For some general managers, it feels like they have no plan. That wasn't the case for Tim Murray early in his tenure as general manager for the Buffalo Sabres, but just because he had a plan didn't mean it was a good one.
Murray took over as general manager in January 2014 after longtime general manager Darcy Regier was fired a few months prior. At this point, the Sabres had only missed the playoffs in the two prior seasons, but with Ruff and now Regier both no longer in Buffalo, it was time for a fresh start.
It didn't seem like Tim Murray was looking for a rebuild and wanted to fast-track the Sabres back into contention. That was evident over the first six months of 2015 when he made three major trades to bring in veterans that cost them a great deal of draft capital.
It started right near the trade deadline of the 2014-15 season when the Sabres traded several players, but also a first-round pick, to add Evander Kane. He would follow that up with two deals around the NHL Draft that brought in goalie Robin Lehner for a first-round pick and also Ryan O'Reilly from the Colorado Avalanche in a package that included the 31st overall pick.
The addition of these veterans, along with free agent Kyle Okposo and rookies like Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel were not enough to get them out of the basement in the division. They would finish with a combined 159 points over these two seasons, and Murray would be fired after the 2016-17 season.
What if the Buffalo Sabres had kept all their draft picks?
While not all the trades were bad, the O'Reilly trade being the one that ended up working out well, as it eventually brought Tage Thompson from St. Louis, it is easy to wonder what the Sabres might look like today if they had kept all their draft picks.
The 21st overall pick that the Sabres traded was used on Colin White, which wasn't a great pick by the Ottawa Senators, but the three players selected right after that pick were goalie Ilya Samsonov, and forwards Brock Boeser and Travis Konecny. All three of those players have gone on to have productive NHL careers and could have been great additions to the Sabres' roster.
The pick the Sabres traded to the Winnipeg Jets in the Evander Kane trade was used on Jack Roslovic, who has gone on to play nearly 600 NHL games. He certainly could have turned into a quality third or fourth-line center for the Sabres.
However, the one pick that ends up being the biggest 'what if' is the 31st overall pick that went to the Colorado Avalanche. They would end up trading it to the San Jose Sharks, but both the Sabres and Avalanche wish they had that pick, and made that pick with Sebastian Aho available at that point.
He made almost an immediate impact with the Hurricanes and has played 10 years in the NHL with at least 24 goals in every season.
Tim Murray made it clear that he was willing to move future pieces to try to put together a competitive roster right now. In some instances, that makes sense, but the Sabres were not anywhere close to being competitive at that point, and using those picks on some of the players mentioned would have actually sped up the rebuild in the long run.
Add us as a preferred source on Google