Jason Botterill will return for his fourth season as Buffalo Sabres general manager, president and co-owner Kim Pegula told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
“He’s our GM. Our plan is to continue with him,” Pegula said.
The Sabres (30-31-8) finished 13th in the Eastern Conference. They’re 88-115-30 since Botterill was hired May 11, 2017. They will not qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, extending the longest active streak in the NHL to nine seasons, after not making the Eastern Conference Qualifying Round as part of the NHL Return to Play Plan announced Tuesday.
The Sabres have the seventh-best odds (6.5 percent) to win the NHL Draft Lottery and the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. The First Phase of the draft lottery, which includes the seven teams that missed the postseason, will be held June 26.
“I realize, maybe it’s not popular with the fans, but we have to do the things that we feel are right,” Pegula said. “We have a little bit more information than maybe a fan does, some inner workings that we see some positives in.
“Believe me, I don’t think anyone knows the frustrations more than [co-owner] Terry [Pegula] and I do. Coach (Ralph Krueger) and Jason know they’ve got to show not only us, but they’ve got to show it to the fans. And they know that. They understand that.”
The Montreal Canadiens (31-31-9) clinched the final Qualifying Round berth in the East with a .500 point percentage ahead of the Sabres, whose .493 point percentage was their best since 2015-16.
“Listen, we should’ve won another game or two back in the day. We didn’t,” Kim Pegula said. “So that’s no fault of any other club. That’s on us.”
The Sabres started 8-1-1 and were 16-11-6, second in the Atlantic Division, following a 4-3 win against the Nashville Predators on Dec. 12.
Center Jack Eichel led the Sabres with 78 points and was eighth in the NHL with 36 goals. He scored 31 points (16 goals, 15 assists) during an NHL season-high 17-game point streak Nov. 16-Dec. 17. Rookie forward Victor Olofsson scored 20 goals despite missing 15 games with an ankle injury. Goalie Linus Ullmark won an NHL career-high 17 games.
But it wasn’t enough. Buffalo went 1-6-1 in its next eight games after Dec. 12 and was 1-6-0 in its final seven games before the season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.
“This isn’t how any of us envisioned our 50th season coming to a close,” the Sabres said in a statement. “Our promise to Sabres fans is that we will come back stronger as a team and as a community. We cannot thank you enough for your loyalty. We can’t wait to get back on the ice.”
(From a report on NHL.com) (Photo by Janet Schultz)
