Adams needs to go!

[Bangarang]

21 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

Yet another "Adams needs to go" post or thread, so I'm going to respond again with my same response.

No.

It will not make a difference.

Its Pegula.

Its likely we haven't seen what Adams can do/wants to do as GM because most things go through Pegula.

Pegula needs to take a step back. Take a step back from sitting with Adams at games, Sitting next to him and giving input during practices. From being in pre-draft meetings and on camera for everyone to see giving input into the process.  He has the RIGHT to do that, but he's bad at it.  If you fire Adams and Pegula doesn't change you get the exact same thing.

Adams may be bad at his job...or... he may be good, but it doesn't make sense to just fire him when the true problem is above him.  You can say 'you can't fire the owner', and yeah, thats true, but it doesn't mean firing the GM then will fix things. It won't.

I want things to change. i want the team to be better. I want a lot to be 'different' with this team but I'm mostly convinced its not Adams.

 

You think Pegula was responsible for handling the Eichel situation? Or trading Reinhart? And Mitts? It was Pegula who didn't address the goalie situation and insisted on relying on young and inexperienced players? It was Pegula that handed out long term deals to Samuelson, Cozens and Power? I think you're understating just how much Adams is responsible for and how terrible he is. 

[mjd1001]

36 minutes ago, Bangarang said:

 

You think Pegula was responsible for handling the Eichel situation? Or trading Reinhart? And Mitts? It was Pegula who didn't address the goalie situation and insisted on relying on young and inexperienced players? It was Pegula that handed out long term deals to Samuelson, Cozens and Power? I think you're understating just how much Adams is responsible for and how terrible he is. 

I think he had a hand in those things yes.  I don't think Cozens gets a 7 year deal at that number unless Pegula wants it (I think its possible he even pushed for it.)  Remember the outdoor Toronto game where Cozens got thrown out but stayed to watch the rest of the game? Who was the one who stood there and talked to him? Terry Pegula.  I can't find the exact quote, but right after that season ended (before his contract), Pegula spoke GLOWINGLY about Cozens.  Fire? no, but for sure some smoke there. Cozens is "his boy".

As far as the 'young inexperienced players', yeah, that was part Pegula also. Remember the whole thing about the "pegula family lifestyle"?  That wasn't too far away from the point where the Sabres stopped spending money on higher priced guys and really went down in cap.  You do that by 'going young'.    Reinhart I think wanted out, nothing was really going to keep him here.

As far as Eichel, Elliotte Freidman was on 590 out of Toronto when the whole thing was going down and he said/reported that he had sources that say that yes, Pegula had 'soured' on how Eichel handled the whole thing.  John Vogl also had a story that pegula specifically wanted Eichel in the western conference, so of course he had knowledge, and even input into that trade. Greg Wyshynski had a piece that he said Adams has the full support of how he is handling the Eichel situation...to me that translates to "Pegula wants him gone too but is hiding behind his GM in case of any backlash" 

How about this one...why was Botts really let go?  He wasn't willing to do Pegula's bidding for him with regard to running the team.  Here you go:

https://www.wivb.com/sports/in-three-weeks-pegulas-find-too-many-differences-in-opinion-with-jason-botterill-that-led-to-his-firing/

“At that time we had just found out that the regular season had ended and then in the next three weeks especially with the announcement of the draft being really pushed back to sometime this fall it gave us a little bit more time to start digging in and say what does the future look like? Let’s start looking and planning for the future and I think that’s what changed in those three weeks,” Kim Pegula said on a zoom call with reporters.

Three weeks ago Kim Pegula told the AP Jason Botterill would stay as #Sabres GM and now they've fired him and hired Kevyn Adams. So what changed? With the draft being pushed back it gave them more time to think and there were too many "differences in opinion." @news4buffalo pic.twitter.com/rFm0NlvltE

— Heather Prusak (@haprusak) June 16, 2020

So, not 'on the same page' as Botts, that statemeng comes directly from Kim Pegula. Difference in opinion between the "hockey guy" and "the Pegulas" The Pegulas wanted the ON ICE franchise to go in a different direction than the Hockey guy they hired...so, fire him and replace him with someone who will 'do their bidding' instead.

By doing that “digging in” and “looking at the future”, they found they weren’t as much on the same page with Botterill as they originally thought.

-Not enough, here is another one, where the hockey department apparently wasn't doing exactly the owners wanted, so it was replaced because the Pegulas felt like "they weren't being heard"....

https://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/five-alarm-fire-in-buffalo-sabres-axe-gm-jason-botterill-and-his-assistants-for-starters/article_74de5e12-9a3b-535b-b451-725f62c72c2a.html

Botterill’s dismissal represents a major reversal after a vote of confidence in May. “We felt like we weren’t being heard,” co-owner Terry Pegula said.

BUFFALO, N.Y.—Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula reversed course by firing general manager Jason Botterill on Tuesday as part of a drastic cost-cutting purge of front-office staff and scouts

There is SO much smoke (and in some cases  you can even see the fire) that Pegula is telling Adams (or any other GM) things he wants and then expecting them to happen.

Everything you hear (if you are listening), almost everything you read (if you take the time to look for it) Points to Pegula having his hand in hockey decisions, wanting that, and getting rid of people/firing people who push back on that.  He replaced Botts with Adams not because Adams was better as a GM, not because Adams could be worse (of course), but simply because Adams would DO what Pegula wanted, even with the on-ice product.  I just gave you a few examples above, if you look, there are a LOT more out there of this over the last decade+.

Adams isn't terrible. He's trying to keep his job as one of 32 NHL GMs, and in Buffalo with the Sabres under Pegula, you keep your job by letting the boss make decisions and carrying them out.  He got his opportunity by seeing firsthand what happened to the guy before him when that guy had a 'difference of opinion' with Pegs.

Edited 12 hours ago by mjd1001

[JohnC]

On 11/3/2024 at 10:37 AM, LGR4GM said:

Adams philosophy of "everyone gets a say" is rapidly turning into a way to deflect and spread responsibility for this dumpster fire. He's the gm, but he's so vanilla and eeyore about things that he's incapable of making hard and good choices. 

Edit: not eeyore more like milquetoast personified. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=milquetoast&oq=milque&aqs=chrome.0.0i433i512j69i57j0i433i512j0i512l7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I really believe that KA's rebuild would have been a lot more successful if he added some flexibility and creativity to his mostly "draft and develop" plan. Too much patience and not enough urgency. He simply didn't have the wherewithal to sometimes think outside of his self-imposed small box. He's simply not big enough for task.