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After reading the Buffalo News article about the situation, Joe Battista's name came up again. Who is this guy and why is he meddling with the Sabres. Is he the reason for this turmoil and as has been intimated in a few mentions, should he really be part of the Sabres operations? "The key difference is Pegula’s cronies are here in the building and having direct, on-the-scene impact. Joe Battista, who carries the title of vice president of hockey-related businesses, is nothing more than a longtime Pegula buddy who has no business being around an NHL operation. Nolan certainly seemed unhappy to get the word to pull Ott and Miller from the lineup from Battista. Murray said he was still on the phone working the trade and time was certainly a factor, as the game was less than an hour away. But Battista has exactly zero NHL experience before this year. He spent the last 26 years at Penn State and was a longtime coach of its club program before facilitating Pegula’s $88 million donation for the university’s arena. Battista is clearly here to help with the growth of HarborCenter. You can bet LaFontaine didn’t like how he was becoming a player on the NHL side of the business. Black said Battista’s role has not grown, but others will tell you it has. Murray, remember, is still a rookie GM. You don’t send an NHL neophyte down to tell the head coach an hour before a game his captain and franchise goaltender have to sit because they’re traded. Bad optics for sure." BN, By Joe Harrington. This is pretty damning His resume from Penn State: resume He has some hockey experience, but not any NHL experience. Seems like little more than a well connected gopher and endowment guy. I can't see how he is part of this unless he got over his head and somehow convinced TPegs he was doing the right thing... by meddling. The LaFontaine situation smells like something higher up... Ted Black or someone else who has Pegula's ear that we haven't heard about yet. Still, this begs the question, who screwed this up and anyone have a sense if it was Battista?