On the Buffalo Sabres …
Darren Dreger: “Working sources on Sabres house cleaning today. Told decision was purely ownerships and neither Eichel nor the players in general influenced. Listing potential candidates for the Sabres GM job is tough. Lombardi makes sense given his Cup winning resume, but process is extensive. Brad Treliving has been suggested as a fit in Buf. I sense the Flames will attempt to extend their GM’s contract as early as next week.”
Mike Harrington: Hearing the Blackhawks assistant GM Norm MacIver is a name to watch, same with Dean Lombardi.
Chuck Gormley: Hearing that Blackhawks assistant GM Norm MacIver is a strong candidate to become the Sabres next GM.
Joe Yerdon: Pierre McGuire’s name is brought up almost every time a GM position is open. Think he’d likely want to be a GM again, but he’s been out of management for a long time.
Chris Nichols of FanRag Sports: Elliotte Friedman on 630 CHED talking about coaching and GM candidates for the Buffalo Sabres after Dan Bylsma and Tim Murray were fired.
“I have believed that the Sabres have kind of – I don’t know if they’ve directly or indirectly – but I do think that they’ve made some contact with David Quinn, who is the head coach at Boston University and was Jack Eichel’s college coach. I believe there’s still a possibility that could occur. So I do think that that may happen.”
Friedman thinks there will be plenty of interest in the Sabres GM position.
“I’ll tell you this: I think there’s a lot of interest in the Buffalo job. I do. I’m going to be curious to see what they decide to do. Do you go experience: a Dean Lombardi, a Mike Gillis, a Don Maloney, someone like that. Do you go new: Pegula has a lot of ties to Pittsburgh. Do you plunk someone out of there, like a Jason Botterill or a Bill Guerin. Tom Fitzgerald, who he also knows pretty well. Craig Conroy, who’s a New York guy in Calgary and might be closer to getting something. Mike Futa was a guy that Buffalo interviewed last time when they hired Murray. Now he just got promoted in L.A., but you never know. Would Buffalo want permission to go back to him because he went pretty far down the road there. Paul Fenton. Norm Maciver from Chicago, who you guys know well. They’re going to have a lot of options there.
“The other thing I wonder too is do you go local. Does Terry Pegula, who’s really got the fans there on his back, does he bring back a Rick Dudley-Scott Luce combination, both of whom have long ties to Buffalo.”