Mango

No, he cannot be another voice in the room. Somebody had to be in charge. Enough with this stupid flat leadership structure where responsibilities are muddled and anybody can convince Terry something is a good idea. President of Hockey Ops, GM, or something similar, that is it.

He keeps the NJD money which is reported to be much more than Buffalo.

If Terry loves the kids in the building right now it will likely be Forton.

At the risk of derailing the thread, this is an insane indictment on the GM in year 5. This team is at .142 P% without a defensemen that was drafted 7 years ago/2 years before GMKA got here. The entire roster is dependent on a guy that the general manager had no part in bringing in. It is almost unbelievable.

FTFY

The argument here between you two has spiraled. But from a 1000 foot view as somebody who has tried to keep up to page 8, it’s odd to sort of try and explain away Adams. He’s just been flat out bad. There’s a million things to hold his feet to the flames for whether he’s in full control or no control. Without any shred of evidence I think a big part of this death spiral is that Adams and Terry are in lock step. He isn’t doing Terrys bidding, they have the same vision. I’m also a bit concerned that todays locker room meet up WITH ADAMS was a polite way of telling the team that Pegula stands behind Adams and will change coaches if needed. Firing an NHL lifer like Lindy mid season in year one with this roster and track record would be a rock bottom lower than I thought Terry would be capable of. And like I said above, I think Terry and Kevyn are in lock step. Which means firing Adams and clearing house is even more important than ever.

“I know Lindy was mean to you. But Daddy Pegula and The Gimp are here now. You’re safe. If that big bad coach yells again you go right to coach Sethy you hear me” - Terry Pegula, probably

Terry Pegula has really cucked this entire fan base. There’s no way around standing behind Adams after he disparaged the city and the franchise. I can never look at my wife…errr my hockey team the same again.

My biggest kick back to that would be the Cozens and Power contracts. Both are looking really bad. Sure, FO constraints by the owner. But now we have to go down the path that Terry also forced both those values. And once you go down that road I think you then have to go down the path that no actual quality GM would stay in that role very long if at all (see Botts). And now we’re right back at GMKA being really bad.

I think Terry finding success in the Bills has emboldened him to a certain extent.

I think that issue is that our isn’t talented enough. And when talent isn’t enough you lean into effort. Unfortunately our effort guys and our talent guys don’t have a ton of overlap. Which is part of the reason the talent is talented enough. and around and around we gooooo……

This is almost offensive vague and ambiguous. Draft position doesn’t equal good. It means they have a better chance of being good. Sometimes great fails without the proper supporting cast.

I find Lindy so low on the list of things that are wrong with the team, I don't know why we bother discussing it. The patient is bleeding out from multiple gunshot wounds and we have people talking about the importance of the general public washing their hands after using the bathroom. Yes wash your hands. It is good for everybody, but in the post industrialized almost nobody will ever die from it. But also....this dude is over here dying over here, so what are we wasting our time on?

Adams should have been shown the door with 24 hours of that presser. 100% yes. That presser is the breaking point for this regime without a doubt. Many fans took that presser as a man admitting he can't do his job, but it is not his fault, its the fault of their (home)town. A good GM would need a quality body of work and work to absorb his comments about nobody wanting to come to their city. Which Adams has neither. Fans reacted aggressively. Here we go round and round again. Time to reset, and you can't do it with the guys who have been shirt on by management and fans, and the fans don't want to get behind anybody involved in an era that shirt on the place they live and/or are from.

This is the biggest (only?) reason I was pro the Lindy Ruff hire. If Ruff gets fired and/or Adams claims this is a coaching issue I hope that the next time he’s in front of a mic he gets roasted about his lies about a “thorough and extensive coaching search”. If it isn’t his roster it’s his choice of coach…twice…no GM in any major sport in the US gets to botch two coaching hires in a row.

The FO lost the fans, the fans lost the team, the locker room lost the fans. There’s no coach to win that back because the fatal flaw is roster construction. Scotty Bowman wouldn’t get this roster to playoffs. It’s not a team, it’s a collection of players.

Is he meeting the team with or without a Lindy? Adams? Forton? I little bit worried he may be trying to go on a fact finding mission and asking if the players like Lindy, Appert, etc. I see a reason for a Lindy to be in the room but certainly not Adams or Forton. I’m still baffled at the fact that Adams is employed.

Pegula cannot fire Lindy 30 games into year one of a disastrous Adams tenure. This is already one of the least respected franchises in American sport. You can’t do that to a long time respected hockey man when your entire org has been the butt of every NHL joke for the better part of a decade. But I wouldn’t be shocked if he leans in hard to his core employees and Seth Alpert gets named HC. Firing Lindy Ruff a few months in while promoting the brother in law of his Oil and Gas partner would be an all time low for Buffalo sports.

A Corona commercial came on during the Bills/Lions game. Lots of pine trees. My GF goes “is that a Sabres commercial”. My GF doesn’t really like hockey at all. Doesn’t follow it. Doesn’t sit and watch any games with me. That’s the state of the org.

I guess some of it depends on the terms. I assume that he'll get something closer to Power than he does to Mule. Which I don't like even if it is just Dahls, Power, Bo without Mule. Still too much spent on a core that doesn't play much defense.

I think Byram and Power are good but they need to be on a better balanced blue line. Their defensive flaws are magnified because everybody else sucks at it too and the trio of Dahls, Power, and Bo are supposed to be "the guys". But as piece on a better defensive unit they'd probably be awesome.

I actually strongly disagree here. We have the most expensive blue line in the league and we suck at defense. This team absolutely cannot extend Byram without moving on from one of Power, Mule, and/or Dahlin. It would be an incredible over investment with an upside down return. Just swapping costs/players with Mule and Byram could make this a bit more palatable, but it is still an upside down investment. I think the best return is likely trading Byram for a better return than Mitts or keeping Byram and trying to get a hall for Power. Otherwise trading for Byram with the plan of keeping the entire defense was and is terrible.

You are just making my argument for me. There is no reason to keep a guy in house who never should have been hired in the first place. Anybody else could do his prior job managing junior hockey. Keeping around Adams stank is bad for business. It is unfortunate that Pegula put him in a position to fail, but you can't go from CEO to secretary in the same business. It isn't healthy for anybody. Not the owner, not the new CEO, not the janitors, or account managers, or engineers, or lawyers. You can't unscramble an egg.

There is no good reason to keep a terrible GM in house for any reason. Especially one the owner has a liking for.