If you really don’t believe that he hires these guys for a reason than idk what to tell you. It’s pretty obvious that there’s a reason he’s hired guys with 0 experience time and time again. He lucked out with the bills, and beane had experience prior. So wouldn’t a smart owner think hmmmm my football team has a gm wirh prior experience and things seem to be working out, why not do this for the try it for the hockey team? It’s because he doesn’t give a shit about the hockey team. He’s the reason guys like Reinhart left.
Like someone else stated earlier in here, the bills and sabres are not comparable because one team is clearly and has been trying to win and the other has been spinning their tires for 10+ years making the exact same hires along the way. There’s a reason he hires first time guys over and over even though it doesn’t work
There are reasons but they’re much more keystone cops than Machiavellian.
Murray as GM -> Pegula impulsively hires LaFontaine in Nov 2013 after a dinner/meeting with him one night. Which leads to Regier/ROslton getting fired and Nolan brought in. Then a GM search starts. He (Patty) does the GM search and it leads to Murray. Not even two months later they (Patty/Murray) are fighting with each other over the direction of the team. Murray wants to tank hard. Patty doesn’t and wants to re-sign Miller. Pegula has to pick a side and Murray wins out. Then Patty quits the team.
Botts as GM -> Pegula goes to the NHL offices for guidance on who are the up and coming GM candidates. That leads to Botts getting hired. He (Botts) wants to build up the front office staff and he does. We end up with one of the bigger front offices in the NHL. He gets fired and that front office gets gutted. Pegula also complained about Botts keeping him out of the loop on a lot of things. Thats about him being a dorky fanboy who likes to be around when things are discussed. Not because he tells the GM what to do. Which should be obvious since it would be impossible to leave him out of the loop for 3 years if he controlled things that much. That applies to Bills and Sabres.
Krueger/Adams -> Krueger manages to convince Pegula that he’s found his McDermott for the Sabres. So he (Pegula) sets up a front office thats structured the same as the Bills. That means Krueger has a lot of power over the roster and answers directly to Pegula (not Adams). He hires Adams as GM simply because he knows and trusts him. Pegula felt burned by the guidance from Patty and the league front offices on his previous GM hires. The irony of feeling that way about Patty after he impulsively hired him the first place is beyond comical. This is also the gutted front office that was “economic and efficient”
Adams as GM -> Adams gets full control of the front office after the previous experiment blows up in Pegula’s face. The front office structure goes back to the norm with the GM above the coach. Adams starts bringing back front office personnel and we don’t have the gutted front office any more. Adams hired someone experienced (Karmanos) as the associate GM. Then let him do the grunt work of reviewing the entire organization from top to bottom. We have one of the smallest front offices but its very slowly growing with adds each offseason.
I’ve always found the narrative that Pegula is some master manipulator to be bizarre. He’s a dorky super fan who is easily talked into things. Even if they’re not the norm and don’t look like a great idea. As Bills fans, we’re just lucky one of those things worked out. Teams normally don’t give a ton of power to a first time NFL head coach and have him answer directly to the owner (not the GM). Which effectively boxed out the existing GM. Then is allowed to essentially hire his own GM to replace him. That sounds like another thing that should have blown up in Pegula’s face.