from Dan Rosen of NHL.com,

Buffalo Sabres general manager Tim Murray is no different than most GMs in that he looks around the NHL and sees examples of what he wants his team to become, most notably the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings....

How do you approach the buildup to the NHL Trade Deadline, because I'd imagine it become an exciting time for you? I'm sure you're a wanted guy and lots of people are calling to see who they can pick off of your team for their playoff run.

"Right. Right. It's kind of like last year, same thinking. We go down and have our pro meetings and we get ready for between now and the trade deadline. If we can make good deals that are beneficial to the future of this franchise we are going to do that. I don't want to certainly tear the team apart even though we're picking third overall as of today, but I've had a talk with people in my organization, ownership and including a player like Brian Gionta, that we're not going to let pending UFAs leave for nothing. We do have to continue to build this; we're not there. No one can be happy with the record we have and I don't blame them, but we are where we are. It is a rebuild. It wasn't a retool. It wasn't a quick fix. It's a rebuild so that we can be good for a long time. That's the mindset. In saying that we signed Brian Gionta, we traded for Josh Gorges, so we were still able to acquire good players, but we have to be able to acquire good players going forward if we're going to fix this fairly quickly."

read on for four more questions and answers...