to assist them in their deep playoff journey (Los Angeles, Anaheim, Detroit, Chicago, and Tampa). Murray may even end up trading Tyler Myers at the deadline, if it means that he can take possession of yet another 2015 first round draft, a top prospect and a high draft choice in the 2015 draft, the deepest draft since the 2003 NHL Draft.
Like the amazing and breathtaking HARBORCenter development project, the transformation of the Sabres from losers to winners isn’t being built in a day. It’s happening in phases. You can’t eat a whale in one mouthful. You have to fork and a knife to cut it up into small pieces. Be prepared to take your time. It started with dialogue which turned into a strategy, and now the action plan is being executed. Brick by brick, Tim Murray is assembling a winning team. His template for success is the post-lockout Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings, who were not grown hydroponically in some dark room or laboratory on a college campus. Their “seeds” were carefully selected, watered daily, and nurtured. Success was not easily achieved. It tool time. Each roster was assembled meticulously by human hands. There was no way to TiVo to the good parts. The NHL entry draft provided difference makers and free agency serves as the caulk that glued all of the young pieces together to form Stanley Cup winning teams.
It took the time and talents of hundreds of men and women to collaborate and to work together to achieve the common goal of economic re-development and quality of life improvements in and around Buffalo. As a means to preserve my own sanity, I have always used the Terry Pegula construction and development model as a yard stick to judge the progress of the rebuilding of the Sabres. The timelines of the two rebuilding projects are very similar.
Its taken months of planning, architectural renderings, meetings with the city, zoning, permitting and other integral processes to advance the project to the point of prosperity that it is at today. Before the first shovel full of soil was turned for the game-changing HARBORCenter project, there were hundreds if not thousands of hours of conversations and planning meetings. The site had to be cleared. Down to the bones.
Suffering ain’t that bad after all, is it?
That which does not kill us can only make us stronger.
We have suffered long enough.
January 1, 2015.
Happy New Year to you and your families.
The champagne will taste that much sweeter when we are guzzling it out of bottles at the Stanley Cup parade down Delaware Avenue in the next few years.
Thanks for suffering through the re-build with me.
Much better days lie ahead in the weeks and months to come.
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