There is one NHL team, whose owner is a colleague of Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill, that can teach him a lot about building an eventual winner.
While the team in question is not yet a winner, they are the youngest team in a league where many pundits are projecting to be one of the NHL’s better teams in the foreseeable future.
As a follower of that team, I’ve seen firsthand the sheer improvements from Year 1 to what is now Year 3 in what has been a massive rebuild and organizational overhaul. And while the Coyotes actually beat them just a few short days ago, this team, even when they lose some games, has given their fanbase a lot of optimism.
That team is the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, and when you conduct a quick look in the search engines, you will also find that many also consider their “scary good” prospects pool (virtually backups and developing players) to also be among the league’s best, if not the best.
So, what can the Bidwills learn from the Pegula-owned and operated franchise in Western New York? A lot, actually.
Lesson #1 – Hire a coach with a good track record in developing young talent
Yes, that’s Bruce Arians in the picture and no, he is not coming back to the sidelines. But Arians had a remarkable run with the Indianapolis Colts in 2012 with a rookie quarterback in Andrew Luck. And that 9-3 run led the supposedly downtrodden Colts to the playoffs and Arians a head coaching job in the desert. Arians also helped develop quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger. That said, the Cardinals need to find their next Bruce Arians.
While you can make the argument Kliff Kingsbury fit the bill in coaching young talent, as he coached Patrick Mahomes in college, he was never quite as successful in doing so as Sabres head coach Don Granato. The latter of whom has had extensive experience in developing young players throughout his coaching career.
Since the Sabres knew they were going to overhaul their roster with young talent while sprinkling in the occasional veteran, they needed a coach who could turn draft picks into NHL stars. So far, Granato has saved the careers of Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, both of whom are now franchise cornerstones.
He also helped revitalize veterans like Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo, and is even soundly developing young talent like Dylan Cozens, J.J. Peterka, Rasmus Asplund, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson, and so many others.
For the Arizona Cardinals, this would mean hiring a coach that worked for a team that managed to rebuild itself into contenders through sheer youth. An assistant coach would fit the bill here, or if they find someone with previous head coaching experience, then it’s an added bonus. Like I said, they need to find their next Bruce Arians.
Lesson #2 – Hire a general manager intent on building through the draft
Kevin Colbert is also not coming to the Arizona Cardinals, but the organization must find their own, personal Kevin Colbert. Who is Kevin Colbert? The architect behind many great Pittsburgh Steelers teams that he built predominantly through the draft. Because of this mentality, Colbert shares many similarities to Buffalo Sabres general manager, Kevyn Adams.
I recently wrote an article exploring a potential trade of star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. While such an article would raise eyebrows, we need to remember that Hopkins will be 31 next season and he isn’t getting any younger. 2023 will also be his 11th year in the NFL, and his production, sooner than later, is going to start fading.
Trading a blue chip 11-year veteran like Hopkins and/or other aging yet productive talent like Zach Ertz would let the Arizona Cardinals stockpile draft picks, something the Sabres were able to when they traded the likes of Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel. Of course, they snagged a few high-end prospects too, like Peyton Krebs and Devon Levi.
Hiring a general manager with such a mentality would be counterintuitive in the short run. But long-term, the Cardinals would benefit since they would also have a coach and a coaching staff with experience and a proven record in developing younger talent.
Lesson #3 – The Arizona Cardinals need to hold onto that young talent
Fortunately in this scenario, the Cardinals would already have some building blocks. Players like Budda Baker, Jalen Thompson, Byron Murphy, Marco Wilson, Isaiah Simmons, and Zaven Collins would be staples for this team. So as you can see, this isn’t exactly a fire sale; the lesson the Cardinals can take from the Sabres is to trade those star players that took them nowhere, but hold onto the youngest talent in the crew.
On offense, the Cardinals would still have the likes of Rondale Moore, Trey McBride, Josh Jones, Cody Ford, Greg Dortch, and Eno Benjamin, just to name a few. While this group is less-than-ideal, it’s not exactly a barren cupboard, but there would be a veteran presence among them, plus enough draft picks from the aforementioned trade(s) to generate potential game-changers in the desert.
One thing that impressed me over the last two years about the Buffalo Sabres management is that, even with millions in cap space, they didn’t bite and succumb to the temptation of pulling off a blockbuster trade for a star or signing a big-name free agent. Instead, they extended players like Tage and Samuelsson, while Dahlin and Cozens are next in line for long-term deals.
Above, there is a plethora of defensive players who can certainly earn long-term extensions, considering they still produce at a high level. They would be long-term fixtures while General Manager X would continually add talent to the offensive side of the field during the draft in 2023 and 2024 with those stockpiled picks via trade, while filling any gaping holes with serviceable veterans.
What about Kyler Murray?
The more I watch Murray play, the more convinced I am that he is the Arizona Cardinals version of Jack Eichel. Eichel’s relationship with the Sabres soured over the years and they shipped him off to the Vegas Golden Knights as potentially the team’s final puzzle piece to win the Stanley Cup.
Like Murray, Eichel never did much in terms of winning games with the Sabres. While Murray managed to take the Cardinals further than Eichel took the Sabres, the former number one and number two overall picks, respectively, put up pretty numbers, but never carried their respective teams the way management expected them to.
Overall, like Hopkins, a Kyler Murray trade would generate even more draft capital, and a team like the Detroit Lions, for example, could potentially bite if the Arizona Cardinals were to place Murray on the trading block. The Houston Texans could be another buyer, and I could even see a team with talent, but lacking a quarterback, like the Indianapolis Colts, also taking the bait, regardless of the size of Murray’s contract.
Conclusion
While it seems like a fire sale, but as mentioned earlier, it isn’t, it would still bring about a new era in Arizona Cardinals football. With a new coach with a knack for developing young talent, a new general manager with a savvy draft record, and a nucleus they could put in place with young talent from the previous regime while continually stockpiling young talent, the Cardinals could finally awaken from their latest slump.
Or as I like to call it, The Phoenix will finally arise from the ashes under the Sonoran Sun. Sure, they could keep going with Kingsbury, Keim, Murray, and Hopkins. But we are in Year 3 with these four together, and Year 4 of the Kliff, Steve Keim, and Murray trio, and we have seen zero playoff wins, zero division titles, and in all honesty, a perpetual circle of mediocrity.
So why keep doing this? The goal is to win Super Bowls, and if none of the above have proven themselves capable of leading the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl or even a division title in what will probably be four seasons, it’s time to take a long look in the mirror and rebuild this thing from scratch so a winner can come to town.
Just as the Buffalo Sabres went over a decade without a playoff appearance and they are now inching closer to the postseason than ever before with the NHL’s youngest roster, but one brimming with talent set to be in place for years.
Once again, even with talents like Reinhart, Eichel, and even staples like Linus Ullmark and Rasmus Ristolainen, or brass like Jason Botterill, Paul Krueger, and Phil Housley, the Sabres could do nothing with them. Why keep these guys around if they keep falling short of expectations? The Arizona Cardinals should be thinking along the same lines.
It may be painful in the short run, but the Arizona Cardinals could build a system similar to what Adams and Granato are building in Buffalo for the long haul. A system that inspired Kevyn Adams from his 2006 Stanley Cup run with the Carolina Hurricanes. We know what Kliff, Kyler, Hopkins, Steve Keim, and company can do, and it isn’t enough. So let’s scrap this thing, rebuild it from scratch, and create a sustainable system eventually capable of winning year after year.
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