Kevyn Adams GM thread

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

A quick scan on Stathead says that this will be the first time in franchise history that the team has never strung 3 straight wins in a full season.

There is no clean way to look this stay up, I have gone through half dozen teams and in scanning so far the 23-24 Sabres are the only team to ever do it.

The season is not over yet but it doesn’t look great.

 

[Zman5778]

A quick scan on Stathead says that this will be the first time in franchise history that the team has never strung 3 straight wins in a full season.

There is no clean way to look this stay up, I have gone through half dozen teams and in scanning so far the 23-24 Sabres are the only team to ever do it.

The season is not over yet but it doesn’t look great.

There's no way that this team doesn't rattle off a 3 game winning streak. Hell, I'm betting that they're going to pull off something like a 5- or 6-gamer just to get back in the fringes of the playoff race and tease the fans.

 

[Dubi Doo]

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.

Fire the bum for sitting on his hands while the season tanked. The team played their asses off for one game after their favorite uncle was booed. Then it was back to crap play.

I thought goaltending might be Adams achilles heel, but it's clear he doesn't have the balls to fire his coach even when the right move is painfully obvious. Then again, maybe Pegula is in his ear now that he's 'more involved than ever'.

 

[Dubi Doo]

There's no way that this team doesn't rattle off a 3 game winning streak. Hell, I'm betting that they're going to pull off something like a 5- or 6-gamer just to get back in the fringes of the playoff race and tease the fans.

I think theyre going for all the shame, honestly, which includes going an entire season without a 3 game winning streak. It's wild how once the Bills ended their embarrassing playoff-less streak, the Sabres had to take the torch from them. Incredible how bad of a product Buffalo sports have given the fans over the last 3 decades. No wonder the fans are so sensitive about the Bills.

 

[chi777]

Actually it’s been one year. Last year’s team was competitive.

Actually, they were not competitive last year. Being competitive is competing for the Stanley Cup. If you fail to make the Stanley Cup playoffs, even if it's by only a point, then you're not competitive.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

A quick scan on Stathead says that this will be the first time in franchise history that the team has never strung 3 straight wins in a full season.

There is no clean way to look this stay up, I have gone through half dozen teams and in scanning so far the 23-24 Sabres are the only team to ever do it.

The season is not over yet but it doesn’t look great.

Their best chance is coming next week against Anh, Mon, and Clb. Then at the end of March they get Cal, Ott, and NJ. Outside of those two stretches I don't think they do it.

 

[Fearnot]

Actually, they were not competitive last year. Being competitive is competing for the Stanley Cup. If you fail to make the Stanley Cup playoffs, even if it's by only a point, then you're not competitive.

I think that's being a contender.

 

[joshjull]

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.

You brought up one thing in that post that’s relevant to my post and an accurate statement. Cozens and Power struggling has hurt our ability to have success. The rest are just poorly informed bad takes so you can keep complaining for its own sake.

1) We won‘t know for several seasons if the Cozens/Power deals were a good idea. Thats the nature of these types of contracts. We are in year 1 of Cozens deal and Power’s hasn’t even started.

2) We are not in any danger of having to move on from any Mitts, UPL, Peterka, Quinn or Levi due to those deals or the cap.

3) A team’s drafting ability is not measured by how well its AHL team does. It’s pretty clear in your response to @Chainshot that you don‘t know what you’re talking about on this topic. But you desperately want to attack their draft record.

 

[Yultron]

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.

Your point is validated I get it , but the entire point of my point is Terry Pegula’s continued refusal to hire an experienced proven winner as the President of Hockey Operations and he wants to be involved and have people he trusts running hockey operations like Adam’s who had no experience running this team.

Where as Aquillini the Canucks owner finally did it a look at them now . So it’s obvious the Sabres need someone like Rutherford

 

[Irie]

Your point is validated I get it , but the entire point of my point is Terry Pegula’s continued refusal to hire an experienced proven winner as the President of Hockey Operations and he wants to be involved and have people he trusts running hockey operations like Adam’s who had no experience running this team.

Where as Aquillini the Canucks owner finally did it a look at them now . So it’s obvious the Sabres need someone like Rutherford

I've posted several times that having any owner involved in roster building and team management in any sport is a big problem. Getting Terry out of the way and having competent hockey minds running the show is priority number one.

Until that happens, I am also ok with Adams and his patient slow build approach, not because it is the best course of action, but because it is the least destructive.

But Adams HAS to make a coaching change. Another year of Granato would damage the players here more than they are likely to recover from. They are learning all the wrong lessons and their development is now being destroyed by Granato's terrible coaching.

The kids are lost. They are mostly regressing. I think this roster Adams has built has a ton of potential, but to stick with this coaching group is madness. If Adams can't see the problem, then he has to go now too.

In my mind, replacing the coaching staff is a must. Replacing Terry and ultimately Adams is also important, but as long as Terry is in the mix and calling the shots, I'd rather have Adams who manages by committee than a pegula hand picked replacement who will likely "Tim Murray" the current roster into another hot mess.

 

[Irie]

2) We are not in any danger of having to move on from any Mitts, UPL, Peterka, Quinn or Levi due to those deals or the cap.

I think this is false.

If this team re-signs Mitts and UPL and brings in even one more upgrade from outside, something will have to give next off-season. It is doubtful they can afford all of their RFA's unless they plan on running with five or six more ELCs/bargain -bin-UFAs on the roster on top of their already ridiculously young roster, which makes being competitive really difficult.

 

[Zman5778]

Being competitive is competing for the Stanley Cup.

That's hyperbole. The vast majority of the population will/would agree that across all sports there are varying degrees of competitive. Buffalo was NOT competitive in the tank years. Buffalo WAS competitive last year....competitive for a playoff spot. We're competitive in a lot of games this year.

 

[Zman5778]

2) We are not in any danger of having to move on from any Mitts, UPL, Peterka, Quinn or Levi due to those deals or the cap.

As of right now, you are correct.

However, signing one of those 5 to long-term market-ish value deals puts us nearly in the danger zone and 2 of them (or 1 of them and one from outside) puts us squarely in the danger zone.

 

[Yultron]

I've posted several times that having any owner involved in roster building and team management in any sport is a big problem. Getting Terry out of the way and having competent hockey minds running the show is priority number one.

Until that happens, I am also ok with Adams and his patient slow build approach, not because it is the best course of action, but because it is the least destructive.

But Adams HAS to make a coaching change. Another year of Granato would damage the players here more than they are likely to recover from. They are learning all the wrong lessons and their development is now being destroyed by Granato's terrible coaching.

The kids are lost. They are mostly regressing. I think this roster Adams has built has a ton of potential, but to stick with this coaching group is madness. If Adams can't see the problem, then he has to go now too.

In my mind, replacing the coaching staff is a must. Replacing Terry and ultimately Adams is also important, but as long as Terry is in the mix and calling the shots, I'd rather have Adams who manages by committee than a pegula hand picked replacement who will likely "Tim Murray" the current roster into another hot mess.

I certainly hope Granato gets fired , With Terry as owner anything is possible, he is very impatient

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

You brought up one thing in that post that’s relevant to my post and an accurate statement. Cozens and Power struggling has hurt our ability to have success. The rest are just poorly informed bad takes so you can keep complaining for its own sake.

1) We won‘t know for several seasons if the Cozens/Power deals were a good idea. Thats the nature of these types of contracts. We are in year 1 of Cozens deal and Power’s hasn’t even started.

2) We are not in any danger of having to move on from any Mitts, UPL, Peterka, Quinn or Levi due to those deals or the cap.

3) A team’s drafting ability is not measured by how well its AHL team does. It’s pretty clear in your response to @Chainshot that you don‘t know what you’re talking about on this topic. But you desperately want to attack their draft record.

There are some fair points....

1. We don't know. But right now we aren't getting value. And we don't have any additional vet presence becuase the assumption was that we would have value today and not tomorrow. "Our Stanley Cup window opens now" - Kevyn Adams.

2. You can say that we have no cap issues at the moment, that is today. But once we get into what some the market may bare for Mitts/UPL alone we are absolutely going to be staring down the barrel at some difficult decisions. In 4 years I don't think we will have all of Cozens, Power, UPL, Mitts, Peterka, Quinn, and Levi on the roster.

3. I am not saying that Rochester should be great based on drafting. I am saying this is what GMKA has sold this city for going on 5 years. Chainshot certainly addressed the fact that we haven't invested much in bringing any vets into the Americans. I don't disagree. But the line sold on this fan base is that we do not need to do that because of the draft.

 

[jd1970]

Adams grew up here, he should know better. The fans ask only for through the wall effort. The only effort these guys make is checking their online bank accounts every two weeks.

 

[toddkaz]

Kevin Adams is worthless and so is Granato. I wont spend another penny on this team until something changes. I hope other fans feel the same way.

Want to see Granato and Adams gone? Stop showing up to games as a fan.

 

[TehDoak]

So the question really is starting to become: when is the Adams era considered a failure. While our prospect pool is in a better position than when he took over the team, that came at the cost of the elite talent he inherited. No playoff appearances, we are short in key places and the pieces we locked up long term don't appear good enough to be a consistent playoff caliber core, which begs the question: why the rush to get them all signed to 7+ year deals.

What is the line of "well this isn't working". I think my opinion on the matter has been very clear, what is everyone else's?

 

[Old Navy Goat]

So the question really is starting to become: when is the Adams era considered a failure. While our prospect pool is in a better position than when he took over the team, that came at the cost of the elite talent he inherited. No playoff appearances, we are short in key places and the pieces we locked up long term don't appear good enough to be a consistent playoff caliber core, which begs the question: why the rush to get them all signed to 7+ year deals.

What is the line of "well this isn't working". I think my opinion on the matter has been very clear, what is everyone else's?

The players he signed to long-term deals were fine with the exception of Power. Thompson would be in excess of 9mil per if he had waited. Cozens is on a market deal, a slight uptick in performance and he's surpassing his contract. Samuelsson is an average deal for a 3 - 5 defensive specialist, the question will be durability. He had to pay Dahlin, few would argue that he's overpaid.

The issue is that your core pieces haven't performed very good thus season for long stretches due to injuries. You're seeing Cozens game improving dramatically from the fishbowl days. The team's problem is the auxiliary pieces aren't good. Skinner has been a 9mil anchor the new year. Okposo is washed, Benson needs more seasoning, Girgs is consistent buy he's not moving the needle. The team lacks those no nonsense guys that will kick them in the ass

 

[toddkaz]

The players he signed to long-term deals were fine with the exception of Power. Thompson would be in excess of 9mil per if he had waited. Cozens is on a market deal, a slight uptick in performance and he's surpassing his contract. Samuelsson is an average deal for a 3 - 5 defensive specialist, the question will be durability. He had to pay Dahlin, few would argue that he's overpaid.

The issue is that your core pieces haven't performed very good thus season for long stretches due to injuries. You're seeing Cozens game improving dramatically from the fishbowl days. The team's problem is the auxiliary pieces aren't good. Skinner has been a 9mil anchor the new year. Okposo is washed, Benson needs more seasoning, Girgs is consistent buy he's not moving the needle. The team lacks those no nonsense guys that will kick them in the ass

This year
Samuelsson has not played like a top 3-4 defenseman
Thompson has not played like a 9 million dollar player. Barely earning his 7m.
Cozens has not played like a 7m dollar player
Power has not played like an 8m dollar defenseman
Dahlin has not played like an 11m dollar defenseman

At this point they are all overpaid and underperforming.

 

[Old Navy Goat]

This year
Samuelsson has not played like a top 3-4 defenseman
Thompson has not played like a 9 million dollar player. Barely earning his 7m.
Cozens has not played like a 7m dollar player
Power has not played like an 8m dollar defenseman
Dahlin has not played like an 11m dollar defenseman

At this point they are all overpaid and underperforming.

Doesn't matter how they're performing this season as they were signed last season.

So what does a 47g 47a 1C sign for? It sure as hell ain't 7mil
What about a 22yo 31g 37a 2C? His peers like Boldy signed around 7mil

They all took a step back this season due to injuries and mental issues. In a perfect world everyone would sign 1wk contracts based on performance

 

[The Red Helmet]

Doesn't matter how they're performing this season as they were signed last season.

So what does a 47g 47a 1C sign for? It sure as hell ain't 7mil
What about a 22yo 31g 37a 2C? His peers like Boldy signed around 7mil

They all took a step back this season due to injuries and mental issues. In a perfect world everyone would sign 1wk contracts based on performance

What mental issues? Seems like that is something people just throw around nowadays with really no basis in fact. Were any of them committed and held for observation? What mental issues are these players dealing with that the entire population does not deal with on a day to day basis?

 

[Old Navy Goat]

What mental issues? Seems like that is something people just throw around nowadays with really no basis in fact. Were any of them committed and held for observation? What mental issues are these players dealing with that the entire population does not deal with on a day to day basis?

Overthinking things, believing you can take it 1v5 at will, continually making the wrong play vice the simple smart one, seemingly putting too much pressure on themselves etc

 

[Gras]

This year
Samuelsson has not played like a top 3-4 defenseman
Thompson has not played like a 9 million dollar player. Barely earning his 7m.
Cozens has not played like a 7m dollar player
Power has not played like an 8m dollar defenseman
Dahlin has not played like an 11m dollar defenseman

At this point they are all overpaid and underperforming.

Its a good thing then that Power isnt making 8m this year and Dahlin isnt making 11m then

 

[joshjull]

I have one thing to add to your list: goaltending. I expect Adams to go UPL/Levi which is dumb as hell since the season could be over after 30 games yet again.
Replace Levi with a vet, we might have to lose a couple of trades (buying high on goalie and then selling low to make room if Levi becomes NHL-caliber). It will mess with the cap/internal salary cap as well but it is what it is.

I have no problem with UPL/Levi next season. I also have no problem acquiring a vet if they want to keep Levi in Rochester. But it’s not realistic to expect much more from that vet than what Levi could bring.