dudacek

I'm guessing Promo is Sunshine, but I think Kittens is now posting over on Mammothspace We have a GM whose goal is to lean in to the owner's whims and cater to his ego, rather than manage and steer it down the proper paths, as I perceive Beane has been doing, and I believe most GMs do. It's the most essential GM skill that no one ever talks much about and it's totally absent in the Sabres heirarchy. I struggle to buy into "neglect" as the overriding issue due to one quote from a nameless former staffer in a lengthy article that paints a pretty clear picture of a GM that has attached himself to the owner like a barnacle and spends every day telling him what he wants to hear. Unless you're referring to neglect in the context of neglecting to formulate a clear-headed appraisal of the actual job Adams is doing? Then I can get on board. I don't see neglect in the more traditional sense of being absent, or uncaring due to giving all his attention to a favoured child. I thought it was handled very well in terms of simply allowing the facts to speak. In the modern media environment that's increasingly hard to find. This piece was far more resonant (and depressing) to me than the calculated Jerry Sullivan-style rant some seem to favour.

I don't think there can be any debate the flaws arise from the top of the pile: an owner who wants a GM to implement the owner's "vision" who has been unable to find a GM who can both do that, and be successful at the same time. I don't doubt he can find one; just look at Brandon Beane. But it's not been Kevyn Adams, and it's hard to find hope he will ever figure it out, no matter how many people Terry lets him hire.

Do people think the Sabres still have a bare-bones hockey department? Post- COVID it has gradually returned to what I perceived as more or less "normal" NHL levels. Last time I looked at things, they were still kinda shy in pro scouting but high in player development/coaching, and pretty typical in the front office, analytics and amateur scouting. The inner circle looks something like this: GM: Adams Senior advisor: Kekalainen Associate GM: Karmanos Head coach: Ruff VP hockey strategy and research: Ventura (analytics) Assistant GM Forton (scouting) Assistant GM Jakubowski (caps/contracts) Assistant to the GM: Staal Pro scouting: Crowe Amateur scouting: Nightingale Player development: Mair I don't think the Sabres website has been updated in a while and this is the movement season in the hockey business, but the team has roughly 13 scouts (it's not broken down into pro and amateur) 2 analytics engineers 4 NHL assistant coaches 1 AHL head coach 2 AHL assistant coaches 3 development coaches 2 video coaches 1 skating and skills instructor So that's 39 people. Plus it has a 10-person "performance department" dedicated to the health and fitness of the athletes (strength coach etc).

Here is the UFA market. Not sure there are answers there.

If I'm remembering correctly, the Sabres were running a skeleton scouting crew that year after EEE, with an "analytics department" consisting of Nightingale, right? It was Jeremiah Crowe's one and only draft and they went for Quinn after Adams told them/him to review the draft list through a "different lens".

Not possible these 8 guys go ahead of him: Schaefer, Misa, Martone, Desnoyer, Martin, OBrien, Frondell, McQueen? Or that somebody really wants a D, or really loves Eklund or Bear?

I'm getting a vibe that James Hagens is dropping like a stone. Any chance he's there when Buffalo picks, and if he is, should we be happy to take him? I get the sense he's more Casey Mittelstadt than Matt Barzal, but I guess someone in that range seems like decent value at #9.

At the time they said it was upside: they felt Quinn was a late bloomer who still had a lot of growth potential in his body and his game. The Sabres didn't say it, but it was being said that Rossi had kinda maxed out his growth. The argument was that Rossi's upside was 2C, and likely a 2C you'd want to upgrade from because of speed/strength limitations, whereas Quinn was the best goal scorer in the draft and had 30-40 goal potential.

Speaking of misperceptions, here's an interesting one about Kevyn Adams: He's creeping into the top half in terms of the most experienced GMs in the league. Ken Holland 28 years (hired with 37 years experience as a senior executive, played 4 NHL games) * Doug Armstrong 21 years (hired with 17 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) Don Waddell 17 years (hired with 24 years experience as a senior executive, played 1 game in the NHL) Steve Yzerman 14 years (hired with 13 years experience as a senior executive, played 1514 games in the NHL) Stan Bowman 14 years (hired with 17 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) Kevin Cheveldayoff 14 years (hired with 2 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) Jim Nill 12 years (hired with 19 years experience as a senior executive, played 524 games in the NHL) Brad Treliving 11 years (hired with 17 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) * Don Sweeney 10 years (hired with 11 years experience as a senior executive, played 1115 games in the NHL) * Julien Brisebois 8 years (hired with 14 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) Kyle Dubas 7 years (hired with 9 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) * Kelly McCrimmon 6 years (hired with 3 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) Bill Guerin 6 years (hired with 4 years experience as a senior executive, played 1263 games in the NHL)) Bill Zito 5 years (hired with 7 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) Tom Fitzgerald 5 years (hired with 13 years experience as a senior executive, played 1097 games in the NHL) Bill Armstrong 5 years (hired with 10 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) * Kevyn Adams 5 years (hired with no experience as a senior executive, played 540 games in the NHL) * Chris Drury 4 years (hired with 5 years experience as a senior executive, played 892 games in the NHL) Pat Verbeek 3 1/2 years (hired with 10 years experience as a senior executive, played 1424 games in the NHL) Patrik Allvin 3 1/2 years (hired with 4 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) * Kyle Davidson 3 1/2 years (hired with 2 1/2 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) Kent Hughes 3 1/2 years (hired with no experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) * Chris McFarland 3 years, (hired with 21 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) * Jason Botterill 3 years (hired with 19 years experience as a senior executive, played 88 games in the NHL) Mike Grier 3 years (hired with no experience as a senior executive, played 1060 games in the NHL) * Danny Briere 2 years (hired with no experience as a senior executive, played 973 games in the NHL) * Craig Conroy 2 years (hired with 9 years experience as a senior executive, played 1009 games in the NHL) * Barry Trotz 2 years (hired with 1 year experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL but coached 23 years) * Steve Staios 2 years (hired with no experience as a senior executive, played 1001 games in the NHL) * Eric Tulsky 1 year (hired with 7 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) * Chris Patrick 1 year (hired with 9 years experience as a senior executive, did not play in the NHL) Matthieu Darche no experience (hired with 7 years experience as a senior executive, played 250 games in the NHL) * internal hires

I think we sometimes focus too much on our priorities and biases and look past what they are actually saying. Lindy says it took him a few months of being inside the organization to determine that a number of players were not what he perceived them to be from the outside. That should serve as a warning about our own perceptions. I think that is why Dylan Cozens was traded. And I think that is what will be behind what happens over the next 6 weeks.

I think the Sabres want to be a pace-pushing, always-attacking team, both on offence and defence. Adams has said it numerous times, as has Ruff.

Why do we think Rossi got 4th line minutes in the playoffs? He was their 10th most used forward (11th if you count Hinostroza, who played just 1 game) at 11:08 per game. He was behind Freddie Gaudreau and Marcus Johansen. He averaged 18 minutes during the regular season. Evason is an idiot is not an acceptable answer; he had reasons, what were they? Could the fact he went 3/6/9/-13 in 23 games down the stretch, been a factor? If so, why did he slump? His ice time was not cut in the regular season. Im not interested in investing assets in another guy who’s not a playoff-type performer.

I think Appert's rise is mostly due to his positive, upbeat personality. i know it can rub the hardcore hockey cynics of Sabrespace the wrong way, but it certainly seems effective in terms of how he's thought of around the office.

I'm also once again reminded of how tight the Sabres seem to be in terms of gossip. There were no reports from the usual sources they were talking and the only place this came up in the rumour mill was on those stories that listed all the former GMs that were out there. The biggest buzz I heard about this move was on here when somebody pointed out a while back that Jarmo was following the Sabres, the Jackets and no other NHL teams on Twitter.

I think this makes sense, and its why Jarmo took the job; there's opportunity for career advancement elsewhere if the team improves, and here if it improves or falters. It may even be something that's been openly acknowledged, but even if it's not, it's definitely in the backs of people's minds.

I'm not really going to put too much emphasis on JK's track record as a GM right now; he's not here to steer things, or initiate them. His role right now is to say "have you thought of this?", "why are we doing that?", "let me talk to ?, he knows..." and "Did you know..."

I don't know that it's about perception, so much as it's about knowledge. This challenges two of the biggest concerns about the front office construction: that it is full of rookies and that it is an echo chamber Dude has been around forever, knows everybody and done it all.

This was important from my perspective. I wasn't certain this was actually happening, but if it was ti needed to happen soon because the important season for GMs is now.

Well, holy *****. Most obvious choice was most obvious choice. (I mean, even I don't follow the Sabres on Twitter 😜)

I think the Sabres are facing three contract issues: Byram wants a bigger role Peterka wants to get paid Tuch wants to know things are going to get better. Management needs to navigate each of those situations while making the team better. Aren’t you glad Kevyn is in charge.

Listening to the actual pod was … interesting? Seravalli danced so much about Peterka: said it was “probably fair’ that any trade talk was initiated by the player, but refused to say he wants out; called it a “classic change of scenery moment” but refused to say why a change of scenery was necessary, instead dancing to “a lot of players on the Sabres roster, well more than a 1/4, aren’t necessarily thrilled about the way things have gone and I don’t know if it’s entirely fair to put (Peterka) in that category, but there is enough sort of rumblings”; Moves on to this is a player who is also going to need “a massive new contract” and if you don’t sign him or trade by July 1, then he’s fodder for an offer sheet; but then said there “has to be some trepidation” from the Sabres. He didn’t say anything about Tuch, Samuelsson or Power being unhappy; he said Kevyn Adams has already let GMs know he wants to shake things up, then brought up those names and saying “are we going to see some of those supposed foundational core players moved?” Then “what if you have to trade him (Peterka)? You can’t put a gun to his head and make him put pen to paper.” Cohost: “You mean he might sit out?” Frank: “no I’m not saying that at all, I’m just spitballing here.” It felt like an utter load of half-truths and speculation calculated by an agent to manipulate the Sabres into offering the moon, or create a market where another team will step up and offer to do the same.

I tell you, Leone sure sounds like a guy I want coaching my team: The way he talks, what he knows off the top of his head, the things he believes in. Impressive.

Karmanos addressed the strength and grit factor by talking about how Sam Bennett couldn’t do a pull-up and doesn’t play for the team that drafted him ”If people think it’s going to be easy to detect who is going to be a tough and physical player at the age of 17 at the NHL level, they haven’t been too involved in the NHL draft. We try.” ”Sometimes in the draft, you’re just trying to identify NHL players. The success rates will tell you that’s what you should focus on and not focus on player types, especially when it takes so long to develop them.” Draft talk starts just after the 25 minute mark.

We haven’t chewed on the goalie question much; I think most people are uncomfortable with a Levi/Luukkonen combo, but expect that is exactly what they will do. However, Jason Karmanos gave us a hint that may not be written in stone when he made a point of saying how Devon Levi can be stashed safely in Rochester without having to clear waivers In his year-end Amerks presser, he (paraphrasing) said Levi starting next season in Rochester “is going to depend on what options are available to the Sabres.” I read that to mean Levi in Buffalo may not be Plan A, and they are at least considering adding a goalie. What does Sabrespace think should be the plan in net?

I’ve yet to watch most of this, but Karmanos responds to an early question about the Amerks by saying “there’s a lot going on in Buffalo” with implication being that there are things in motion aimed at pushing the Sabres into the playoffs that could have significant implications on the Amerks. He sounds like a guy very much involved in whatever the Sabres are cooking and that there is an expectation that changes to the NHL roster will happen.