Let’s start this report by acknowledging the following rumor seems like a very huge piece of potential news that only a couple of people have heard about. With that in mind, we’ll call it water cooler chatter for now. Still, it could be something worth listening for down the road. Why? Well, the fact that former NHL general manager Doug MacLean found it worthy enough of a rumor to strike up the conversation with Nick Kypreos on a recent episode of the Kyper at Noon podcast means he’s not sure if there’s something to it or not. He wanted to see if his buddy was hearing the same information.
Anyways, the rumor seems to be that a friend of former Columbus Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella is interested in talking to the Pegulas about potentially buying the Buffalo Sabres. It wasn’t made clear if Torts was a part of the ownership group that might be making a pitch or if he was potentially being pegged to coach if a new ownership group took over, but MacLean heard from a source that there might be sale conversations going on.
MacLean said, “Listen, here’s what I heard. As they say in P.E.I. I’m not telling you it’s the truth I’m just telling you what I’ve heard. Somebody mentioned to me that a friend of John Tortorella’s is trying to buy the Buffalo Sabres.” He then asked Kypreos if he’d heard anything and Kypreos said no, but also said, “Have I heard that the Pegula’s don’t love the Sabres as much as they love the Bills? Yes.”
Does the fact the Pegulas might be fed up with how things have gone from bad to worse in Buffalo mean they want out? Probably not. But, could they be open to the idea of another ownership group buying them out so they can focus on the team they actually love? Who knows.
It’s a bit of chatter that comes out of left field as the world is talking about all the moves the Sabres are going to need to make this offseason. Everyone is focused on the potential trade of Jack Eichel and possibly Sam Reinhart and/or Rasmus Ristolainen. This is the first we’ve heard of any chatter the Pegulas might be done with the NHL and ready to move on.
Trust us when we say, there would a lot of happy people in the NHL if a different ownership group was trying to turn that franchise around.
Would Tortorella Even Work in Buffalo?
The conversation then moved to whether or not Sabres’ GM Kevyn Adams would hire Torts as a coach and neither MacLean nor Kypreos thought so. But, MacLean said he’d have a much better shot at the job if his buddy is buying the team.
Both men also noted that the Sabres might need a coach like Tortorella in there to give the Sabres the shakeup they desperately crave. MacLean said, “The problem with Torts is the carnage that goes along with it.” Can there be much more of mess in that organization than there already is?
The video of the conversation is below:
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