Kevyn Adams GM thread
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May Day 10
Registered User
Yes, kind of. I said upthread. Any GM tenured longer than Adams right now either made the playoff last season, has won the cup recently, or is Steve Yzerman.
Of the 6 coaches with longer tenures than Granato, 5 of them made the playoffs last season, and one of them is Mike Sullivan, who made it in his first 7 seasons including 2 cups.
They'll get it correct at some point though, Im sure. As long as the communication and conversations are good and challenging
Ace
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- Oct 29, 2015
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I mean active missing streaks that belong to the sitting GM. Adams is about to miss 4 straight. Jarmo missed more in a row. Yzerman has too. Has anyone else?
Thanks. That’s what I thought.
Excited to bury the 13 years isn’t on Adams excuse if he takes over the longest active streak for a GM just with his time on the clock. I mean…Yzerman built a dynasty so really its already unacceptable.
That's less retconing and more people no longer having to deal with a certain someone who was over the moon for TM
That could be too, though.
In the meantime, I suppose we have to hope Adams gets his shit together soon.
That could be too, though.
In the meantime, I suppose we have to hope Adams gets his shit together soon.
The biggest single issue is special teams. Last year they had a high differential in PPO and were good on the PP. This year they've had a low differential and have been dreadful. They're shooting like 10% on the PP.
They have 22 PP goals and have given up 8 SH goals. Overall 15 goal special teams differential for a team that's only given up 159 goals.
The personnel on hand seem better than they've been performing. I would like to see the statistics this year vs last when the game was 0-0.
Last year I thought they were bad at home good on the road because they had structure off the ice. Now i'm starting to think it's because teams are just totally playing off them at the start of the game and crushing them via counter attack. Playing the 'road game' even while at home.
They have been shit on the PP since the end of December 2022. Teams took away their one trick (flanker one-timer) and they've done nothing to alter how they set up nor have the personnel tried anything different. It's so frustrating to watch them stand still and stickhandle, dusting off the puck like they think they're going to pass things through not just one stick but multiple sticks to lay it on someone's blade for a one-timer (Skinner, Mitts as passer, both Thompson and Cozens as shooter) or standing still and off the crease, awaiting the puck (Cozens, Tuch) or just going back and forth from point to flanker (Dahlin/Power, every flanker) without taking things below the goal line with traffic going to the net (they did try that with Tuch for like one game and he generated a couple opportunities, haven't seen it since).
Their special teams goal differential is a big reason why they are so shit. All of their staff should be ashamed (and unemployed) for this habitual lack of trying anything but forcefeeding Thompson or his substitute.
Tijuana Donkey Show
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- Mar 14, 2023
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With Kekalainnens firing today Adams now has the longest active playoff drought among all GM’s.
This team might not win 3 games in a row all season. It’s a real possibility.
Both stats are significant.
This team might not win 3 games in a row all season. It’s a real possibility.
Both stats are significant.
The Sabres need to do what the Canucks did and bring in a proven winner as the President of Hockey Operations in Jim Rutherford who has mentored Patrik Allvin and Allvin has done a phenomenal job building that team into a playoff team, but Allvin was the Penguins director of international scouting for years and was the AGM for two years before he got the promotion as the Canucks GM .
Whereas Adam’s has no one working above him and had never worked in a an NHL head office ,
Was the Sabres director of youth hockey , Manager of Harbour Centre and The Sabres Director of hockey administration.
Make no mistake ; Adam’s tenure started off phenomenally with his drafting , The Eichel trade , signing the core players to great contractors , Reinhart trade etc.
But did absolutely nothing to support this core last offseason and all he had to show for it was Clifton and Erik Johnsson and relied on two rookie goalies when obviously Levi wasn’t ready and I strongly believe Benson has been rushed and this teams best players have all taken major steps back ( Cozens , Thompson , Tuch etc ) and it’s now going to be 13 years with no playoffs.
You would think Pegula would have learned by now but nope he wants to stick with his guys and the Canucks have showed us they have learned there lesson.
I believe Adam’s deserves one more off-season to finish the rebuild and finish what he started , but this off-season the Sabres need to make win now trades and we need to help the current roster and not worry about players years away .
Our prospect pool is already overflowing with prospects so the Sabres need to be willing to package their draft luck if it’s in the 7-10 range
Whereas Adam’s has no one working above him and had never worked in a an NHL head office ,
Was the Sabres director of youth hockey , Manager of Harbour Centre and The Sabres Director of hockey administration.
Make no mistake ; Adam’s tenure started off phenomenally with his drafting , The Eichel trade , signing the core players to great contractors , Reinhart trade etc.
But did absolutely nothing to support this core last offseason and all he had to show for it was Clifton and Erik Johnsson and relied on two rookie goalies when obviously Levi wasn’t ready and I strongly believe Benson has been rushed and this teams best players have all taken major steps back ( Cozens , Thompson , Tuch etc ) and it’s now going to be 13 years with no playoffs.
You would think Pegula would have learned by now but nope he wants to stick with his guys and the Canucks have showed us they have learned there lesson.
I believe Adam’s deserves one more off-season to finish the rebuild and finish what he started , but this off-season the Sabres need to make win now trades and we need to help the current roster and not worry about players years away .
Our prospect pool is already overflowing with prospects so the Sabres need to be willing to package their draft luck if it’s in the 7-10 range
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joshjull
Registered User
I’m talking specifically about the first couple months of the season. When the top six were no-shows and had to be broken up by game five. When we had a line blender for weeks after that trying to find things that worked. We eventually had injuries to Tage, Tuch, Cozens and Sammy. All of this combined for a crappy start and we were chase mode the rest of the season.
That time frame is what I was referring to when I said Adams was in a tough spot and there was no easy fix.
I’ll address goaltending in a separate post.
I agree on Quinn but I get why Adam’s didn’t get a replacement. Coming into the season we should have had an excellent top line, a promising 3rd line and a returning effective 4th line. In that situation we should have been able to ride out Quinn’s absence while allowing youngsters battle with VO for ice time in his spot. But thats not how things played out.
To me the Power partner is the last thing I’m worried about with the defense. For starters Joker was playing very well to start the season (even if he’s tailed off recently). It was the guys higher up the lineup that were killing us. Add in the fact that they killed Clifton by playing him on the left side and it all adds up to our defense being a mess to start the season. I simply don’t care about something as narrowly focused as a partner for Power. Get tougher more experienced dmen. Being Power’s partner should not be the goal.
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Tijuana Donkey Show
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- Mar 14, 2023
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I think it is more than just not getting replacements/upgrades. We are starting to see some issues stack on top of each other.
A big part of Adams claim to fame here is his early extensions of Power and Cozens. They didn't just have down years. They have both been flat out bad. And their bad play is a huge reason this team is struggling.
Now we are heading into a spot where those contracts may prohibit some moves with Casey, Peterka, Quinn, Levi, and UPL.
On top of that, for a guy who is living off of "drafting well", the Americans are very mediocre at the moment.
The Amerks are right were they were last year and they did the same thing each season - they didn't get AHL vet types to lead their offense at either center or PMD/Offensive defenseman. They went with mid-level vets who had a little runway left as possible late blooming prospects (Murray, Biro, Weissbach) to be the guys who carry the load in the doldrums that the best teams in the AHL tend to have.
There are 6 Adams' draftees on the Amerks at present - Kulich, Rosen, Kozak, Novikov, Neuchev and Kisakov with two others who have 11 games between them in Nadeau and Savoie on rehab assignment.
The Amerks are .568 this year, they were .563 last year. The issue isn't with the draftees, it's that they are almost at a Golisano level of undercutting their vets and yet they're still managing to be a winning team.
HaNotsri
Regstred User
- Dec 29, 2013
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I think you have to take into account that the players were loyal to Granato and tried to play his way with the new defensive mindset. He
neutered/krugered the top 6 really.
Tijuana Donkey Show
Registered User
- Mar 14, 2023
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I agree with you on most of this. You catch a lot more AHL and dev league games than I do. I totally trust your judgement.
I don't think that the drafted players are the problem either. The problem is that the fan base has been sold a bill of goods that says the draft picks are the solution to our problems and these are other worldly prospects in the pipeline. (for the Sabres and Amerks). We have more or less been told that these kids are we don't need to invest in other players.
If the Americans falter I think it sets off a bunch of dominoes that leads to a lot more people turning against Adams and Co.
This is more-or-less my view on Adams. I liked how he started and was quietly hopeful. His recent seasons’ efforts (or lack thereof) have completely worn off the shine.
A lot of talk about Vancouver here recently and using them as an example of how moves can be made to turn around a team, but.... Vanvouver has 19 players that are 26 or older on their roster. Buffalo has 16 that are 25 or younger.
These two teams are in completely different phases of their competitive windows.
The teams I am watching and curious about how their moves pan out in comparison to Buffalo are Arizona, Detroit and Ottawa.
While I think everyone wants to see Adams pull off a Hronek move, we have to be cautious and hope that he doesn't make a Blake like mistake and move a package of high end assets for a PLD. There are a lot of bad trades waiting out there for desperate GMs to make.
These two teams are in completely different phases of their competitive windows.
The teams I am watching and curious about how their moves pan out in comparison to Buffalo are Arizona, Detroit and Ottawa.
While I think everyone wants to see Adams pull off a Hronek move, we have to be cautious and hope that he doesn't make a Blake like mistake and move a package of high end assets for a PLD. There are a lot of bad trades waiting out there for desperate GMs to make.
Doug Prishpreed
Registered User
Again, all he has to do is not be a moron. No one who isn’t moron would have done the PLD move. Most of us knew it was bad and said so. Same with Skinner, same with Huberdeau. You always make it seem like those were impossible to predict that they’d turn out bad but they weren’t.
BB79
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- Apr 30, 2011
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Our competitive window is a concrete wall. We haven't seen a competitive Sabres team in ages.
Actually it’s been one year. Last year’s team was competitive.
MarkusKetterer
Shoulda got one game in
The trade for Skinner wasn’t bad. The Sabres gave up almost nothing in that trade. The extension was terrible, but that is a separate move.
As for the other two trades, I thought they were stupid. The only one that made a modicum of sense was PLD (Kupari for PLD, then some shit to make salary work).
The Canucks are an example because for years. 8 years to be exact , they had the worst General Manager in the NHL in Jim Benning. I won’t get into how bad he is but he might be one of the worst General managers of all time it was pretty bad.
The Canucks were trading away draft picks like crazy , had no organizational depth for years ,disastrous NHL contracts ( Loui Ericsson , Tyler Myers , Jay Beagle etc) was a dumpster fire team , inept decisions , and horrible trades like the OEL who the Canucks are paying until 2031.
And now two years later since Benning has been fired the Canucks are the best team in the NHL from a points perspective and are having their best season in franchise history . And a big part of that is having a proven winner as the top decision maker as the President of Hockey Operations in Jim Rutherford and a very strong young General Manager in Patrik Allvin who like Rutherford won 3 Stanley Cups. Francesco Aquillini finally stopped
Meddling with hockey matters and let the hockey people do there jobs and look at how it’s paying off for the Canucks having competent management.
Terry Pegula has been the Owner for 13 years . Ever since Darcy Regier was fired where are those experienced hockey people who have Stanley Cups in the front office ??
He’s hired 3 rookie GMs in Tim Murray , Jason Botterill and now Kevyn Adam’s and it’s just not working.
I dont know if Terry is meddling or not but the way he operates just isn’t working and now it’s 13 years with no playoffs and this great sports city deserves a team like the Bills ,
And now the Canucks are literally one of the envy’s of the league while the Sabres are still just begging for playoff hockey
The Canucks were trading away draft picks like crazy , had no organizational depth for years ,disastrous NHL contracts ( Loui Ericsson , Tyler Myers , Jay Beagle etc) was a dumpster fire team , inept decisions , and horrible trades like the OEL who the Canucks are paying until 2031.
And now two years later since Benning has been fired the Canucks are the best team in the NHL from a points perspective and are having their best season in franchise history . And a big part of that is having a proven winner as the top decision maker as the President of Hockey Operations in Jim Rutherford and a very strong young General Manager in Patrik Allvin who like Rutherford won 3 Stanley Cups. Francesco Aquillini finally stopped
Meddling with hockey matters and let the hockey people do there jobs and look at how it’s paying off for the Canucks having competent management.
Terry Pegula has been the Owner for 13 years . Ever since Darcy Regier was fired where are those experienced hockey people who have Stanley Cups in the front office ??
He’s hired 3 rookie GMs in Tim Murray , Jason Botterill and now Kevyn Adam’s and it’s just not working.
I dont know if Terry is meddling or not but the way he operates just isn’t working and now it’s 13 years with no playoffs and this great sports city deserves a team like the Bills ,
And now the Canucks are literally one of the envy’s of the league while the Sabres are still just begging for playoff hockey
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Benning was terrible when he entered the free agency market, but other than that, he was not nearly as bad as some make him out to be.
Canucks top players this season:
Elias Petersson - Drafted by Jim Benning
JT Miller - Acquired by Jim Benning
Quinn Hughes - Drafted by Jim Benning
Brock Boeser - Drafted by Jim Benning
Thatcher Demko - Drafted by Jim Benning
Filip Hronek
Conor Garland - Acquired by Jim Benning
Dakota Jashua
Ilya Mikheyev
Nils Hoglander - Drafted by Jim Benning
He screwed the cap with his free agency work, but he pretty much acquired the core that is carrying the current team to the best record in the league.
But... that has nothing to do with my point. The point was that the Canucks are a very vet established team, while the Sabres are a very young team. They are in very different positions and their model will not work for Buffalo for a few more years.
BB79
Registered User
- Apr 30, 2011
- 7,197
- 8,870
And they're right back to trash this year. Competitive window means compete every season for a good block of years before having to rebuild again, i.e. Penguins, Blackhawks and Capitals of the 2010s. One season since 2011 isn't a competitive window, it's a fluke. This team can't even climb out of its 12 year old rebuild.
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