On knives’ edge?
Sabres rebuild seems to be going on forever, but they’re amassing some fine pieces that could make them next year’s New Jersey or Colorado
Mike Babcock was probably not trying to be insulting.
It just came out that way. As the Maple Leafs coach headed into Monday’s game looking for a franchise-record 46th win of the season, which they did not get, Babcock was asked to reflect on how things have changed since taking over a team that finished deadlast two years ago.
At the same time, he was asked if there are any comparisons to what Buffalo Sabres’ first-year head coach Phil Housley is going through this season.
“Not all,” said Babcock. “It’s not even close. They have way more pieces.”
Maybe that’s true. While the last-place Sabres have a core group that includes Jack Eichel, Ryan O’Reilly and Sam Reinhart, Toronto’s all-star game representative in 2015-16 was Leo Komarov. The Leafs, who had traded Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf, had not yet drafted Auston Matthews, while William Nylander was playing in the minors and Mitch Marner was still in junior.
In other words, there was a reason why Toronto was so bad that year. For Buffalo, there really isn’t any excuse for ending up in what has become a familiar spot.
“We got the pieces, for sure. The pieces have been here for a little while, though,” said veteran forward Jason Pominville, who signed with the Sabres last summer.
“That’s the tough part about it. We have to start making steps. Sometimes when you’re used to not winning, you get accustomed to it and you kind of accept it.
“That can’t be the way it is, because some of the guys that have been here for three, four years are used to losing. It’s unacceptable.”
On Monday, the Sabres added yet another piece to their ongoing puzzle, as forward Casey Mittelstadt decided to leave college after one year and sign an entrylevel contract.
Regarded as the best player currently not in the NHL, the eighth-overall pick in last year’s draft is expected to join the team later this week.
“It’s part of the future,” said Eichel. “Any time you sign good players like that, you hope they make the team better.”
Well, Mittelstadt can’t make them any worse.
While this is the first season under Housley and GM Jason Botterill, it is the seventh straight season in which Buffalo will miss the playoffs.
During that span, the team has burned through two general managers, four head coaches, and finished last in the conference three times. And yet, Buffalo is no better today than it was three years ago, when the Sabres tanked for a chance at drafting Connor McDavid in what was supposed to be the beginning of the rebuild that has gone on for far too long.
“It’s not going to last forever,” said Leafs forward Nazem Kadri. “They just got to kind of deal with it now. They’ve got some good players over there and they’re going to be up-and-coming eventually.
When that is, I’m not sure.”
Winning the No. 1 overall pick and selecting prized defenceman Rasmus Dahlin in this year’s draft would certainly help. But for a team that has had five top-10 draft picks in the last five years — but only one player drafted outside the first round reach
the 100-game mark since 2010 — a lottery pick is not going to fix this mess.
Buffalo needs a No. 1 goalie and a No. 1 defenceman, as well as someone to replace Evander Kane on the left side. They need to find a Zach Hyman and a Connor Brown, as well as a Travis Dermott and a Nikita Zaitsev — depth players who can play up and down in the lineup.
“We’re definitely a long way from where we need to be,” said Pominville, “but then you look at Colorado and where they are now from where they were last year, it can change pretty fast. The pieces are there, so hopefully we can take that step.”
Indeed, the cupboard is not as bare in Buffalo as it used to be.
Even if the Sabres miss out on Dahlin, finishing last means they will be in a position to draft an impact forward such as Andrei Svechnikov, Filip Zadina or Brady Tkachuk.
According to The Hockey News’ Future Watch magazine, the Sabres have five players ranked among the top-100 prospects, including Mittelstadt (No. 1) and Alex Nylander (No. 13). In Eichel, the team appears to have its version of Auston Matthews, while it’s not unrealistic to think that Mittelstadt and Nylander could turn out to be as good as the Leafs’ Marner and William Nylander.
If Botterill can upgrade the team in net — pending unrestricted free agent Carter Hutton, who has a league-best goals-against average and save percentage in a back-up role with the St. Louis Blues, could be an option — and the Sabres can develop prospects such as Rasmus Asplund, Marcus Davidsson and Will Borgen into regular NHLers, the Sabres could be next year’s version of Colorado or New Jersey.
At the very least, the players finally have a reason to be hopeful.
“I’m here for a long time and I’m pretty invested in this team and this organization, so obviously you want to see the future and for things to get better,” said Eichel. “I think it starts with me. I’ve got to be better and all the guys in the room have to take it upon ourselves to change this thing.”