Just a day after the NHL trade deadline, Buffalo Sabres general manager Tim Murray was already looking to the offseason, insisting in an interview that his prerogative heading into next season will be updating his defensive core.
"I have to improve the team. We have to get better on the blue line," Murray told Buffalo's WGR 550 on Thursday. "That's on me. That's not on the coaches, not on the players."
"The theme within the offseason," he added, "will be to do the best we can to get a defenseman."
Related: Murray disappointed Sabres couldn't move Kulikov, Franson
Despite his assertion that the team needs to improve on the back end, Murray stopped short of saying his team was out of the playoff race.
"I still believe that these players can get it done," he said, according to NHL.com's Joe Yerdon. "Maybe it's false belief, but I believe they can get it done."
Making the playoffs won't be easy for the Sabres. The club is six points back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, and will have to leapfrog five other teams to get in.
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