Tim Murray General Manager Tenure

Lore & Background

The Sabres have twice advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in 1975 and to the Dallas Stars in 1999. The Sabres, along with the Canucks, are the oldest active NHL franchises to have never won the Stanley Cup. The Sabres held the NHL record longest playoff drought in the NHL at 11 seasons, which occurred between the 2010–11 and 2022–23 seasons.

In Their Own Story

The draft room hummed with quiet tension as the clock ticked down. Tim Murray sat at the head of the table, surrounded by scouts and executives who knew what was at stake. The phone rang, signaling the league office had finalized the order. He looked at the board where Rasmus Dahlin's name was written in bold marker. With a steady hand, he reached for the phone to accept the pick that would define his legacy.

Reader's Guide

The Sabres' debut in 1970 also coincided with the AFL–NFL merger in which the Buffalo Bills joined the National Football League, and the National Basketball Association's Buffalo Braves also began to play. The city of Buffalo went from having no teams in the established major professional sports leagues to three in one off-season. Between the Braves and the Sabres, the Sabres would prove to be by far the more successful of the two.

Did You Know?

• The Sabres' first owners were Seymour H. Knox III and Northrup Knox, grandsons of the co-founders of the Woolworth's variety store chain.
• The team's name 'Sabres' was chosen from a name-the-team contest; Seymour Knox felt a saber was a weapon carried by a leader.
• The Sabres won the first pick in the 1970 NHL amateur draft by a spin of a wheel, selecting Gilbert Perreault.
• The French Connection line of Perreault, Rick Martin, and Rene Robert was named after the movie and their French-Canadian roots.
• During the 1975 Stanley Cup Final, Sabres center Jim Lorentz killed a bat flying across the rink during the Fog Game.