Sabres Could/Should Look Towards New Future With Dudley. Rumor has it... January 19, 2012, 1:08 PM ET [286 Comments] Eklund

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So let's start today with a bit of a rant, based on a rumor I heard last night that I believe could really "right the ship" in Buffalo...



I can't even tell you how many emails and tweets I get from Sabres fans looking for change right now. I have written back to quite a few, but I thought I would takes today's first blog to sort of answer all of you en masse. It was almost a year ago that Pegula took this team over in a Press Conference that was downright game changing in Buffalo. Pegs is the perfect owner for this team and at the presser he made promises which he has kept. He has spent more money, been way more aggressive, and put a better team (on paper) onto the Sabres bench.



Yet the results aren't there. I spent New Years Eve with a Sabres fan and we talked for a good hour about the team. I love talking to Sabres fans because the passion is always the same. Sabres fans can be frustrated but they are never apathetic. There is something about the region that makes them hopeful even when the team fails to show up to the first half of the season. I told my buddy I was hopeful too... that all your scorers rarely go cold at the same time, and with Miller... the team just needed to keep it close. They will get hot and a run will come.



The most ridiculous rumor I have ever heard was the one circulating yesterday of Ryan Miller asking for a trade. Miller would NEVER ask for a trade. He is all about winning and only about winning in Buffalo. You would be hard pressed to find a player more loyal or would be more insulted at such a rumor.



Unfortunately the moves made this summer, while all individually strong, have not yielded the chemistry needed and despite my admiration for Darcy I really believe the time has come for a different architect in Buffalo, and as I have told many of you in emails...the answer lives right I your town.



On Rick Dudley...



It's rare you will find a better fit for a team than Dudley and these Sabres. Dudley is a Buffalo guy through and through...still lives and keeps his family in Buffalo since his playing days...



Dudley is currently on the Leafs staff, yet league-wide you'd be hard-pressed to find a more highly regarded talent evaluator/team chemistry builder. There isn't a GM (working or unemployed) who has been more directly responsible for building two distinctly different successful Cup winning teams, and if Pegula is to stick to his promised Cup goal.... it is time to make that a reality.



Dudley built the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning championship team and the 2010 Chicago Blackhawk Stanley Cup team. Period. Yes, there were some twists and he had some help, but ask anyone in hockey who built those teams and the answer is Dudley. He also cleaned up the mess in Atlanta and built the framework of the play-off-contending Winnipeg...and he did it in one year!



Consider that when Tampa Bay won their Cup, only four players on the team were not there when Dudley left the year before... Stillman, Fedotenko, Dingman, and Sydor.... he signed Marty St. Louis as a free agent when no one wanted him and acquired Dan Boyle for a 5th round draft pick...He also hired the coaching staff led by John Tortorella who had no NHL head coaching experience. The first to give Torts a shot.



In Chicago, he served as the architect under Dale Tallon, and was big in drafting a Buffalo area kid he knew well in Patrick Kane number 1 over Turris and van Riemsdyk. It looks like a slam dunk in hindsight, but I was at that draft and many were questioning if Kane was big enough to be the #1 pick....right up to until the final seconds.. He was instrumental in drafting Toews over Backstrom as well.. He then stole Patrick Sharp from the Flyers for the infamous Matt Ellison, and somehow managed to get Versteeg and Havlat for a song....he also signed Niemi...



In fact, not one player on the Stanley Cup-winning team had been there when Dudley arrived in Chicago – they completely rebuilt the ENTIRE TEAM. When the Blackhawks won the Cup, every single player dressed, except Nick Boynton, was a holdover from Tallon and Dudley.... the entire team the night Chicago won the Cup – was acquired by Dudley/Tallon.



In the past I have been hard on the new Hawks management and have on multiple occasions tried to show how Tallon and Dudley deserved much more credit for the Cup winning team. Both were fired and yet no changes were made and the Hawks won a Cup. Many others have given credit to Tallon and Dudley as well for what happened in Chicago, but when I watched the Hawks raise the Cup I felt for these guys. Good guys. Great Hockey guys. I do remember Jonathan Toews taking time out to thank them both, showing the class and maturity Toews always shows.



It is easy to understand how Brian Burke acted immediately this summer when Dudley became available. He has experience operating on budget (Florida/Tampa) and with a cap payroll (Chicago).



Terry Pegula has the perfect hockey guy in his own backyard to make the transformation from old to new complete, and on top of his track record when you consider the other Buffalo-synergies it becomes a slam-dunk, no-brainer. He has won and he has a history with the Sabres as a player and coach. He lives in Buffalo, knows the fans and the culture, and he is loved in the Buffalo hockey community.



Anyway, that's my rant for the day. Sabres fans deserve more than this, and the prospect of Dudley as Sabres GM are as intriguing as the prospects of Pegula as owner were a year ago.



Rumor Update Coming Up...