Archie Lee

It might be wrong and this time Pegula is just going to dig in and let things spiral further and further out of control. But I don’t think he is on an island. There are likely people around him other than Adams who will tell him that things are beyond repair as is. His kids perhaps? Guelli maybe? Ruff? Maybe Adams asks for mercy at some point. This reminds me of when Krueger was fired. Things seemed hopeless and as though nothing would be done. But the negativity became overwhelming and something had to give. Once the national media start mocking you, it is tough to ignore. Maybe it’s different this time and Pegula is weighing what makes him a bigger laughing stock: firing Adams and hiring his 5th GM or not firing Adams and hoping that somehow against all odds things don’t degenerate even further. It is just depressing all around.

Agreed. The context of the situation that has developed is unique. The players of course are responsible for their own performances, but in the big picture I believe they have been hung out to dry by bad mgmt. The Sabres are 13 years out of the playoffs and their GM made no truly meaningful off-season acquisition to address the top 6 forwards or top 4 D. Then, before they even got home from Prague there are stories floated about how the GM is looking to do something big, meaning he doesn’t believe in the team. Now that he has failed to do anything and has blamed it on geography and has let things slip to the point of no return, he tells them it’s all good and not to expect him to do anything to make the team better. At this point, it would be an act of mercy to trade any of our players.

We just might be approaching that point where a 1st o/a pick pulls an Elway, Lemieux, Lindros, Manning, and says “don’t draft me”. I don’t think a Power or Slavkovsky-level pick would have the nerve. But a Bedard-level 1st o/a might just say “for the sake of my career, I will not sign with the Sabres”.

First of all, I agree with your post about how the players may have took the message. Indeed, I’ve been saying for some time now that the team culture, that had shifted to positive by the end of 22-23, has slid very badly and that the reason for this is that the owner and GM have not committed to winning. It’s been said by many an insider that there are times at the trade deadline that a team will slip if management doesn’t make a meaningful acquisition. The culture in the room can change to: “If this doesn’t matter to the GM, why should it matter to us?”. I think we may have seen that last night. I do not blame the players for any of this. That said, everyone is making up what was said when Pegula met the team. None of us were there. I just don’t think he said we are not making any changes the rest of the year. I’m sure Pegula didn’t want to fire Krueger, but things got so bad he had no choice. We are more than 1/2 way there after last night. Also, if we are going to take the literal approach, they only said not to expect a “big” trade. What is a big trade? Does that mean lots of players? Or big name players? Or lots of big name players? And how long does this trade moratorium last. Until Christmas? The trade deadline? The draft? Forever? What was said exactly?

On a recent After The Whistle, Rivet made a great point. He spoke about the various times in the later portion of his career that he was teamed with a young or rookie defensive partner. He said his role was to show the kids how to play and be assertive and physical at the NHL level and to let them know that everything will be ok, cause he would be right there. If anything got out of hand, he would be at their side. Adams has not given anything that even remotely approaches that level of veteran support to Power or Cozens or Dahlin or Peterka or Quinn or any of our young players.

Ruff isn’t at fault for this in the big picture, obviously. He was a terrible choice to coach this team though. The charade of a coaching search that preceded his hiring was perhaps the ultimate and obvious sign that this was headed in the wrong direction and fast.

Yeah, I think the reported accounts of the meeting are open to interpretation. I doubt Pegula said there will be no trades. More likely, in my view, the message was to not be looking over your shoulder or waiting on a big move. At some point something has to give.

Again, not pounding the drum here, but Karmanos has 25 years of NHL front office experience. He’s a Harvard Grad. He was AGM for 3 Stanley Cup winners. His name has come up for GM openings around the league in the last few off-seasons. It would be foolish to dismiss him as an option, I think.

Neither of us know whether the next guy will be successful, regardless of who it is. We know the current guy has failed. Adams had a plan and stuck to it. Credit to him, I suppose, for holding firm to his vision. But since April 15, 2023, the Kevyn Adams tenure has been an absolute failure.

Ok. I’m certainly not trying to lead the Jason Karmanos fan club or anything. I’m fine with bringing someone from outside in. But if you would rather continue with Adams than give Karmanos a shot, that’s cool.

I’m not saying there are strong disagreements, but they aren’t showing you the video of the assistant GM saying he would do something differently. It’s just never the case that a group of people in such an environment are entirely monolithic in their thinking. Further, such a change could be done on an interim basis. As for the Pegula factor, that’s a big concern to be sure. It could be that it won’t be any better with any GM. But we are about to lose our 11th in a row. In Adams 5th year as GM we are last in the Conference 32 games into the season. It could not be more dire. How could handing the reigns to Karmanos for 4 months make things worse?

You’re speculating. Which is fine. But there is no reason to assume that Karmanos would continue on with status quo. Just because Karmanos is working to help Adams fulfill his vision, doesn’t mean he has no ideas on how to do things differently.

Adams’s dithering is going to ruin some of these kids.

Todd McLellan says no

Todd Nelson would take it. Todd Reirden maybe. Trying to think of a third Todd.

Senior Advisor.

Your post is very thoughtful. I don’t think your last point is wrong, but it is hard for me to imagine they think they can string this out another two years and hold the interest of anyone. Though, I will likely still be here.

Well, I don't fully agree with this. I think there is an austerity plan and that Adams is on board with it. That doesn't mean that Adams wouldn't prefer to be a GM without such financial restraints. Rather, I think he knows who pays his salary and that it is best to support the vision that keeps him in his position. I know that Adams has commented before that he is hesitant to give out long-term deals to UFA's or to trade for older players, because he needs to retain space to sign the next group of RFAs (Peterka, Quinn, Byram, McLeod, Levi after this year, Benson after next year). Some have interpreted that to mean that we will eventually spend to the cap, and for now Adams is just saving the space for his own guys. The flaw with this is that it was never the case that all of these players would "hit". Indeed, it is starting to look as though some of the players he already signed long-term did not actually "hit" (Samuelsson, maybe Cozens). As I type this, only Byram of the upcoming RFAs looks like a player worthy of a long-term deal. Saving money for players who might never be worth the money you are saving, is not a good way to build a winning NHL team. He could have spent on a couple of veteran additions and then sorted out later who gets a big raise, who gets a small raise, and who gets traded. That's what most NHL teams who see themselves as playoff contenders do, I think.

I mostly agree. I would guess that Adams would prefer to have more money to spend. I don’t think Pegula is micromanaging what Adams does spend the available resources on. I think Pegula will spend more if a good case can be made, but Adams knows better than to go to that well too often.

Everyone is entitled to their own level of expectations. For me, Adams was fine until the 22-23 post-season press conference when he couldn’t get himself to say that missing the playoffs was disappointing and that making the playoffs in 23-24 was critical. Up until then I think he had done good work - on balance. That 2023 end-of-season presser is a sliding doors moment for me. That’s the moment when Adams could have said: we are on the cusp and from here the playoffs have to be our expectation and our standard. Then he could have had an off-season where he proved it. Peca and Alpert could have been promoted to the Sabres in place of Ellis and Christie. On the roster, Olofsson, Jost, Jokiharju, and Comrie, needed to be moved and replaced. A proper partner needed to be brought in for Power. Up front, we needed to add two veteran wingers. At least one prospect should have been traded to acquire a veteran and to create oxygen for the prospects remaining. Adams did none of the above and instead had the most complacent off-season imaginable. By doing so he set the tone. “We aren’t really trying here”. The playoffs are a corporate stretch target: nice if we get there, but not critical to our goals. That attitude has become the culture, not just of the front office but of the locker-room. All indications are that Adams is a good and decent man. As a GM, the only defence one can muster for him at this stage, is that he is handcuffed by a cheap and possibly meddling owner. He took the job and is clinging to it, though. At the very least, he is an active-participant in the creation of this mess

I would say there is a next to zero chance we would put Pettersson with two underachieving youngsters. If we make that trade, Pettersson will be given linemates who give him a chance to be successful. It will likely be at least one of Tuch or Thompson (moved to the wing), or Zucker at the very least. Pettersson's most common 5v5 linemates this year are Debrusk, Sherwood, Boeser, and Garland; average age 27. Cozens gets Quinn, Benson, Kulich and Krebs; average age 21.

We have lots of tradable assets. I don’t want us to trade our 1st rd pick more than I want us to trade any number of assets that could be moved to make us a better team. Also, I don’t need to win a trade. We have so many young assets that it should be understood that it’s ok to move a piece that will hurt a bit. Presumably, the more it hurts the better the return should be.

I saw a feature on Petersson a couple of years ago. He gave off strong “hockey is just something I happen to be really good at” vibes. O’Reilly lost his love for the game in Buffalo. Maybe the key is to bring in a player who doesn’t love the game to begin with.

Agreed that the season is lost. There is no mystery here. Going into the “make or break” year with the youngest roster in the league and with a core 12 players who were even younger on average, was a recipe for complete failure. Barring a major philosophical change that sees the organization being willing to move on from some of the youngest players on the NHL roster, we are, incredibly, poised to only get younger.

On Nov 19th the Bruins fired their elite-level head coach (who was immediately hired by another team) because they were struggling. On that date the Bruins were two points ahead of the Sabres (the Sabres had two games in hand). We were just happy to briefly be in the mix I guess.