It's been hard to find any light at the end of the tunnel with the 2019-20 Buffalo Sabres season, but one man that always is able to find a positive spin on anything is NBCSN's Pierre McGuire.
With the Sabres playing the Detroit Red Wings on NBCSN on Thursday night, McGuire took a few minutes before the game to talk with Mike Schopp and the Bulldog on WGR.
Here is some of what he had to say:
"I think they're going to move some players out. [The management team] has a real firm hand on all this. I'll tell you this right now, these guys are unbelievably well prepared as a management team. They're amazingly well prepared as a scouting staff. [Assistant general manager] Steve Greeley is in Finland and Sweden right now scouting. Randy Sexton, their other assistant general manager, just spent four days scouting in Boston and he's back for the game tonight. He'll go back on the road. Jason Botterill is all over the place. These guys are really in tune with what's going on around the league, and that side of the league.
"I really believe Buffalo will be active. I don't think they're going to bring back bodies, I think they're going to bring back prospects and draft picks, and I can tell you right now that this draft this summer is very deep at the skill positions and very deep at the character positions. It's very, very deep as a character draft."
"They're having some success in Rochester. They've got some really good players developing in Rochester. Casey Mittelstadt is starting to find his way, which is really important. If you were to ask me three things that ail the Sabres, one [is a] lack of depth down the middle. So I think Casey Mittelstadt will start to elevate his game next year. [They also have a] lack of depth on defense. They've got some guys like Will Borgen being developed down there, [Jacob] Bryson is being developed down there, Casey Fitzgerald is developing down there. So they've got some players developing down in Rochester. People talk about goaltending, they've got [Ukko-Pekka] Luukkonen developing down there as well. So the long-term situation for Buffalo, I know people want it right now, but it's setting up really well."
"One of the best parts about Buffalo is the passion of their fan base... I love this market. I've been coming here a long time. I didn't like it so much when my Hartford Whalers were getting destroyed by your Pat LaFontaine, Alexander Mogilny, Dave Hawerchuk Buffalo Sabres at the 'Old Aud', but I love coming here because this is a hockey market. One of the reasons that it endears me to Buffalo coming here is: these are real fans that pay their own money to go to the games because they love the team. They love the team. There's not a lot of cities in the league that have that."
"For the fans out there listening that really want the positive truth, I do think this thing is going to get turned around. I truly honestly believe it."
You can listen to the entire interview below: