Will KA be the GM on Thanksgiving Eve?

[JustOutsideChicago]

I know this is crazy. But the whole “playoffs or bust” is going to be nothing but lip service. 

[spndnchz]

On 11/17/2024 at 12:14 PM, Stoner said:

Just a figure of speech or is there friendship at play? I've never heard of it.

What indication would there be?

You a premise to make allegations like that.

[Porous Five Hole]

1 hour ago, JustOutsideChicago said:

I know this is crazy. But the whole “playoffs or bust” is going to be nothing but lip service. 

I could be wrong, but I don’t agree. Pegula has not ever hesitated from moving on from a GM. I think the edict of playoffs or fired is real. 
 

Ruff said today that the standings matter. Duh.  But I never heard Meatballs say that. It was always about playing the right way.  
 

Ruff will survive a failure of not getting into the playoffs, but KA will not.  

[Cranky old man]

 Kevyin keeps the payroll down. He doesn’t have big expensive ideas. He “believes in his guys” which by definition means he’s not going out and spending money on your guys. He’s a homegrown talent which TP likes and trusts. He believes and supports the maintenance of the lifestyle. And, as long as the Bills win Kevyin knows the Sabres will just have to muddle along.  If the Sabres miss the playoffs this year——he might be gone. He’s got the rest of the year to pray, hope and do what Lindy says .  

[PromoTheRobot]

10 hours ago, Cranky old man said:

 Kevyin keeps the payroll down. He doesn’t have big expensive ideas. He “believes in his guys” which by definition means he’s not going out and spending money on your guys. He’s a homegrown talent which TP likes and trusts. He believes and supports the maintenance of the lifestyle. And, as long as the Bills win Kevyin knows the Sabres will just have to muddle along.  If the Sabres miss the playoffs this year——he might be gone. He’s got the rest of the year to pray, hope and do what Lindy says .  

Yup. The Sabres have hockey superstars lining up to play here and Kev keeps saying "nah, we good." 😂

[Pimlach]

On 11/18/2024 at 9:29 PM, Porous Five Hole said:

I could be wrong, but I don’t agree. Pegula has not ever hesitated from moving on from a GM. I think the edict of playoffs or fired is real. 
 

Ruff said today that the standings matter. Duh.  But I never heard Meatballs say that. It was always about playing the right way.  
 

Ruff will survive a failure of not getting into the playoffs, but KA will not.  

The sentence in bold would be a problem.  You don’t bring in a new GM to a team that hasn’t been in the playoffs for 13 years and tell him who his coach is.   I suppose it could happen in Buffalo if they promote from within and just give the GM job to either Karmanos or Forton.  

[mjd1001]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

The sentence in bold would be a problem.  You don’t bring in a new GM to a team that hasn’t been in the playoffs for 13 years and tell him who his coach is.   I suppose it could happen in Buffalo if they promote from within and just give the GM job to either Karmanos or Forton.  

This is in another thread, but if you promote from within, are you getting anything different at all?  All indications are that Adams is not the dictator of hockey decisions. Every trade, every scouting session, every draft pick is really a 'group think' project. Adams (if he does have any power below Pegula) is not much more than the tie-breaking vote.  If Adams is gone but his spot is just taken by one of the people below him, I don't see anything changing.

[LTS]

1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Yup. The Sabres have hockey superstars lining up to play here and Kev keeps saying "nah, we good." 😂

They don't, but it's because of continued mismanagement. The team has had a revolving door at head coach and at GM. They've failed to build anything successful through any of their efforts. Why would any free agent who had an option to sign with a more successful franchise choose Buffalo?

If the Sabres build a winning team they will draw players, it's that simple. Certainly there will still be other factors at play but all things being equal, the Sabres have to first be a successful team to draw in talent, until then none of the other factors matter.

 

[Porous Five Hole]

2 hours ago, Pimlach said:

The sentence in bold would be a problem.  You don’t bring in a new GM to a team that hasn’t been in the playoffs for 13 years and tell him who his coach is.   I suppose it could happen in Buffalo if they promote from within and just give the GM job to either Karmanos or Forton.  

I think Ruff only signed a two year deal, so it would give the new GM time to get the future coaching hire correct.  But you’re right, it would be odd for the GM to assume a coach.  

[Pimlach]

My thoughts are that Adams job is completely safe right now, and on Thanksgiving, no matter what happens on this west coast trip. 

I think the owner respects him and he will finish the year. 

If there is a change it will be after the season.  

[LabattBlue]

29 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

My thoughts are that Adams job is completely safe right now, and on Thanksgiving, no matter what happens on this west coast trip. 

I think the owner respects him and he will finish the year. 

If there is a change it will be after the season.  

The likely scenario….Sabres miss the playoffs, KA is promoted to POHO(or senior advisor), and Pegula and Adams thanks to their brilliant hockey IQ,  F up another GM hire. 

[Thorner]

27 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

My thoughts are that Adams job is completely safe right now, and on Thanksgiving, no matter what happens on this west coast trip. 

I think the owner respects him and he will finish the year. 

If there is a change it will be after the season.  

If we miss the playoffs, I think it’s basically 50/50. 5 years is a long time; on the other hand, I could see Terry and others pointing to someone like Yzerman in Detroit in defence of Adams.. “it takes time” etc etc. 

[Pimlach]

16 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

The likely scenario….Sabres miss the playoffs, KA is promoted to POHO(or senior advisor), and Pegula and Adams thanks to their brilliant hockey IQ,  F up another GM hire. 

I guess they can move Adams to another role.  

They just promoted Jerry Forton to Assistant GM. 

Jason Karmanos is already Associate GM and he runs Rochester, so maybe they promote him to GM?  He has more hockey operations experience than Adams had when he got the GM job.  

It fits in with Terry hiring someone that he knows and trusts.  

 

[PromoTheRobot]

3 hours ago, LTS said:

They don't, but it's because of continued mismanagement. The team has had a revolving door at head coach and at GM. They've failed to build anything successful through any of their efforts. Why would any free agent who had an option to sign with a more successful franchise choose Buffalo?

If the Sabres build a winning team they will draw players, it's that simple. Certainly there will still be other factors at play but all things being equal, the Sabres have to first be a successful team to draw in talent, until then none of the other factors matter.

 

We need to pick a lane. Is it A) No one wants to play here, or B) Adams is not spending money on players? I'm reading both and no one notices the conflict.

Even when we were good, there is resistance to players signing here for two reasons, maybe three. 1 & 2) the local weather and the impression Buffalo is a dull place to live, and 3) New York State income taxes. Being in a 13 year playoff drought makes it worse.

So when I read that Adams is somehow choosing to not spend on players, even though it was reported that Adams actively sought players like Ehlers and Necas, that seems to ignore the narrative that our reputation keeps anyone from signing here. Of course there's always the "well, just pay 'em more" response that is supposed to magically make the other problems go away. That ignores that cap space is finite and overpaying means you won't have money for signing your own players.

It also ignores the mindset of anyone who puts money above any other reason to sign. If a player can be swayed by a big payday, is he the kind of player that is actually going to contribute to making the team better. Taylor Hall is the most recent player who did the bare minimum while collecting $8MM from the Sabres. Then actually hurt the team at the trade deadline by limiting what Adams could get for him by forcing a trade to one team.

The Bills are an example of a team that values character. I think Adams is trying to follow the same path, but it's harder when you are trying to climb out of a pit. But we have a roster with talent, led by one of the most experienced coaches in league. Let's show a little patience and not flip out after every loss.

 

Edited yesterday at 06:26 PM by PromoTheRobot

[Thorner]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

I guess they can move Adams to another role.  

They just promoted Jerry Forton to Assistant GM. 

Jason Karmanos is already Associate GM and he runs Rochester, so maybe they promote him to GM?  He has more hockey operations experience than Adams had when he got the GM job.  

It fits in with Terry hiring someone that he knows and trusts.  

 

As long as he gets fired from the GM position after indisputably falling flat on his face in embarrassing fashion for 5 years (should we miss this year), as so told by numerous avenues of demonstrable evidence from team building down to, most importantly, record over an uncommonly long time frame to fail to find an iota of success regardless of context and geographical location, I’m good 

Edited yesterday at 06:46 PM by Thorner

[Believer]

21 minutes ago, Thorner said:

As long as he gets fired from the GM position after indisputably falling flat on his face in embarrassing fashion for 5 years (should we miss this year), as so told by numerous avenues of demonstrable evidence from team building down to, most importantly, record over an uncommonly long time frame to fail to find an iota of success regardless of context and geographical location, I’m good 

All time Message Board run on sentence. Who could possibly beat this beauty.😂

[LTS]

2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

We need to pick a lane. Is it A) No one wants to play here, or B) Adams is not spending money on players? I'm reading both and no one notices the conflict.

Even when we were good, there is resistance to players signing here for two reasons, maybe three. 1 & 2) the local weather and the impression Buffalo is a dull place to live, and 3) New York State income taxes. Being in a 13 year playoff drought makes it worse.

So when I read that Adams is somehow choosing to not spend on players, even though it was reported that Adams actively sought players like Ehlers and Necas, that seems to ignore the narrative that our reputation keeps anyone from signing here. Of course there's always the "well, just pay 'em more" response that is supposed to magically make the other problems go away. That ignores that cap space is finite and overpaying means you won't have money for signing your own players.

It also ignores the mindset of anyone who puts money above any other reason to sign. If a player can be swayed by a big payday, is he the kind of player that is actually going to contribute to making the team better. Taylor Hall is the most recent player who did the bare minimum while collecting $8MM from the Sabres. Then actually hurt the team at the trade deadline by limiting what Adams could get for him by forcing a trade to one team.

The Bills are an example of a team that values character. I think Adams is trying to follow the same path, but it's harder when you are trying to climb out of a pit. But we have a roster with talent, led by one of the most experienced coaches in league. Let's show a little patience and not flip out after every loss.

 

A and B are not mutually exclusive although I would consider A to be a false statement.  Clearly players are willing to play here or else free agents would not sign here. I'm going to avoid trying to define "want". They clearly wanted to enough to sign a contract and commit to playing.

So, players are willing to play here. Adams is willing to spend money on those players. People did not like Zucker's $5M contract. There was much discussion on how it was over payment and also discussion saying that is exactly what was needed to get a player to come here, because the team is not successful.

So, by that discussion alone, Adams was spending money on players and Zucker wanted to be here.

I don't think the narratives about Buffalo are true for players. If it were then the Bills would not have people falling over themselves to sign here in free agency. Those athletes live in the same city and by most accounts have a more party life style (on average) than hockey players and they seem more than content to be in Buffalo.

Free agents will most often sign with a club where they believe they have a chance at the playoffs and a Stanley Cup, taxation is a secondary factor to that. If you reversed the past decade of the Predators and the Sabres do you think Stamkos, Skjei, or Marchessault sign with the Predators?  Not a chance. Would they sign with Buffalo? Hard to say because of the taxation issue.  But no chance they are going to Nashville because no tax beats not winning.

 

[LabattBlue]

3 hours ago, Pimlach said:

I guess they can move Adams to another role.  

They just promoted Jerry Forton to Assistant GM. 

Jason Karmanos is already Associate GM and he runs Rochester, so maybe they promote him to GM?  He has more hockey operations experience than Adams had when he got the GM job.  

It fits in with Terry hiring someone that he knows and trusts.  

 

Is Forton the guy that some feel is not even qualified for his current role?

[Pimlach]

5 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

Is Forton the guy that some feel is not even qualified for his current role?

I have read that here. 

I don't know much about him but he seemed to be running a good scouting department, our drafts seem to be pretty good.