Kevyn Adams, press conference 4/16/2024

[rickshaw]

How about Harrington on Twitter and in his column suggesting Bruce Boudreau.

Another great guy but if people think we were country club under DG, just wait. The Canucks got a new coach bounce when he came in but once everyone realized there was no structure it started to fade. Adams said he wanted structure and here’s MH suggesting BB. Such a bad take. 

[Mango]

1 minute ago, Cascade Youth said:

Agree with all of that.  We didn't hear what, if we're being honest, most of us expected to hear, which was "We were close, it was the injuries and some bad luck, but we were right there and I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish" etc.  No, it was a different message - "We've done nothing and it's not good enough."  Good for him.

And yet...

He still peppered in some suggestions of bad luck and injuries.  And he still didn't really explain why he sat on his hands as the team floundered.  Thinking about it, I'm left wondering how much of that was because he backed Granato's asinine contract extension in August and couldn't find a way to go back to Terry mid-season about making big changes without fitting his own head for the noose.  And maybe I missed it (I missed the first part of the PC yesterday) but no one asked him why they felt the need to give Granato a new contract last summer.

I also noticed, yesterday and in prior PCs, that when Adams is asked about an internal cap he always responds with some version of "We have enough resources to win."  That isn't a denial, it just means to me that he has sold Terry on being able to do more with less.  It's a disingenuous answer in my view.

Anyhow, all things considered, I feel better than I did earlier in the week but it still all sucks.  None of these developments are good ones.  For someone who (yesterday) preaches accountability, I still don't really see what metrics Adams is being held to other than budget.

 

I was just going through some data points in another forum. Cap friendly is by far the best NHL cap resource, below is the team spending going back to 2015 when they first started. The Sabres have been spending bottom half of the league 7 of the last 9 years that they tracked. Another (not so) fun fact is that the Sabres scouting department is tied for the smallest in the league with Ottawa. The Kings and the Jets don't list their scouts, which is super weird, even if they have less the Sabres are in terrible company with those three teams. 

2015: 27th
2016: 24th
2017: 19th
2018: 6th
2019: 4th
2020: 18th
2021: 32nd
2022: 32nd
2023: 31st

The scouting department, roster spend, plus the lack of arena maintenance should be major question marks for any high sought after candidate. There are a lot of data points that point towards lack of institutional support. 

 

[Cascade Youth]

6 minutes ago, Mango said:

 

I was just going through some data points in another forum. Cap friendly is by far the best NHL cap resource, below is the team spending going back to 2015 when they first started. The Sabres have been spending bottom half of the league 7 of the last 9 years that they tracked. Another (not so) fun fact is that the Sabres scouting department is tied for the smallest in the league with Ottawa. The Kings and the Jets don't list their scouts, which is super weird, even if they have less the Sabres are in terrible company with those three teams. 

2015: 27th
2016: 24th
2017: 19th
2018: 6th
2019: 4th
2020: 18th
2021: 32nd
2022: 32nd
2023: 31st

The scouting department, roster spend, plus the lack of arena maintenance should be major question marks for any high sought after candidate. There are a lot of data points that point towards lack of institutional support. 

 

The Adams-era Sabres operate a lot like the Levy GM-era Bills.

[Stoner]

I couldn't get through the whole thing. Did anyone ask Kevyn about The Brawndo Question... Whether he now has the freedom to spend to the cap, etc.? Mike seemed to trigger KA with a question about Terry. How dare someone mention the owner's name?

KA gave a rousing defense of Terry and he did say, I think, that Terry provides all the resources he asks for/needs. So why isn't he asking for more?

Still waiting for the day the Sabres figure out a way to let us hear the media questions. Maybe they don't want us to? Would be smart, innit?

[Stoner]

The other thing that seemed to go unchecked was KA saying the cost of getting forward help over the summer was too high.

The obvious follow on... What was the cost of not acting? A playoff berth, innit?

Innits, go home. Little pissants.

[dudacek]

40 minutes ago, Mango said:

 

I was just going through some data points in another forum. Cap friendly is by far the best NHL cap resource, below is the team spending going back to 2015 when they first started. The Sabres have been spending bottom half of the league 7 of the last 9 years that they tracked. Another (not so) fun fact is that the Sabres scouting department is tied for the smallest in the league with Ottawa. The Kings and the Jets don't list their scouts, which is super weird, even if they have less the Sabres are in terrible company with those three teams. 

2015: 27th
2016: 24th
2017: 19th
2018: 6th
2019: 4th
2020: 18th
2021: 32nd
2022: 32nd
2023: 31st

The scouting department, roster spend, plus the lack of arena maintenance should be major question marks for any high sought after candidate. There are a lot of data points that point towards lack of institutional support. 

 

It was my impression Adams had balanced off their smaller scouting staff by redeploying those resources into the analytics and player development staffs.

Is that not the case?

How do they now rank in terms of the amount of bodies in the overall hockey department?

If my memory is correct part of the bloodletting when Kevyn was hired was due to Pegula thinking the hockey department was loaded with people who didn't do much. (A conclusion I think was fuelled by a review done by a pre-GM Adams.)

That fits with when/why they dipped from 4th to 32nd.

 

[LGR4GM]

Analytics went from 1 to 5 ppl. 

[Flashsabre]

What is Mike’s obsession with Pegula talking? How many owners from other organizations hold press conferences? 
 

The only one I can think of is Mr Ego Jerry Jones.

[Mango]

38 minutes ago, dudacek said:

It was my impression Adams had balanced off their smaller scouting staff by redeploying those resources into the analytics and player development staffs.

Is that not the case?

How do they now rank in terms of the amount of bodies in the overall hockey department?

If my memory is correct part of the bloodletting when Kevyn was hired was due to Pegula thinking the hockey department was loaded with people who didn't do much. (A conclusion I think was fuelled by a review done by a pre-GM Adams.)

That fits with when/why they dipped from 4th to 32nd.

 

That is a lot of data points that I did not collect. Overall the "analytics" people seem to be left some sites team personnel entirely or even rolled into other departments. That maybe includes Buffalo? And we know that every franchise is using analytics so zero is not a reasonable assumption for those websites where it is left off. 

But at a quick glance a scout heavy team like Pittsburgh (23) lists 5 people under their "Hockey Research" Department. At a broad view it doesn't seem as though the Sabres are investing in analytics in any way that would counteract their lack of spend on scouts compared to the better funded orgs in the league. 

Using Pittsburgh as a high water mark again they have 8 people under player development to the Sabres 4. 

29 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Analytics went from 1 to 5 ppl. 

I don't know that Buffalo is 5. Could be. I know the Athletic reported Sam Ventura would oversee 2 people. Maybe the people under 'Strategy and Analytics role up to him as well? But that group is under ticketing and marketing and one of those people are the CRM admin which certainly isn't a hockey ops role.

Without going back to collect a comparison to all the development, positional, and player analytics/data science roles across the league, it seems the Sabres are a good distance back from some of the top franchises in head count in each of those departments. 

 

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, Mango said:

 

I was just going through some data points in another forum. Cap friendly is by far the best NHL cap resource, below is the team spending going back to 2015 when they first started. The Sabres have been spending bottom half of the league 7 of the last 9 years that they tracked. Another (not so) fun fact is that the Sabres scouting department is tied for the smallest in the league with Ottawa. The Kings and the Jets don't list their scouts, which is super weird, even if they have less the Sabres are in terrible company with those three teams. 

2015: 27th
2016: 24th
2017: 19th
2018: 6th
2019: 4th
2020: 18th
2021: 32nd
2022: 32nd
2023: 31st

The scouting department, roster spend, plus the lack of arena maintenance should be major question marks for any high sought after candidate. There are a lot of data points that point towards lack of institutional support. 

 

I don't know if its available, but I'd like to see what the Sabres spend on assistant coaches and development coaches compared to the rest of the league as well. I don't know but I'm guessing that is something they rank very low in also.

I can ALMOST excuse the lack of roster spending, seeing where they are in their development and how young the team is. But, when you have a young/rebuilding roster, that is the EXACT time it makes sense to bump up your scouting/develpment staff. Pegula doesn't seem to want to do that.

[K-9]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

It was my impression Adams had balanced off their smaller scouting staff by redeploying those resources into the analytics and player development staffs.

Is that not the case?

How do they now rank in terms of the amount of bodies in the overall hockey department?

If my memory is correct part of the bloodletting when Kevyn was hired was due to Pegula thinking the hockey department was loaded with people who didn't do much. (A conclusion I think was fuelled by a review done by a pre-GM Adams.)

That fits with when/why they dipped from 4th to 32nd.

 

Adams was hired because Boterrill refused to adhere to the new pandemic austerity measures and fire scouts and others in hockey ops. It was a surprise because only week’s earlier, he received a strong vote of confidence from Kim Pegula. 

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

I couldn't get through the whole thing. Did anyone ask Kevyn about The Brawndo Question... Whether he now has the freedom to spend to the cap, etc.? Mike seemed to trigger KA with a question about Terry. How dare someone mention the owner's name?

KA gave a rousing defense of Terry and he did say, I think, that Terry provides all the resources he asks for/needs. So why isn't he asking for more?

Still waiting for the day the Sabres figure out a way to let us hear the media questions. Maybe they don't want us to? Would be smart, innit?

I don't recall any spend to cap question either but KA did say that resources are not a problem and TP provides what is needed.  

2 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

The other thing that seemed to go unchecked was KA saying the cost of getting forward help over the summer was too high.

The obvious follow on... What was the cost of not acting? A playoff berth, innit?

Innits, go home. Little pissants.

The cost of pro acquisitions often seems too high for Kevyn.   

A running list of his comments over the years:  Other GMs want his prospects for nothing; a trade with Buffalo took more asset than trades with others (Chychrun going to Ottawa); the trade offers are lopsided; the player(s) targeted did not want to come here; and now the cost of forward help last summer was too high.  

Is he a bad negotiator?  Cheap?  Shrewd?  Unrealistic?  A good negotiator?  Not a negotiator at all?  

 

Edited April 17 by Pimlach

[Thorner]

23 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Asked about the arrogance that seemed to be coming from the room early in the season, Adams basically said the team didn't earn it yet and repeated it a few times. Seemed a bit incredulous that the team thought they had arrived. Talked again about earning it. 

This group of players has such an uphill battle in the field of “likeablity”

[Thorner]

4 hours ago, rickshaw said:

How about Harrington on Twitter and in his column suggesting Bruce Boudreau.

Another great guy but if people think we were country club under DG, just wait. The Canucks got a new coach bounce when he came in but once everyone realized there was no structure it started to fade. Adams said he wanted structure and here’s MH suggesting BB. Such a bad take. 

I’d love Bruce tbh

[LGR4GM]

The press conference if you would like to watch it:

 

[Pimlach]

2 minutes ago, Thorny said:

This group of players has such an uphill battle in the field of “likeablity”

I want to like them.  Then you hear these stories and you wonder how being arrogant can happen.   

I guess when you get a bunch of kids that have been in elite leagues, and traveled in circles with the best players their whole life, it can happen.  

[Thorner]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

I don't recall any spend to cap question either but KA did say that resources are not a problem and TP provides what is needed.  

The cost of pro acquisitions often seems too high for Kevyn.   

A running list of his comments over the years:  Other GMs want his prospects for nothing; a trade with Buffalo took more asset than trades with others (Chychrun going to Ottawa); the trade offers are lopsided; the player(s) targeted did not want to come here; and now the cost of forward help last summer was too high.  

Is he a bad negotiator?  Cheap?  Shrewd?  Unrealistic?  A good negotiator?  Not a negotiator at all?  

 

Yep, I mean people are falling head over heals to anoint Adams for his honesty and forwardness, here - doesn’t go both ways. If that’s the case, drop the Pegula stuff. KA says it’s on himself

Edited April 17 by Thorny

[LGR4GM]

1 minute ago, Pimlach said:

I want to like them.  Then you hear these stories and you wonder how being arrogant can happen.   

I guess when you get a bunch of kids that have been in elite leagues, and traveled in circles with the best players their whole life, it can happen.  

Privilege is a hell of a drug. 

[Thorner]

2 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I want to like them.  Then you hear these stories and you wonder how being arrogant can happen.   

I guess when you get a bunch of kids that have been in elite leagues, and traveled in circles with the best players their whole life, it can happen.  

Echo chamber 

[SDS]

11 minutes ago, Thorny said:

This group of players has such an uphill battle in the field of “likeablity”

Who, specifically, lacks the likeability that you speak of?

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, SDS said:

Who, specifically, lacks the likeability that you speak of?

[Demoted]

WTB Goalie!

[That Aud Smell]

18 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

I want to like them.  Then you hear these stories and you wonder how being arrogant can happen.   

I guess when you get a bunch of kids that have been in elite leagues, and traveled in circles with the best players their whole life, it can happen.  

You gotta add to that mix: The kids are all on a team where the GM sees fit to pass out multi-year multi-million dollar contracts based on a limited sample size.

I wish I could find that picture I saw on social media during last offseason. It was a picture of Thompson and Cozens (I believe) in the Caribbean -- they were by a pool, in the shade, drinking rum punch out of clear plastic cups, and toasting each other's success.  

It gave me a very bad feeling about the season to come.

12 minutes ago, SDS said:

Who, specifically, lacks the likeability that you speak of?

Like I said: I wish I could find the picture.

Edited April 17 by That Aud Smell

[That Aud Smell]

There it is

[Thorner]

5 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

There it is

My god Dylan looks completely gooned

haha good picture