Sabres president addresses tanking allegations

Sabres president Ted Black was on Buffalo’s WGR 550 on Thursday morning.

Following a conversation regarding how many hockey-centric events in Buffalo the Sabres have hosted or will host in the coming years, and if the Erie Otters game with Connor McDavid actually raised any eyebrows around the league:

“The next conversation I have where somebody is dismayed over that will be the first, at the NHL level. What people do on social media and snark and things like that, I can’t control. And I really don’t care.

On if there has been any negative feedback from GMs or at the Board of Governors, where they say, ‘Hey, we know what you’re doing’:

“No, none of that. And again, I would point to Seth Jones played here two years ago. That doesn’t mean that we were trying to get him. Jack Eichel played here this year. Next year, just so everyone knows, this kid named Matthews is going to be in Buffalo. He’s going to play here.

“So... I can’t worry about the negativity to have that do something that’s not best for Buffalo. And I think the more premier hockey events you bring to Buffalo, the better. And exposing kids for the first time – hockey players that most likely are going to be in the NHL - to Buffalo and giving them a really positive first impression, that’s huge. Because people that have never experienced Buffalo have preformed perceptions. And part of getting the combine in Buffalo is we’re going to get the first opportunity to make the first and best impression for 125 kids.

“It’s also an unbelievable facility. The Harbor Center merged with First Niagara Center is going to make for a fantastic event functionally for the league. But if we can change the perception of the people of Buffalo, that benefits everyone. Businesses, the hockey team, the city, everyone.”

On if there has been any pushback at all from higher-ups in the NHL regarding the perception that the Buffalo Sabres are tanking:

“Teams rebuild. That’s what we’re doing. Tanking has sort of been a shorthand way of saying you’re rebuilding.

“If you go back, L.A. Kings had three straight years picking in the top 5, from 2007-2009. Chicago had four straight years they picked in the top 7, 2004-2007. Everyone knows about the Penguins. Five straight years in the top 5. Boston had three of five years picking 8 or higher, 2006-2010. Anaheim picked 9 or higher four out of five drafts, 2001-2005. Carolina picked three straight years in the top 4 the year before they won the Cup. Teams rebuild. And if you do it patiently, and you do it through the draft, you’re going to benefit.

“What we’re doing that I think is different from what other teams have done – and everyone focuses on where we are in the standings, and that’s the consequence of going through a rebuild. When you trade out players for picks, you’re going to diminish position by position.

“When you replace Jason Pominville with picks and futures, you’ve weakened that position. You do it throughout the team, it becomes weaker. And what you can’t have is a player walk out the door and not get anything in return. I think Tim alluded to that yesterday on Hockey Hotline. We’ve seen the devastating effects of that from this franchise 10 years ago.

“What we’re going is a little bit different that hopefully will expedite the process, is we’re getting a historic number of first and second round picks. These other teams that I mentioned, they weren’t picking two and three times in the first round, two and three times in the second round.

“So we’re hopeful that the quantity with the quality – and as Tim said, we’ll probably be picking high this year – but we also have those other two picks in the first round. And that’s going to give him a lot of flexibility to either use the picks, move up, trade it around.

“At the draft table, the GMs that have all these picks really control the draft.”

Source: WGR 550/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey

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