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Boy howdy, the Buffalo Sabres are bad.

But this is not by accident. The next NHL draft class is led by two great talents in Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel. Buffalo general manager Tim Murray determined as soon as he got the job last year that the best way for his team to rebuild was to do the rebuilding around one or the other. McDavid and Eichel have held up their parts of the deal: Eichel is first in points per game in the NCAA, where he plays for Boston University, despite being only a freshman. McDavid, at 18 years old, leads the Ontario Hockey League in points per game, with 72 in 28 contests. He was also a holy terror on the ice at the world junior championship for Team Canada, despite coming into that elite tournament off a five-week injury layoff.

In pursuit of them, Murray is conducting a master class in tanking. The roster is loaded with youngsters like 21-year-old centre Zemgus Girgensons and 20-year-old defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen, with just enough high-dollar veterans to keep the team above the league’s salary floor. Brian Gionta signed a three-year deal worth almost $13-million in the off-season and was given the ‘C’ as Buffalo’s captain. He should have a ‘B’ on there, for ballast.

The question is whether all of the Sabres’ corporal self-punishment will be worth it. The NHL adjusted its draft-lottery odds in the off-season, so the worst team will have only a 20 per cent shot at the top pick, down from 25 per cent. That team will get no worse than the second pick, which with the McDavid-Eichel combo is a fine safety net. The road seems clear then: tank away. But even with Buffalo’s historic awfulness, the team hasn’t quite salted away the desired 30th-place finish. With 32 games to go, the Sabres were six points back of Edmonton and nine points back of Carolina. That puts Buffalo comfortably in the cellar, but 32 games is a lot, and the players aren’t trying to lose. “We’re in the business of winning,” defenceman Josh Gorges (alternate ballast) told reporters in Montreal this week. “When you’re not doing it, you feel like you’re not doing your job.”