By Antoine Mathieu, Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

QUEBEC CITY, QC. — Today, I reveal my final team in the Eastern Conference.

1. Tampa Bay Lightning
2. Columbus Blue Jackets
3. Boston Bruins
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. New York Rangers
6. Montreal Canadiens
7. New Jersey Devils
8. Washington Capitals
9. Toronto Maple Leafs
10. Philadelphia Flyers
11. Detroit Red Wings
12. New York Islanders
13. Florida Panthers
14. Ottawa Senators
15. Carolina Hurricanes
16. Buffalo Sabres

2013-’14 summary: Buffalo Sabres

Regular season record of 21 – 51 – 10, 52 points, 16th East, missed the playoffs.

The Sabres are in a complete rebuild and will have the chance to restock their prospect pool in an absurd way. In the last three drafts, the Sabres have made five selections in the first round (including two top 10 picks) and have drafted a total of 16 times in the first three rounds. That’s not all though, at the upcoming draft, the Sabres will have the Islanders’ first and second round picks. It is also a possibility that Buffalo will deal Drew Stafford, Chris Stewart and Andrej Meszaros (all three of them are UFAs next season) at the trade deadline for picks or prospects.

Obviously not of all these players will work out, but by drafting so many times, a team definitely put the odds in their favor. Based on a study by Peter Tingling, a professor at Simon Fraser University:

• A top-10 pick works out 88 per cent of the time.
• An 11-to-30 pick works out about 65 per cent of the time.
• A pick in rounds 2 and 3 works out about 22 per cent of the time.

Some of them will be busts but some of them will pan out, that’s just the nature of drafting. Considering that this study was done based on drafts from over a decade ago, I’d like to think that teams are less likely to draft a complete bust with today’s technology and access to information. It would have been unheard of back then to be able to communicate to scouts on a personal basis via social media or to have access to CHL/SHL/KHL/NCAA/USHL games at the tip of your fingers.

But as we’re witnessing with the Edmonton Oilers, ‘tanking’ for many years to get the most coveted prospect is not a fool-proof plan. You have to surround those young players with quality veterans who will mentor them. Jim Vandermeer, Eric Belanger, Ben Eager, Andy Sutton, Darcy Hordichuk and a washed up Ryan Smyth don’t fit the profile in my books. The Oilers took many years to understand that concept and seem to finally ‘get’ it with their recent moves. The Sabres can learn from other team’s mistakes and stock up on quality veterans! And that’s what they did this summer by surrounding their prospects with reliable vets via trade or free agency.

Buffalo acquired former Montreal Canadiens players in Brian Gionta and Josh Gorges. They also signed Matt Moulson to provide some scoring. The Sabres also handed one-year deals to Andre Benoit and Andrej Meszaros who will both act as stop gaps for their young defenders. I think that 24CH showcased Gorges’ leadership and the mindset he brings to a locker room. His spirited nature and his presence in the dressing room will be felt every game. He will make sure to motivate his troops and that the youngsters are following his example on the ice. Gionta as a former captain will automatically get the respect and attention of the players whenever he speaks.

With the buyouts of Christian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino, the Sabres closed the final chapter of the Darcy Regier era. Ehrhoff could have remained a solid contributor down the road but with the surplus of defenders but the management probably didn’t want to deal with the recapture penalty if would have had to trade him a couple years from now. Leino on the other hand is good riddance, in his stint with Buffalo, he only scored 10 goals in 137. He can thank Daniel Brière for that big fat contract!

The Tim Murray regime has been promising thus far and the Sabres should have a very competitive team for years to come, they just have to stay patient. With Tyler Myers getting back on the right track this season; Buffalo should have one of the league’s top defenses in upcoming years with the likes of Rasmus Ristolainen, Nikita Zadorov, Jake McCabe, Mark Pysyk and Chad Ruhwedel. All the Sabres need now is a blue chip prospect in net and they should be set for the future.

That’s without mentioning upcoming players like Sam Reinhart, Mikhail Grigorenko, Zemgus Girgensons, J.T. Compher, Brendan Lemieux, Nick Baptiste, Nicolas Deslauriers and Connor Hurley. Add those prospects to their current crop of NHL’ers like Tyler Ennis, Marcus Foligno and Cody Hodgson. The Sabres have a great variety of prospects who could make their roster and play all sorts of different roles for them.

The Sabres are a marginally better than they were last year (a full year of Ted Nolan behind the bench, a better group offensively but also a team that got worse defensively and in net) but that team is still arguably the worst in the league. Drafting Connor McDavid would add that final piece the Sabres need in their rebuild. That being said, I can’t even imagine how life-long Sabres fans are feeling with this rebuild but keep in mind this is for the better, your time will come!

Quick facts about Buffalo:

They haven’t made the playoffs since 2011.

Last season, they had the fewest goals for in the league.

The Sabres only had 14 wins in regulation and overtime which makes their record even worse than it actually looks.