The Buffalo Sabres have hired Jason Botterill to be their next General Manager. 

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After firing both Tim Murray and Dan Bylsma, the Sabres (rather, the Pegulas) had a couple of important vacancies to deal with. They filled their general manager position with former Pittsburgh Penguins Associate General Manager Jason Botterill.

Drafted by Dallas in 1994, Botterill appeared in just 88 games at the NHL level before retiring just before the 2004-2005 lockout. He worked his way up through the Pittsburgh organization before being named an associate GM of Jim Rutherford a few years ago. His name had been in the news as a possible hire for the Sabres ever since his predecessor was fired, and that has indeed come to fruition.

What is most noteworthy here is that the soon-to-be 41-year-old served in several important, behind-the-scenes functions for the Penguins. He was often leaned on for helping with the salary cap, something that has hamstrung several other elite-tier teams like Los Angeles and Chicago in recent seasons. He was also involved with player scouting with the perennial Cup contenders, an area which has led to guys like Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust becoming important cogs of deep playoff runs despite being mid-round picks. Being able to manage the cap on a team with expensive contracts while also developing future roster players is crucial to being successful every year in the NHL, and these are areas where Botterill should be able to help.

That last point is where the difference should be made with the Buffalo franchise. Looking through their key contributors from the 2016-17 season, there isn’t a lot of home-grown talent. Sure, we can include Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, and Rasmus Ristolainen (to a degree), but those players are top-10 picks. The other crucial parts of the roster like Ryan O’Reilly, Kyle Okposo, Evander Kane, and Robin Lehner were all acquired either via trade or free agency. Outside of those top picks and trades/signings, there isn’t much on the NHL roster that the Sabres can boast about for being developed in-house. If Buffalo were to become a perennial playoff threat, they need to learn how to develop talent from the mid-to-late first round, and the deeper parts of the draft. They may have a general manager who can do just that.

Fantasy Impact

Priority number one for Buffalo will be rebuilding that blue line. Outside of Kevin Shattenkirk, almost every worthwhile free agent defenceman this offseason is on the wrong side of 30 years old. The pipeline isn’t exactly robust with blue liners, either (read up on the Sabres prospects here). That means this is likely to be a long-term project, and Bottrill’s immediate impact may not be felt. It's not to say he can't improve the team for 2017-18, but that the overhaul will take a few years, rather than just one. If they can even move towards being an average team defensively, this could be a huge boost to their goaltenders, specifically Robin Lehner.

I would anticipate they try to find another top-six left winger. What the plans are for Reinhart, ultimately, are unclear, but leaving him on Eichel's wing for now makes the most sense. For our purposes, unless the fantasy league is really deep, there probably isn't a whole lot to be done outside of improving the defence. Their top-six is mostly set, and they still have Ristolainen as their go-to defenceman on the power play. Most of Botterill's impact should be on the bottom-half of the roster, and in the minors. 

This is a move in the right direction for a team boasting Eichel and O’Reilly down the middle, giving themselves the building blocks for future success. It could take a few seasons to get there, but at least the franchise appears to be moving forward.