Brawndo

Per Sabres PR

Yep

Actually I would. From all accounts Kevyn Adams is a terrific person ( I have a close relative who knows the family personally) and I would love to talk hockey with him. He is a terrible NHL GM though, whether that be from his lack of experience, the financial restraints he operates under or a combination of both.

Adams is still under very tight financial constraints. The 91 point season the Sabres led the league in available cap space with a whopping 17.2 million available. The following season 2023-24 season they were 4th with 10.6 million available. This was also the first season that the Thompson and Cozens Extensions kicked in. The past season they were 7th with 8.4 million available. Couple this with the fact that Granato is the only person in the organization who was fired with term remaining on his deal, there is no doubt the organization is still under a do not spend philosophy. (Particularly since this was shared by a member of the Sabres Front Office) Adams absolutely sucks at his job, it takes a GM like Regier to successfully build a team under financial constraints. If Pegula will not upgrade on Adams, Assistant Coaches or allow the team to spend to the cap, that’s on him. The biggest worry is the players know what is going on, see all the unused cap space and lack of commitment to winning. Peterka was the latest example. Tage has had Podcast interviews this summer and has mentioned the lack of winning. If we get to the beginning of the season and Tuch hasn’t extended that’s the latest version of the canary in the coal mine.

The NHL absolutely knocked it out of the park with the Vegas draft at the sphere and the Four Nations Tournament only to follow them up with whatever the hell that was.

There are enough rumblings about Jarmo taking the Senior Advisor Position with the understanding he would move into the GM Position within 12 months. And there is a 0.00000001% chance that Adams realizes he is in over his head and will accept a position in the business side of the organization

Owners care about maximizing revenue, empty seats at KBC doesn’t achieve this. Pretty much all the contracts with the Front Office (including Adams)and Coaching Staff expire after this year, Pegula can walk away with no financial compensation owed after June 30th.

Physicality has never been a part of Power’s Game. His height allowed him to get away with it in the USHL and NCAA, yes he needs to be more physical but he has demonstrated a significant improvement in his defense metrics in each of the last three seasons. It’s too bad they could not get Jay McKee or even James Patrick to coach the defense. Both have experience with younger players on top of NHL Careers would have been beneficial.

Evolving Hockey defense percentiles for his first full three seasons at 13th, 34th and finally 78th during his first year with Ruff. I was ok with the Ruff Hiring as his teams usually see a bounce his first season, that certainly did not happen with the Sabres. It also stopped Adams from hiring His First Choice in Seth Appert. Now I hope we get a completely new coaching staff in 2026-27.

I believe there are a couple reasons the league has not stepped in. First there is a general sense of sympathy towards the Pegulas for what Kim is going through. The league had to clean up two situations with Ownership of Ottawa and Arizona needing to change hands Getting the new CBA done. There probably is an overall reluctance by the other owners to strip a franchise from a fellow owner as they would not want the same thing happening to them. I imagine the decreased revenue coming from the Buffalo Market is a bone of contention for the other owners, there probably will be a strong suggestion about hiring someone with experience into the GM role, Hello Jarmo, and spending to the cap coming in the next season or two

Not a fan of Terry at all so I have no reason to defend him, but you are correct this did not happen

I am going to disagree on the cap situation, that one is all Terry. Matthew Fairburn mentioned that the Sabres have had almost 60 million dollars in unused cap space over the past five years and only cap dump the Sabres have taken on was Ben Bishop to get to the floor. They are one of the franchises that receives revenue sharing and yet they never retained or acted as a third team broker to retain salary. How do you think the owners of the teams that pay into revenue sharing feel when their organizations are performing salary cap gymnastics in a flat cap world while the Sabres are sitting on unused space. Adams is complicit in the fact he is still willing to do this entering his sixth season as only two teams have made the playoffs in the past decade that were in the bottom ten for spending. Sean Monahan and Calgary’s First was offered to the Sabres as a cap dump, something that Adams actually wanted to do, but was ultimately told no. Instead Montreal ended up with two firsts for their trouble. I understand that GMs have to check with their owners about potential moves, but could you imagine Jim Nill or Joe Sakic calling their respective owners to ask about trading Henry Jokiharju for a 4th at the TDL?

What’s weak sauce is this organization not demonstrating that it is serious about winning. The fact that GMKA is entering his sixth season despite the regression and failure to make the playoffs, coupled with the fact that Wilford, Bales and Ellis are entering their fifth seasons. Competent organizations make changes to their coaching staffs all the time, Colorado hired Dave Hasktol earlier this week. Sabres Fans cannot even receive that simple change. Wilford is a symptom of a much larger problem that starts with the owner. The reason I singled out Wilford is there was a candidate they reached out to about replacing him with who ultimately turned them down. This is another serious concern about the organization they seemingly focus on one potential solution, if that doesn’t work they do not pivot. The organization feels there is an opportunity to improve, but decides to stay with the status quo after the only candidate turns them down. Could you imagine Power in a competent defense system with numbers he is putting up?

Zito

There may have been one or two people that would have been acceptable for the allocation of additional resources for the coaching staff. One was not interested. This has been a GMKA Talking Point since Power signed his ELC, no action though I would trade for Liligren from San Jose. One of the common trade proposals for Byram before the draft was Liligren and 30th overall. San Jose does have Edmonton’s First this year

They give recommendations on all sorts of moves, the issue is they are not followed unlike the Panthers. Analytics is the reason Florida gets players such as Forsling, Verhaeghe and Mikkola at bargain basement prices. Jarmo is a fan of analytics, so hopefully this bodes well for the future

There is runway left with him to develop. The organization has not put him in position to succeed. An ECHL Level coach in Wilford, taking until this offseason to potentially find him a partner.

For Funsies here is Dahlin’s

Evolving Hockey is cited as a source for The Athletic Player Cards. Here is the data from EV’s Website as well as Hockey Viz.