Kevyn Adams GM thread

[joshjull]

Sounds like you are telling me that your statement is true and there is no cap issues going forward because Adams doesn't have to improve the roster or try to ice a competitive team.

Because if he does either of those two things, your statement is false imo.

Here is exactly what you said:



Facts are that once Mitts and UPL are signed, there will be very little money moving forward to fill all of the spots of Girgensons. Johnson, Okposo, Olofsson, Robinson, Krebs and Jokiharju.

And the following season, it is going to be incredibly difficult to resign R Johnson, Peterka, Levi, and Quinn on top of the 7 i previously listed who's spots will need filling in 2025 as well.

Those are facts. You seem to be going into "super pedantic mode" to spin the statement as something it is not within the big picture of this hockey club.

You say I am cherrypicking, but I quoted your entire #2 point. It is not out of context of anything in your original post. It is an assertion that stands alone, and I responded to it. This team has cap issues, and Cozens and Power's deals are a big part of the reason why.

I get that your argument is "there are ways to avoid the cap issues". Sure, Adams can run with 20 players all year. Or he can fill half his team with ELCs. Neither of which are realistic options for a team looking to compete. So saying there is no danger, but relying on unrealistic scenarios to get to that conclusion is just bad faith.

If I am somehow misunderstanding what you are implying, I apologize, and maybe you can break down your solution to the cap situation with the actual numbers with both UPL and Mitts signed for 2024 under an 87.5M cap, and then give a quick breakdown for 2025 of how this team then fits Quinn, Peterka, Levi, and Johnson also into the mix and what that roster looks like, because I keep crunching the numbers, and there is a huge danger of losing some good young talent in my results.

I had to take a break before responding because I was pretty pissed off reading it. Why do you feel the need to make shit up instead of addressing what I posted?

Let’s start with my stuff.

I responded to a poster who is worried about the Cozens/Power contracts hurting our ability to sign five specific RFAs (Mitts/UPL/Petrka/Quinn/Levi). I said they shouldn’t be a problem nor will the cap.

Had you actually followed that exchange, as well as another post I made to @Zman5778 before quoting you the first time. Then you’d know that one of the options I suggested is trading Cozens or Power if they keep hurting us on the ice. The point being is that the only way those contracts hurt us is if they underperforming. If they are, we’d have an outlet to deal with it. Since neither of them have trade protection for the next several years. Adams gave himself flexibility with those deals and Tage’s.

If the goal of that poster was to keep those five specific RFAs, then it should be blindly obvious it could cost us others. Its absolutely crazy you keep insisting that ensuring those 5 RFAs stay means all the other RFAs will stay as well. What the hell are you talking about?

Me: I think we can easily keep those 5 guys
You: No way we can keep 10guys.

I get that your argument is "there are ways to avoid the cap issues". Sure, Adams can run with 20 players all year. Or he can fill half his team with ELCs. Neither of which are realistic options for a team looking to compete. So saying there is no danger, but relying on unrealistic scenarios to get to that conclusion is just bad faith.

No, you don’t get it and have no clue about the options.

What can Adams can do to keep those 5 RFAs here? There are the trades with one of the big names that I mentioned. He can also give bridge deals to guys like JJ and Quinn. A two year your bridge keeps their cap hits down and takes them to the end of Skinner’s contract. Adams can play around with the lengths of Mitts/UPL contracts to keep the cap down as well. Levi isn’t even worth mentioning since he’s not likely to have any leverage a year from now.

I’d also point out if we bring in anyone to improve the top 9 or top 4. We’re my be sending someone out to make that happen.


It’s pretty obvious I don’t think everyone is staying and the players will be sacrificed to keep others or acquire others. That’s how the NHL works.

both UPL and Mitts signed for 2024 under an 87.5M cap, and then give a quick breakdown for 2025 of how this team then fits Quinn, Peterka, Levi, and Johnson also into the mix and what that roster looks like, because I keep crunching the numbers, and there is a huge danger of losing some good young talent in my results.

Of course we might lose some young talent. As I said earlier, that should be blindly obvious. You just keep making up the talking point that I think otherwise.

But I have to laugh at your melodramatic framing of possible Mitts/UPL extensions. NHL teams sign who they want to sign and worry about the cap after. We saw that consistently the last 3 or 4 years during the tightest cap crunch of the cap era.

There isn’t a single GM that wouldn’t extend players like Mitts or UPL just because it might impact a young RFA a year or two down the road. What the Leafs did with Nylander is how NHL teams view this stuff. No matter their cap circumstances, try to lock in the players you want and so it out after.

If you don’t understand my point after this and make up more bullshit. Then I’m done. You can debate with yourself.

 

[Irie]

I had to take a break before responding because I was pretty pissed off reading it. Why do you feel the need to make shit up instead of addressing what I posted?

Let’s start with my stuff.

I responded to a poster who is worried about the Cozens/Power contracts hurting our ability to sign five specific RFAs (Mitts/UPL/Petrka/Quinn/Levi). I said they shouldn’t be a problem nor will the cap.

Had you actually followed that exchange, as well as another post I made to @Zman5778 before quoting you the first time. Then you’d know that one of the options I suggested is trading Cozens or Power if they keep hurting us on the ice. The point being is that the only way those contracts hurt us is if they underperforming. If they are, we’d have an outlet to deal with it. Since neither of them have trade protection for the next several years. Adams gave himself flexibility with those deals and Tage’s.

If the goal of that poster was to keep those five specific RFAs, then it should be blindly obvious it could cost us others. Its absolutely crazy you keep insisting that ensuring those 5 RFAs stay means all the other RFAs will stay as well. What the hell are you talking about?

Me: I think we can easily keep those 5 guys
You: No way we can keep 10guys.



No, you don’t get it and have no clue about the options.

What can Adams can do to keep those 5 RFAs here? There are the trades with one of the big names that I mentioned. He can also give bridge deals to guys like JJ and Quinn. A two year your bridge keeps their cap hits down and takes them to the end of Skinner’s contract. Adams can play around with the lengths of Mitts/UPL contracts to keep the cap down as well. Levi isn’t even worth mentioning since he’s not likely to have any leverage a year from now.

I’d also point out if we bring in anyone to improve the top 9 or top 4. We’re my be sending someone out to make that happen.


It’s pretty obvious I don’t think everyone is staying and the players will be sacrificed to keep others or acquire others. That’s how the NHL works.


Of course we might lose some young talent. As I said earlier, that should be blindly obvious. You just keep making up the talking point that I think otherwise.

But I have to laugh at your melodramatic framing of possible Mitts/UPL extensions. NHL teams sign who they want to sign and worry about the cap after. We saw that consistently the last 3 or 4 years during the tightest cap crunch of the cap era.

There isn’t a single GM that wouldn’t extend players like Mitts or UPL just because it might impact a young RFA a year or two down the road. What the Leafs did with Nylander is how NHL teams view this stuff. No matter their cap circumstances, try to lock in the players you want and so it out after.

If you don’t understand my point after this and make up more bullshit. Then I’m done. You can debate with yourself.

Sir, half of the posts you are referencing, (that you say I should have taken into context), you posted AFTER I responded to your statement. I apologize for forgetting to bring my time machine to the discussion last week

@BuffaloMango had legitimate concern about the RFAs and cap going forward, and you posted a statement that I still find as absolutely false.

Here is what you said:

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.

"...due to those deals or the cap." That is the entire point in your post, nothing out of context.

I even bolded the "or the cap" when I followed up to clarify what I thought was false about the statement.

That is all I was responding to. Nothing else. I certainly was not responding to ideas you would be posting in the future.

I am glad to see that you are now posting pretty much my points on the topic. I don't really care how much history revising you do, just glad you have come around to the reality of the cap situation. Hopefully now everyone can move forward and we will all be on the same page.

 

[Ace]

Adams has a new interview on on the Athletic.

Do not read it if you ever want to believe in this franchise improving. An abject disaster for those with a shred of hope left. Excuses, commitment to the same…and holy shit…Power doesn’t need that partner anymore guys. Granato is safe. He doesn’t see the youngest team in the league as being young. No one wants to come here because we’re a .500 team again.

This is maybe the most depressing interview he could have given. At least if he threw a middle finger up while he did it it would have had some art to it.

 

[My Cozen Dylan]

Adams has a new interview on on the Athletic.

Do not read it if you ever want to believe in this franchise improving. An abject disaster for those with a shred of hope left. Excuses, commitment to the same…and holy shit…Power doesn’t need that partner anymore guys. Granato is safe. He doesn’t see the youngest team in the league as being young. No one wants to come here because we’re a .500 team again.

This is maybe the most depressing interview he could have given. At least if he threw a middle finger up while he did it it would have had some art to it.

I just read it and I didn’t get the impression that he’ll do nothing. Yeah I wish he’d speak a little less fluffy/corporate but he said multiple times that they haven’t been good enough.

 

[MOGlLNY]

I read it too. More of the same nothing speak. I get all the NTCs have made it harder to get impact players but so many excuses about not getting moves done.

 

[Ace]

I just read it and I didn’t get the impression that he’ll do nothing. Yeah I wish he’d speak a little less fluffy/corporate but he said multiple times that they haven’t been good enough.

He built in every excuse in the world. No one wants to come here. He has tried but they go elsewhere…and that was before we fell back to .500. Granato isn’t going. The Power’s partner answer almost made me f***ing puke.

He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get any of it. He wants you to know that he failed to replace Quinn but what can you do when people sign elsewhere and trades are hard? THATS HIS JOB. if he can do it…he shouldn’t have it. Trades are suddenly going to get easier? He’s suddenly going to identify good players to sign and they will be happy to? Because he sure wants credit for getting ERIK JOHNSON AND CLIFTON when they had other options.

He set up every reason he won’t do anything of note again…told us why…and said he wanted everyone to like him.

It’s a disaster with no end…no change…in sight.

 

[TehDoak]

Adams has a new interview on on the Athletic.

Do not read it if you ever want to believe in this franchise improving. An abject disaster for those with a shred of hope left. Excuses, commitment to the same…and holy shit…Power doesn’t need that partner anymore guys. Granato is safe. He doesn’t see the youngest team in the league as being young. No one wants to come here because we’re a .500 team again.

This is maybe the most depressing interview he could have given. At least if he threw a middle finger up while he did it it would have had some art to it.

It's a typical Adams interview where he essentially talks so much the interviewer can't get many actual questions in. The most concerning part to me is this:

What I see right now out of the room as I sit in the meetings and there is absolutely great pre-game plan, pre-scout plan that is going into every game.

This was when asked specifically about Granato. I mean, team preperation has been one of the big issues with Granato. The team simply doesn't look ready to play most nights.

I'm sure whatever tint of your glasses already is re: Adams is what you will take out of it. He's a guy without any answers, so he just talks a lot. Nothing new.

 

[Ace]

And the worst one to me…was what he said about Quinn. He started by saying…well whenever something doesn’t work you failed. You can see his stupid smile while he’s saying it. As if trying and failing was ok…because he had internal options. Which have failed…but only because…they failed? Wtf.

Until he proves otherwise his only role here is to sell you a line of bullshit about why not being competitive year after year is perfectly acceptable. Because that is what his actions say. I’d have fired him when he didn’t do anything when Quinn went down. That wasn’t a red flag. It was a white one.

 

[Ace]

“When you look at a player like Owen Power, people can say I want to find the ideal perfect partner for Owen Power. That’s something we think and talk about. But Owen Power is progressing in his career now where I truly believe he’s going to be that elite-level defenseman that he can almost, I don’t want to say can play with any type of player, but look at Hedman’s career over the years where he had a lot of different partners and is just a great player. You want to be careful saying I need to get a specific type of player. Some of it is Dahlin has really elevated and whoever Dahlin plays with they’re going to be good together.”

Let’s take a look at this garbage. First and foremost…the latter part isn’t even close to true. Dahlin and Samuelsson have been terrible together for a while. He goes on to talk about how Joker fits into it…which means…if you can count…the same f***ing defensemen. The ones we’ve watched fail repeatedly.

Power is going to be an elite level D? What games is he watching? I don’t even think Power is as bad as many do…but I sure as shit know he needs help. Adams is openly discussing waiting out his development and going cheap on partners. After letting him develop with cheap partners and tens of millions in cap space.

He is not a serious man. This is not a serious organization.

 

[Ace]

You know what would have been easy to say at any point?

“I’m going to improve this team”.

Doesn’t need follow ups right now. Needed to be said. Not a half dozen reasons doing it is hard. Not tepid admissions that you failed so far. Not wishy washy statements on plans and players. I don’t want to see the word “try” anywhere near it. You’ve talked about trying for so many years without results I’m not convinced you even know what the word means. Just f***ing say “I am going to improve this team”. Not…we need to get better every day. Not internal growth. Not anything else that isn’t a flat out admission the roster is not good enough and that you will improve it.

Next offseason anything short of “our goal is to make the playoffs and failure to do so will be met with consequences” is unacceptable. Because people pretended that was the case last off-season when you were busy failing to improve the team and were talking about internal growth and getting better every day. Enough people that we somehow find ourselves in the same spot again…waiting for a standard and consequences for failure to meet that standard. Is finishing in the top half of the league after FIVE offseasons too high a standard? It sure was for four.

one last one…your job is not, in fact, to listen and have conversations on everyone. Your job…is to improve the team and accomplish a set goal of making the playoffs. That was your job last offseason…and you didnt do it. That is only still your job this off-season because Pegula is a joke owner. If it is still your job in two offseasons move the f***ing team.

 

[TehDoak]

“When you look at a player like Owen Power, people can say I want to find the ideal perfect partner for Owen Power. That’s something we think and talk about. But Owen Power is progressing in his career now where I truly believe he’s going to be that elite-level defenseman that he can almost, I don’t want to say can play with any type of player, but look at Hedman’s career over the years where he had a lot of different partners and is just a great player. You want to be careful saying I need to get a specific type of player. Some of it is Dahlin has really elevated and whoever Dahlin plays with they’re going to be good together.”

Let’s take a look at this garbage. First and foremost…the latter part isn’t even close to true. Dahlin and Samuelsson have been terrible together for a while. He goes on to talk about how Joker fits into it…which means…if you can count…the same f***ing defensemen. The ones we’ve watched fail repeatedly.

Power is going to be an elite level D? What games is he watching? I don’t even think Power is as bad as many do…but I sure as shit know he needs help. Adams is openly discussing waiting out his development and going cheap on partners. After letting him develop with cheap partners and tens of millions in cap space.

He is not a serious man. This is not a serious organization.

Adams appears to have the old Darcy Regier blinders, where he believes in "his guys" so much he can't be objective about them. We will see what happens this summer, where corrective surgery is long over due on the forward group. But, my guess is we see largely the same group return, +/- Mittelstadt depending on his willingness to meet contract demands.

 

[TehDoak]

Next offseason anything short of “our goal is to make the playoffs and failure to do so will be met with consequences” is unacceptable. Because people pretended that was the case last off-season when you were busy failing to improve the team and were talking about internal growth and getting better every day. Enough people that we somehow find ourselves in the same spot again…waiting for a standard and consequences for failure to meet that standard. Is finishing in the top half of the league after FIVE offseasons too high a standard? It sure was for four.

I mean, in the end, I doubt Adams has the ability to affect change much on people like Granato under contract. The consequences have to come from ownership. Adams is the defacto Voice of Pegula. He's not going to speak out of turn and claim there are consequences he doesn't have the authority to enforce. He can't fire the coach, especially after he likely went to bat to get Granato an extension that just kicked in, so even a vague threat of it would ring hollow to all involved.

 

[Ace]

I mean, in the end, I doubt Adams has the ability to affect change much on people like Granato under contract. The consequences have to come from ownership. Adams is the defacto Voice of Pegula. He's not going to speak out of turn and claim there are consequences he doesn't have the authority to enforce. He can't fire the coach, especially after he likely went to bat to get Granato an extension that just kicked in, so even a vague threat of it would ring hollow to all involved.

Doesn’t matter. Because it will still do something that needs to happen. Expose him to the fans that still manage to lie to themselves about Adams’s ability to do this job.

 

[Chainshot]

Kevyn Adams Q&A: On Don Granato's future, Sabres' trade deadline plans and more

With less than a week before the trade deadline, the Sabres GM spoke to The Athletic on a variety of topics regarding the state of the team.

theathletic.com

...for those with the sub who are wondering what the article is about.

 

[toddkaz]

Adams thinks Granato has this team well prepared and great game plan going into every game

 

[thewookie1]

Adams thinks Granato has this team well prepared and great game plan going into every game
View attachment 828785

Well he isn't going to not say that either mind you.

 

[toddkaz]

Well he isn't going to not say that either mind you.

Oh I didn't know its a binary choice between one or the other.

The question wasn't is the team prepared? The question was Will Granato be here next year.

Which means Adams offered up that information unsolicited.

No one said he was going to hang the coach out to dry. Thats just silly but when you say the team is well prepared thats also nonsense and makes it look like Granato and Adams are out to lunch.

Saying something like that is just as telling as not saying it at all.

 

[Gabrielor]

Kevyn Adams Q&A: On Don Granato's future, Sabres' trade deadline plans and more

With less than a week before the trade deadline, the Sabres GM spoke to The Athletic on a variety of topics regarding the state of the team.

theathletic.com

...for those with the sub who are wondering what the article is about.

Nothing new. Sounds constantly afraid to commit, even when answering questions.

One thing he needs to drop is the 'fans carrying the drought around [and blaming us for it]'.

1) Pegula's been there for all of it. I do blame him.

2) You're on year 4. This isn't your 1st/2nd year anymore. You haven't made the playoffs going on 4 tries now.

 

[Gras]

Nothing new. Sounds constantly afraid to commit, even when answering questions.

One thing he needs to drop is the 'fans carrying the drought around [and blaming us for it]'.

1) Pegula's been there for all of it. I do blame him.

2) You're on year 4. This isn't your 1st/2nd year anymore. You haven't made the playoffs going on 4 tries now.

They only tried on 2 of the 4 time.

 

[Gabrielor]

They only tried on 2 of the 4 time.

You're telling me he wasn't doing anything those 2 years to help future years? Those 2 he tried should've been extra-prepared then.

 

[TehDoak]

They only tried on 2 of the 4 time.

If last summer counts as "trying", well ,if he doubles his effort we can get....let me see, four bottom pairing d-men to fix the issue! And I guess we're giving Krebs 6M per this summer for 8 years.

 

[Gras]

You're telling me he wasn't doing anything those 2 years to help future years? Those 2 he tried should've been extra-prepared then.

You said he hasnt made the playoffs in 4 tries, when he only has tried twice, yr 1 with Hall and this current year.

 

[Gabrielor]

You said he hasnt made the playoffs in 4 tries, when he only has tried twice, yr 1 with Hall and this current year.

It's a massive, massive condemnation of him to say he didn't try last year.

 

[Jim Bob]

Kevyn Adams Q&A: On Don Granato's future, Sabres' trade deadline plans and more

With less than a week before the trade deadline, the Sabres GM spoke to The Athletic on a variety of topics regarding the state of the team.

theathletic.com

...for those with the sub who are wondering what the article is about.

Bakes and Fairburn talked about it, as well.

I chuckled when they said the interview sounded like an episode of the Baker Fairburn Show.



And here is Adams on WGR.

Honestly, I think he knows where the team is at, what he wants to do, and what other teams and players with trade protection want that will make it tough to make the kinds of deals he wants to make (add vets with term for futures or "hockey trades").

 

[Old Navy Goat]

It'll be easier to revamp the bottom 6 in the off-season. Any worthwhile players will be unavailable at the trade deadline or will be highly sought by playoff teams.