Milan Lucic lands new NHL job

Lucic wasn't the only addition. The Sabres also promoted Stacy Roest to director of player personnel and general manager of the Rochester Americans, while bringing in Neil Komadoski as assistant director of pro scouting after sixteen seasons evaluating talent for the Vancouver Canucks.

Tim Kennedy was promoted to director of player development, Derek Dorsett joined as a forward development coach, and Jarkko Ruutu was hired as a European development coach.

General manager Jarmo Kekalainen did not make a sentimental call to a recently retired tough guy.

He restructured an entire department in a single afternoon, stacking it with people who have NHL playoff and Stanley Cup experience.

Roest spent over a decade in Tampa Bay's front office through two championships. Komadoski brings sixteen years of pro scouting continuity from a divisional rival.

Lucic, who played 1,177 NHL games and won a Cup with Boston in 2011, fits a pattern of hiring recently retired, well-connected evaluators rather than career scouts.

A scouting department this deep usually precedes aggressive trade activity, not a quiet offseason.

Pro scouts evaluate opposing rosters for trade targets, and Buffalo just quadrupled its capacity to do that work simultaneously across North America and Europe.

Watch for the Sabres to be unusually active ahead of the trade deadline and free agency, not because Kekalainen said so, but because he just built the infrastructure to be.

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