Buffalo Sabres' New Owner Terry Pegula Making Immediate Impact

When new Buffalo Sabres owner Terry Pegula officially took over the team from businessman Tom Golisano last month, he immediately made his intentions clear.

“From this point forward, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win the Stanley Cup,” said the billionaire and lifelong Sabres fan.

For hockey fans around North America, this statement was nothing more than the new guy in town trying to make a name for himself. For Sabres players and fans, however, the message sent chills down their spines.

Golisano had saved the franchise from a possible move out of Buffalo after the downfall of the Regis family, but his focus was on making money, not winning hockey games. He had no problem admitting that. In his first remarks as owner, Pegula said that there were no longer any financial restraints on the front office.

Since Pegula took over the reigns, the Sabres are 7-2-2 and have vaulted into seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Pegula has attended every game since the $189 million purchase, despite the fact the Sabres just concluded a franchise-long, seven-game road trip in which they went 4-2-1.

One reason for the recent hot streak was Pegula's green-lighting a trade for Brad Boyes from the St. Louis Blues in an effort to add another scorer into a grinder-saturated lineup. Boyes has provided an immediate boost by scoring six points in seven games, including a game-winning overtime goal against Boston on Tuesday.

Pegula hired former Pittsburgh Penguins vice president Ted Black to become team president. Both have repeatedly said that winning the Stanley Cup is never one big thing, but rather many little things with some lucky bounces along the way.

One such little thing was installing a $20,000 carpet with the Sabres logo in the locker room while the team was on the road trip. Starting on March 19, Pegula and company are adding a pregame show for all games.

Pegula said his timetable for bringing Lord Stanley's Cup to Buffalo is three years, and although the odds are on the Sabres side to make the playoffs this season, it would take more than a few lucky bounces for them to win it all.

Looking forward to the offseason, however, the Sabres will clear nearly $7 million in cap space with Tim Connolly, Rob Niedermayer and Mike Grier set to become free agents and unlikely to be re-signed.

A sizable chunk of that $7 million will be spent to re-sign restricted free agent Drew Stafford, but there will still be enough space left under the salary cap for one or two impact signings.

With one of the deepest free agent classes since the lockout set to hit the market this summer, Pegula is set up to make a big splash.

Selling the city of Buffalo to a big name player like Brad Richards will be tough though, considering the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs are also rumored to be readying big contracts for the play-making center.

That is why Pegula and Black are focusing their efforts on making Buffalo a place players want to play, and why they will continue to implement those "little things" they keep talking about.

The honeymoon period is still in full force, but Sabres fans will tell you that having Pegula running their franchise is anything but little.