The Buffalo Sabres are well on their way to winning the Connor McDavid-Jack Eichel sweepstakes, which is to say that barring some type of unforeseen miracle turnaround in the season's waning moments, the Sabres will end up with one of the top two talents - and possibly three, Noah Hanafin is certainly no slouch - come the 2015 NHL Draft.
While conventional wisdom would say that ending the season with the worst record in the league likely points to a team facing at least a few more seasons of struggle before being able to say the rebuilding phase is officially over, Sabres president Ted Black does not seem to agree.
"I think the teardown mode certainly is over. You go through that, you've got to rebuild your team. You start by tearing down and converting those players into picks and prospects. I think the rebuild phase - I think we're going to transition now from rebuild to build in this off-season," said Black while appearing on Buffalo's WGR 550 on Thursday, per NicholsOnHockey.com.
The Sabres, of course, dealt Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford to the Winnipeg Jets for Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian and goalie prospect Jason Kasdorf ahead of the NHL trade deadline this month. They've also got two first-round picks in the 2015 NHL Draft at their disposal, along with a 2016 third-round pick added in the Michal Neuvirth deal and a seventh-round pick nabbed in the Torrey Mitchell trade.
Their talent pool just below the NHL level is flush with rising prospects. Their defense is already deep and youthful, even with the Myers trade. Nikita Zadorov has shown glimpses of his abilities already this season. Kasdorf is a high-quality prospect in net.
"I think the building blocks are coming into place right now. I mean, there's a lot of unknowns. We don't know where we're going to draft. Obviously we're going to have a high pick next year, and where that falls you don't know," Black said.
"But you come to opening night next year, Evander Kane is going to be on the team and in all likelihood, Sam Reinhart on the team. Maybe, depending on where we pick, whoever we pick first in the first round. Who knows? The second pick in the first round could be a guy who's ready to make that big move and no one's ready for it either."
Black, intimating that the team's top center prospect - and likely top prospect in general - Reinhart will be on the team next season, sounds like an executive ready to be done with the Sabres recent losing ways.
It's impossible to fix a team as broken as Buffalo overnight and adding a young guy bursting with potential in Kane and seeking to promote a player in Reinhart who probably deserves it means the plan put in place is a sound one, but as Black himself notes, the worst thing the organization could do is put a firm date on when they should again be able to compete with the NHL's elite.
"But there isn't really a timeline. It's going to depend on the players. But I think the trajectory is upward and I think we're headed in the right direction."