Sabres owner Pegula shows familiar impatience in hasty housecleaning

It's probably going to be spun as wiping the slate clean, but the firings of Dan Bylsma and Tim Murray only make the future murkier in Buffalo.

Sabres owner Terry Pegula hit the reset button Thursday, jettisoning the head coach and general manager in a shocking double whammy that disrupts the club's ongoing rebuild and only creates more uncertainty going forward.

Bylsma is gone after only two seasons behind the Buffalo bench, with three years left on his contract. The Sabres missed the playoffs in both of those campaigns, but his departure is particularly eye-opening given Wednesday's report that young star Jack Eichel was prepared to walk if Bylsma was retained.

Murray lasted less than four years in his role as Sabres GM, and his dismissal is by far the more surprising move, especially considering he signed a multi-year extension in October.

The now-former GM stripped down the roster to kick-start the rebuild upon being hired midway through the 2013-14 season, then selected Sam Reinhart and Eichel second overall in back-to-back drafts, brought in Ryan O'Reilly, Evander Kane, Robin Lehner, and Dmitry Kulikov in trades and signed Kyle Okposo to a long-term deal in free agency.

His tank-and-load-up rebuild plan was derailed by several factors.

The Sabres "lost" two straight draft lotteries and missed out on top picks Aaron Ekblad and Connor McDavid. Kane was allegedly involved in multiple off-ice incidents and O'Reilly got himself into one of his own. Lehner was dogged by injuries that limited him to only 80 games combined in the last two seasons.

The bigger issue, though, is that the Sabres didn't improve fast enough. Given their talent, they should have been a playoff team this spring. By all accounts, the players never collectively embraced Bylsma's coaching style. He came to "develop a winning culture," but couldn't win consistently in a brief but revealing two-year stint.

But canning a GM who completely retooled the roster while letting go of an experienced coach this quickly represent shortsighted decisions that reek of a familiarly fast trigger-finger from Pegula, the same man who dismissed Bills head coach Rex Ryan after less than two seasons and may not have even consulted GM Doug Whaley about it.

Pegula hasn't been afraid to fire members of his front office and coaching staffs, meaning continuity hasn't exactly been a hallmark of his ownership.

It's easy to say the Sabres' rebuild is stalling, and that it has failed so far, but to fire both Bylsma and Murray in one fell swoop implies a level of frustration from Pegula that few expected.

He's shown impatience with futility in the past, and the hockey club has certainly been futile, but in Eichel, Reinhart, Kane, defensive stud Rasmus Ristolainen, and 19-year-old prospect Alexander Nylander, there are plenty of encouraging pieces in the organization.

The problem appears to be that most of these core members of the Sabres future have required some time to develop, and Pegula doesn't seem to enjoy waiting.

It didn't help Murray or Bylsma that the Toronto Maple Leafs' well documented "Shanaplan" has already landed them back in the playoffs with sky-high hopes for the future buoyed by Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Nylander's brother, William, and the rest of a prospect pool oozing with talent.

But comparing one rebuild to another isn't a productive endeavor, and while the Sabres' plan hasn't gone as swimmingly as their counterparts up the QEW, there are still reasons to be optimistic in Buffalo.

Whether or not Pegula realizes that fact - or has the restraint to let the next GM and coach carry out their plans completely - are other matters entirely.