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Sabres GM Murray cared not for salary floor, makes big first-day splash

Tim Murray

Buffalo Sabres general manager Tim Murray talks about the NHL hockey draft during a news conference at First Niagara Center in Buffalo, N.Y., on Thursday, June 19, 2014. (AP Photo/The Buffalo News, John Hickey) TV OUT; MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT; BATAVIA DAILY NEWS OUT; DUNKIRK OBSERVER OUT; JAMESTOWN POST-JOURNAL OUT; LOCKPORT UNION-SUN JOURNAL OUT; NIAGARA GAZETTE OUT; OLEAN TIMES-HERALD OUT; SALAMANCA PRESS OUT; TONAWANDA NEWS OUT

AP

BUFFALO -- Tim Murray told everyone all along he wasn’t concerned about the salary floor and after the first day of free agency, he was happy to remind everyone exactly why he wasn’t.

“You guys always asked about the floor which I never understood, but anyway,” Murray said before opening his end-of-day press conference at First Niagara Center. “I said earlier, it’s always easy to spend money. You guys just didn’t have faith that Buffalo was a destination, that’s all.”

Buffalo a destination? With the team that finished 30th in the league last season? You better believe it.

In one day, Murray went on a bonanza. He signed Montreal Canadiens captain Brian Gionta to a three-year, $12.75 million deal, acquired defenseman Josh Gorges from the Habs for a 2016 second-round pick, brought back two former players in Cody McCormick and Matt Moulson, the latter on a five-year, $25 million deal, landed defenseman Andrej Meszaros from Boston on a one-year, $4.125 million deal as well as re-signing forward Marcus Foligno to a two-year deal.

Phew. While that might seem like a scramble to help the team reach the salary floor, which according to CapGeek they have, Murray had another motivation -- establishing Buffalo as a destination for the future.

“I think our kids are sitting at home going, ‘Wow,’” Murray said. “They know these players. They watch the National Hockey League. They know the quality of the player, they know the quality of the person, they know the character. This is as excited as they are to get drafted by Buffalo in the last couple years. They know it’s a team that is not there. We can say it’s a team on the rise - people have to see that. I just think there’s some kids at home going, ‘This is great’.”

Part of what will help those young Sabres players like 2014 first-round pick Sam Reinhart, 2013 first-round picks Rasmus Ristolainen and Nikita Zadorov, and 2012 first-round picks Mikhail Grigorenko and Zemgus Girgensons is the kind of veteran leadership this new crew of Sabres will provide.

“We’re more competitive,” Murray said. “We’ve got a lot of character now. We have leadership now. That’s important to me when you’re adding young players every year. There’s a short-term and a long-term. The long-term is that your young players get better. Your young players become pros. They’re not just good players, they’re good NHL players and I think that this group of people that we’ve added today can help in that regard.”

Before you get too excited, Murray admitted they’re a long way off still, but they’re a better team. That doesn’t mean he’s not excited for what’s to come though.

“People can get on the bandwagon early or get on late, it really doesn’t matter,” Murray said. “But if you want to be more right than you are wrong... I don’t want to sound cocky, but get on a little earlier than you might have thought because this is serious stuff. We take the job seriously, we prepare seriously.”

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