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The most dramatic choices of this upside-down theory are the Nashville Predators and Buffalo Sabres. I choose to pick the Sabres as this year’s Ottawa Senators over the Preds because that team’s philosophies have been mitigated by the ownership questions facing that franchise.
The Sabres lose Daniel Briere and Chris Drury -- that’s 32 and 37 goals and 95 and 69 points respectively. It’s also the two co-captains of the Sabres.
That’s a lot.
But the Sabres still have Darcy Regier as GM and Lindy Ruff as coach, plus a pretty good system that helped Buffalo earn the best record in the Eastern Conference and second-best overall behind Detroit.
Ryan Miller is getting better and more experienced in goal, Teppo Numminen was re-signed and joins with a young guard of leaders. Strength up the middle? Without Briere and Drury a lot of pressure is going to be on Tim Connolly, Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad and likely Clarke MacArthur to pick up the slack like Wade Redden, Anton Volchenkov, Chris Phillips and Andrej Meszaros did on defense in place of Chara in Ottawa last season.
With Ryan Miller's continued development, the Buffalo Sabres should be solid in nets for years to come.
The Buffalo story has life now following what was a miserable week for Sabres’ fans after Briere and Drury vanished from the roster, when Regier stepped up and prevented another defection -- after the Edmonton Oilers signed 43-goal scorer Thomas Vanek to a free-agent offer sheet worth $50 million over seven years. Regier and the Sabres said; "Enough’s enough" and matched the offer sheet to retain Vanek.
Vanek, who led the Sabres with 43 goals and added 41 assists to finish second in scoring on the team to Briere, made just $942,400 in his sophomore NHL season. It was a season in which Vanek also led the NHL with a plus-47.
The former first-round draft choice sat by his computer in Minneapolis home listening to see what the Sabres' response would be and he said he was thrilled to hear Darcy Regier announce that the team would match the offer sheet.
"I started to cry," said Vanek. "People don’t know how much of yourself you’ve invested in a team, a city. You know the other players, the coaches, the management. It’s a comfort zone that helps you play with confidence. I’ve got a chance to be one of the leaders ... "
What was left unsaid is a young player’s dream of putting bigger footprints and fingerprints on what the Sabres have build over the past couple seasons.
"I want to come in and be a complete player," Vanek said.
Vanek and youngsters Jason Pominville, Roy, Maxim Afinogenov, Brian Campbell, Ales Kotalik and Drew Stafford watched the Sabres overcome adversity this past season with injuries to Gaustad, Afinogenov and others and still post such a great record.
"We were never going to not match an offer for Thomas Vanek," Regier said. "He’s part of the future of our franchise."
Like Bryan Murray said; "There’s a belief in what they’re doing. There’s a belief in the team’s philosophy on building through the draft and developing players. And there’s a belief in the system you play on the ice."
The Buffalo Sabres will miss Briere and Drury, but there’s a support system in Buffalo that could very well make the Sabres even stronger when next year’s playoffs roll around.
Like I said, sometimes you have to take the popular story -- not follow all of the dollars and nonsense -- and just turn that story upside down and you find a franchise that is strong from top to bottom and believes in sticking to its philosophies on how to build a winner.
Stay tuned.
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