The Buffalo Sabres may have taken a big step toward becoming a playoff team when it acquired Kyle Okposo via free agency, but the organization’s rebuild officially entered the final stage in the summer of 2015.
First, it was during the 2015 NHL Entry Draft that the Sabres drafted Jack Eichel, who looks like a lock to become a 70+ points-per-season player for a long, long time. As huge as drafting Eichel was, however, the Sabres arguably picked up an even more valuable player when they traded Mikhail Grigorenko and Nikita Zadorov to Colorado for the service of Ryan O’Reilly.