It’s the eve of the NHL expansion draft. A stoic Tim Murray stares out of his office window. Behind him sit various members of the Buffalo Sabres scouting staff. The room is silent with anticipation. The only audible sound is the second hand on Murray’s wristwatch, ticking the seconds away.

The room flinches as Murray finally speaks. “Phone” he commands, holding out his hand, still gazing out at the city. A jittery intern hands Murray his cellular device, nearly dropping it from his trembling grip.

Murray quickly dials a number. The scouts exchange concerned glances as they listen with anticipation. They hear a muffled voice on the other side. Leaning in, they all strain to make out the words.

Murray smiles, and begins with a simple two word greeting, the tenor of which could have shattered the glass in front of him.

“Hello, George.”

The Vegas Expansion Draft

Let’s take this exercise from the top, shall we? Ahead of what promised to be a busy offseason, Murray would conceivably start by addressing the upcoming expansion draft. For months, there was speculation that Vegas Golden Knights general manager, George McPhee owed Murray a “favor”. One that Murray would cash-in during the expansion draft.

Let’s say that this favor existed. It probably would have revolved around an agreed protection of unprotected assets in Linus Ullmark and Will Carrier. If that were the case, who would McPhee have agreed to select instead?

From what we know of the first-year GM’s strategy at the time, he was very interested in taking on questionable contracts in exchange for draft pick compensation. Matt Moulson’s $5 million cap hit would be nice to remove from the Sabres’ books, but that would be one heck of a favor.

Something more realistic would have probably centered around Tyler Ennis. Following a very poor showing in 2016-17, the 27-year-old was a good candidate for a change of scenery. The only problem was his $4.6 million dollar cap hit for two more seasons.

Under normal circumstances, McPhee would have required at least second-round pick in order to absorb that type of contract. Since he owes Murray a favor however, he willingly accepts a fourth-round pick in 2017, and a sixth-round pick in 2018. So, just like that, Murray frees up another solid chunk of money, bringing his current cap space to just over $31 million. That’s a good thing, but Ennis’ absence opens up yet another roster spot that will need to be filled.

Pre-Entry Draft Transactions

With just days remining before the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, Murray gazes upon his draft board. With the eighth-overall selection in the first round, he debates whether or not he should leverage the pick for immediate reinforcement. He grimaces as he recalls drafting Alex Nylander in favor of trading his 2016 first-round selection to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman, Cam Fowler.

He decides to bark up that tree again. Ducks GM Bob Murray takes the call but is unwilling to part with Fowler. He informs the Sabres GM that he has an extension agreement in place with Fowler, that will become official on July 1.

After sending Shea Theodore to Vegas in the expansion draft, the Ducks’ overstock of NHL defenders still exists, but isn’t as restrictive. For now, Tim Murray elects to hang onto his eighth overall selection, but makes a different offer to an Anaheim team looking to free-up cap space in order to make a bigger splash elsewhere.

Confirmed Trade

Sabres Receive: RHD Sami Vatanen

Ducks Receive: Sabres’ 2017 2^nd Round Pick (54^th overall via Minnesota) and Johan Larsson’s RFA rights

Murray offers the Sabres’ later of two second-round selections (54th overall) and RFA center Johan Larsson in exchange for RHD Sami Vatanen. Bob Murray hesitates, but accepts.

Vatanen is coming off a down base-statistical year, and Anaheim feels that the $4.875 million price tag could be better spent elsewhere. He was left unprotected in the expansion draft in favor of Fowler and Hampus Lindholm and the Ducks’ GM likes that idea of Larsson absorbing defensively-tilted center responsibilities while Ryan Kesler recovers from offseason surgery.

While Vatanen doesn’t really fit the Murray mold of larger defensemen who bring a physical presence, he feels that his blue line severely lacked transitional acumen last season, and if he can pair the 26-year-old with a physical presence on his left side, it could provide positive results.

So, he has addressed his team’s need on the right side of the defense, but he is still in search of a top-pairing player on the left side. Josh Gorges certainly looked his age in 2016-17 and is no longer suited for the role. Murray feels that Jake McCabe is on his way there, but he’s not ready to stake his career on finding out.

His next phone call is to Stan Bowman of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Murray tries to offer a swap of first-round selections in exchange for Niklas Hjalmarsson. The Blackhawks are in some cap trouble, and the 30-year-old is the most movable asset on what has become a very expensive blue line.

Bowman rejects the offer, stating that he needs a cost-effective, NHL-ready player coming back as part of the deal. Murray is reluctant, but ultimately concedes as he knows that Hjalmarsson is one of the best, if not the best defensive defenseman in the NHL.

Confirmed Trade

Sabres Receive: Niklas Hjalmrsson, Blackhawks 1^st Round Pick (29^th overall), Blackhawks’ 2017 5^th Round Pick (150^th overall)

Blackhawks Receive: Jake McCabe, Sabres’ 1^st Round Pick (8^th overall)

Murray feels a pit in his stomach after trading one of his favorite young defensemen, but he needed to make the sacrifice. In his wildest dreams, a player of Hjalmarsson’s caliber is what McCabe eventually becomes. Simply moving back in the first round in order to make that swap was too good to pass up.

At this point, Murray’s defensive group is pretty well set, but he has one more trade in mind. He places a call to his former employer, the Ottawa Senators. He knows that their new GM, Pierre Dorion is looking to make a splash. Murray also knows that Mark Stone, a player he scouted when he was with the Senators, is nearing the end of his current contract.

Unfortunately, Dorion and the Senators are coming off a very impressive playoff run where they fell one game short of appearing in the Stanley Cup final. Murray tries to make compelling offers, but his counterpart simply isn’t interested.

Dorion counters, offering up Bobby Ryan, a player Murray helped bring to Ottawa from Anaheim in 2013. Unfortunately, the once highly skilled winger is now 30 years old and had underperformed the season prior, posting just 25 points in 62 games. He is also signed to a $7.25 AAV contract for five more years.

Given the amount of money Murray has already invested on the wing, he asks Dorion to table the conversation until after the draft.

Salary Cap Reset

So, let’s take a moment to reset. Below is a revised visual of the Sabres’ cap situation heading into the first round of the draft. The team still has a holes at the third-line center spot, reserve netminder, and top-six winger. He has about $23.7 million in space remaining to fill those voids.

The defense however, is nearly complete, which is a massive undertaking Murray checks off his list before July 1.

Before we dive into UFA, fans on Twitter seemed adamant that I make the Sabres’ first-round selection on Murray’s behalf. Since we traded eighth-overall and acquired 29^th-overall in the Hjalmarsson trade, we’ll just handle that selection and not go too crazy by diving into the later rounds.

“Buffalo selects Nicolas Hague.”

While Henri Jokiharju was tempting for the sake of parody, Murray wouldn’t have been able to resist Hague. At 6-foot-6-inches, he’s the type of redwood tree Murray always seemed to covet on the back end. He feels that he has enough young transition pieces in Guhle, Vatanen and Antipin to justify taking another defensive giant.

Unrestricted Free Agency

This is the section where I really wanted to hone-in on Murray’s player acquisition tendencies, specifically at forward. Murray’s love for “big guys” is oversimplified, but not incorrect. What he really liked were big bodied player who could contribute on offense, especially in the top-six. These players also had a tendency to post lackluster defensive impacts to go with their offensive numbers.

To put it simply, Murray let his shutdown forward line, and his blueliners worry about defending. With that in mind, which of the 2017 UFA options would Murray have targeted to fill his void at third-line center? In examining the metrics for every player on the list, one player in particular stood out and checked the most boxes as a type of player Murray would have had his eye on.

MARTIN HANZAL

At 6-foot-6-inches, Hanzal was a very strong, physical player in his prime. He also put up points and had slightly above average defensive impacts, which Murray would have liked for a bottom-six player.

Here’s the problem – Hanzal is in relatively high demand and Terry Pegula isn’t keen on Murray making long-term contract offers in his last-ditch effort to compete. Murray finds himself competing with the Dallas Stars for Hanzal’s services. Fortunately, the Stars finished just one point ahead of the Sabres in 2016-17, so for Hanzal, the deal will come down to simple dollars and cents.

Dallas has an offer of 3-years, $4.75 million AAV on the table. The price is steep, but Murray feels strongly about adding this player. After consulting with ownership, they agree to beat that figure with a 3-year, $4.9 million AAV offer of their own, which Hanzal accepts.

Brian Elliott

Murray gets his man, but has spent a hefty chunk of his free-agency “allowance”. He kicks the tires on free agent wingers like Radim Vrbata and Justin Williams (two players that closely fit the Murray mold, by my estimation), but the market prices were simply too great.

Instead, Murray shifts his focus to his vacant netminder position. Though the knowledge isn’t public at this point, he knows that Robin Lehner is going through some personal strife. For that reason, he wants a veteran netminder to serve as the 1-B option and take some of the heat off Lehner.

While Brian Elliott isn’t the typical behemoth netminder that Murray seemed to target (see Lehner, Anders Nilsson, and Anders Lindback), he is a steady veteran who could assume starting responsibilities. He’s still decently tall at 6-foot-3-inches.

Elliott is used to being a rotational starter and sees a fit (and potential for opportunity) in Buffalo. The Philadelphia Flyers are also very interested, but Elliott believes that he’d get more playing opportunities behind Lehner than he would serving as Michael Neuvirth’s backup. The Sabres match the Flyers offer of two-years, $2.75 million AAV.

Victor Antipin

Despite the fact that Murray was fired by the time the Sabres actually signed Antipin, his staff was the one that scouted and courted his services from the KHL. All Jason Botterill really did in this situation was sign the dotted line.

For that reason, this is a pretty easy and logical add for an exercise where we’re trying to anticipate what Murray’s moves would have been. This one was essentially a certainty, especially in a scenario where he was retained. We’ll keep the dollar figures the same and assume Murray signed the 25-year-old to a one-year deal worth $925,000 AAV.

Circling Back

We’re a few hours into the start of free-agency, and Murray still feels uneasy about his situation on the wing. His free-agent prospects were too expensive, and he finds himself in a tough spot. He places another call to Dorion.

Murray decides to make an offer for Bobby Ryan. He proposes a swap of “bad contracts” which would send Ryan to Buffalo and Matt Moulson to Ottawa. Despite their similar base scoring stats, Dorion balks at the offer, claiming he’d need a future piece in addition to Moulson in order to make it work.

Murray abstains from adding anything of consequence, and instead tries to find a more cost-effective option. He has heard rumblings that the Nashville Predators are shopping veteran winger, Colin Wilson. The 28-year-old is coming off a very strong season, posting 35 points in 70 games.

Murray learns that the best offer David Poile has received is a fourth-round pick in 2019. He offers the Sabres’ fourth-rounder in 2018 and seals the deal. While Wilson isn’t the top-line caliber winger Murray was hoping to acquire, he simply didn’t have the future assets to part with in order to land a bigger fish. Still, he believes that Wilson’s physicality and two-way ability and playoff experience will come in handy.

Another Cap Update

With free-agency now in the books, let’s take one last look at the Sabres’ cap situation as Murray sets his sights on RFA extensions.

As you can see, Murray has a little more than $11 million in cap space remaining to sign restricted free-agents Marcus Foligno, Zemgus Girgensons, Evan Rodrigues, and Robin Lehner. Stay tuned for the third and final part of this mini-series where we determine their values, set the Sabres’ opening night lineup, and project where Murray’s renovated squad would finish in the standings.

Data via: JFresh and Cap Friendly

Photo Credit: Norm Hall/NHLI via Getty Images