Roth: It was only right that Sabres GM Botterill got to party with the Pens

Leo Roth | Democrat and Chronicle

Show Caption Hide Caption Ex-Amerk Botterill names Sabre GM Jason Botterill, 40, was named the Buffalo Sabres new GM Thursday to replace the fired Tim Murray. (File video 2017)

You’re a high-ranking executive with a company that makes widgets.

You do your job so well that the company is named Widget Maker of the Year. But before the awards dinner, you go and jump ship to a rival widget maker.

Still, your old bosses think so highly of you, they invite you back to celebrate with your former colleagues and take your share of credit.

Sound like the real world? Hardly.

But to prove the Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t your average organization and that Jason Botterill isn’t your average guy in a suit, Botterill, hired as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres a month ago, got to share in the joy of the Penguins second consecutive Stanley Cup championship celebration on Sunday.

At the invitation of Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford, Botterill, Rutherford’s former right-hand man, was invited to Game 6 against the Predators in Nashville and flew on the team’s family charter. After the Cup-clinching 2-0 victory, he was on the ice sharing hugs and posing in the team picture.

You’re more likely to see a Zamboni fly than to witness a sitting GM of another team welcomed back into the fold like this. But it speaks volumes as to how much Botterill is respected by the Penguins and how much his work over 10 seasons was appreciated.

To the classy five-time champions it was only right that Botterill got to revel in the moment and the Sabres were classy enough to understand. By all means he could be a Penguin again for one day as long as the former Amerks winger would be working on restoring Buffalo and Rochester to professional hockey relevancy the other 364.

"It's just great for 'Bots,' ’’ Pens coach Mike Sullivan told Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News. "His fingerprints are all over this team and this organization. He's such a great person, works extremely hard. He's a very prepared guy. I'm thrilled for Bots. No. 1, he gets to be a part of a Stanley Cup again and also because of the opportunity he's been given in Buffalo. I know he's going to do a terrific job."

If it’s half as good as what he did in Pittsburgh the Sabres will be happy.

After he hires coaches for the Sabres and Amerks, moves that are imminent, Botterill can focus on the NHL draft June 23-24 and rebuilding the organization’s farm system that is utterly broken.

To think that in 1998-99 the Sabres and Amerks made it to the Stanley Cup and Calder Cup finals. Today, both teams can’t remember what it feels like just to make the playoffs.

Pittsburgh and its AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton sure do. Here the farm system hums with 15 consecutive post-season runs by the Baby Pens begetting 11 consecutive playoff seasons with three titles, one finals loss and one conference finals loss by the big club.

Yes, Pittsburgh is blessed to have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, one of the great scoring duos in NHL history. Yes, it has the means to make blockbuster deals like the one for Phil Kessel. But it takes a 25-man roster to win a Stanley Cup, namely young, homegrown, affordable players that make a difference while making it possible to fit superstars under the salary cap.

That’s where Botterill came in.

In addition to being assistant GM in Pittsburgh where he did everything but park cars, he was GM of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, procuring talent and developing it. Of the 39 players that suited up for Pittsburgh this past season, 27 played in the AHL including 15 for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton under Botterill.

These include eight players who were major contributors to the Penguins’ gritty Cup run that included Game 7 victories over Washington and Ottawa: Goalie Matt Murray, defenseman Brian Dumoulin, and forwards Jake Guentzel, Conor Sheary, Scott Wilson, Bryan Rust, Tom Kuhnhackl and Carter Rowney.

Murray, 22, was 7-3 in the playoffs with a 1.70 goals against average and Dumoulin, 25, a second-round pick in 2009 by Carolina who was obtained in a trade before he ever suited up for the Hurricanes, logged an average of 21:59 of ice time, most among Penguins defensemen in the post-season.

As for the forwards in this group, each averaged anywhere from 11:36 to 17:30 of ice time and contributed a total of 48 points, led by Guentzel’s team-best 13 goals. Guentzel, 22, who hails from the hockey hotbed of Nebraska, was a third-round pick in 2012 out of Nebraska-Omaha. He tallied 48 points in just 44 AHL games and was promptly promoted.

“It's hard to explain in words what that ‘it’ is, but you know it when you see it, and I think Jake is one of those guys,’’ said Sullivan, who also spent time in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton rebuilding his résumé. “He's got that IT. No stage is too big.’’

The Sabres need more “it’’ players.

More Guentzels. More Murrays. More Kuhnhackls and Rowneys, a fourth-rounder and an undrafted player, respectively, who worked their way up from the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers to put their hands on the Stanley Cup.

Most of these players earn around $700,000 a year, which in the NHL world is a middle-class job and a house in the suburbs, allowing the Pens to pay a half-dozen penthouse owners more than $4 million each annually and Malkin and Crosby around $9 million and $10 million.

"To think where the organization was even a couple years ago, having some success but finding challenges keeping it from getting over the hump in big games, is something,’’ Botterill said. “Then you look at this year. Look at what guys did. … It's fun to see so many of these guys come through this system. Our pro scouts feel good about it, our amateur scouts feel good, our development staff. It's amazing how the whole thing came together."

For too long, the Sabres/Amerks have painted a picture of a system impossible to work with. But with back-to-back titles for the first time in the NHL in nearly 20 years, the Penguins proved the system works.

Botterill deserved one more day with the dynasty he helped build, but he's focused for good now on Buffalo. A widget company still yearning for a Stanley Cup.