Botterill braced for pressure of returning as Sabres general manager

Jason Botterill is moving ahead as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres and knows preparing for his fourth season will be another challenge.

The Sabres (30-31-8) finished 13th in the Eastern Conference and are 88-115-30 since Botterill was hired May 11, 2017. They will miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs, extending the longest active streak in the NHL to nine seasons, after not making the Eastern Conference Qualifying Round as part of the NHL Return to Play Plan announced Tuesday.

"I think there's always pressure with this position," Botterill said Wednesday. "I know how hard our players are working and how hard our coaches are working. I want them to have success out on the ice."

Buffalo has the seventh-best odds (6.5 percent) to win the NHL Draft Lottery and the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. The First Phase of the lottery, which includes the seven teams that had their seasons end, will be held June 26.

Sabres president and co-owner Kim Pegula told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Botterill would return as GM.

"My responsibility's not going to change," Botterill said. "I have to continue to build this organization to be strong at all levels ... whether it's goaltending, defense, forwards. It's imperative that we get stronger in these spots. I think we're on the path to doing that, but it's important that continues to grow however long this offseason is. ... We'll see what's available from a free agency standpoint, see what's available from a trade standpoint, where that we feel at least comfortable we've put ourselves in a position to have a stronger team for next year."

Finding more offense is crucial. Buffalo was 21st in the NHL with an average of 2.80 goals per game. After Jack Eichel (36 goals), Sam Reinhart (22) and Victor Olofsson (20), no other Sabres player scored more than 15.

Botterill said one option could be giving larger roles to some of the top forward prospects, among them 19-year-old center Dylan Cozens, the No. 7 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. He scored 85 points (38 goals, 47 assists) in 51 games for Lethbridge of the Western Hockey League.

"For us to make another step and be in the playoff mix, it's going to be imperative we find more scorers in our group here and have a development of young players such as Casey Mittelstadt, Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens," Botterill said. "But it's also going to be something that we continue to look at, whether it's through free agency or through trades, the availability of different forwards to add to our mix here.

"We have to do a better job of creating more offense throughout our four lines, of having more depth scoring throughout the entire lineup. As a GM, I have to give our coach Ralph Krueger the ability to change different lines up, to have more depth through his four groups."

Botterill also expects Jeff Skinner to rebound next season. The forward scored 14 goals in 59 games after scoring an NHL career-high 40 goals in 2018-19 and signed an eight-year, $72-million contract ($9 million average annual value) June 7, 2019.

"What gives us confidence moving forward here is we felt he had a lot of chances this past year," Botterill said. "It wasn't as if he wasn't getting those chances or getting those opportunities. He did. The fact that he was still getting those chances gives us a lot of hope that the production's going to come back next year."

Improved special teams play also will be a focus. The Sabres were 30th in the NHL on the penalty kill at 74.6 percent and 20th on the power play at 18.9 percent.

"Our penalty killing has to be better next year," Botterill said. "We showed it the previous year, that we could be (12th at 80.9 percent in 2018-19). And then the other part too is our power play. We showed at the start of the year we could be a top-five, top-10 power play. With the skill that we certainly have in our lineup, there's no reason we shouldn't be in the top 10 on the power play. So to me, special teams is a huge area where we need to improve next year."