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Kevyn Adams GM thread

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TehDoak said:
In 2020 Adams had a .500 team with a:

Franchise Center (Eichel)
Top Line Winger (reinhart)
1st overall pick d-man in development (Dahlin)
A starting goalie (Ullmark)

He had Cozens, Mittelstadt as former top 10 picks in the pipeline. Tage Thompson was coming off a major injury and really wasn't much of a consideration. And you had the Skinner contract looking like a big fat failure as well. You had Samuelsson, Jokijarhu, and Ryan Johnson in the defensive pipeline.

Thats the skeleton for a good team that a skilled professional GM with a budget could have built around and had success.

Unfortunately, we hired a loyalist with no experience and gave him no resources and no support.

His offseason moves, combined with bad coaching and injury luck, drove the team to a last place finish.

While the prospect pipeline is certainly stronger now that it was when he took over, the roster isn't in a significantly better place, at least in terms of results.

The management blew up what was a 7 year rebuild at the time and hit the reset button. Because the players weren't good? No, the cornerstone pieces other than Ristolainen have gone on and had great success since leaving. And even then, by all accounts, Ristolainen has done well in Philly. Because, they labeled the players as malcontents that "didn't want to be here". The angry players were the problem. But the reality was they simply wanted to be in a well run organization that knew how to win. It had nothing to do with the city of Buffalo and had everything to do with how bad of a job the Pegulas and the management they hired did in running the team.

So no, Adams has not done a good job since 2020. He dismanted a the skeleton of a good team, gathered assets, and his greatest success was missing the playoffs by a point....in a league where 50% of the teams make the playoffs. And that only happened because Tage Thompson came off the scrap heap to become a top line center, something he had no control over. Adams has constantly squandered dollars on bad players, left cap space assets ununused, and consistently failed to address obvious needs of the team.

The teams drafting has been, at least on paper, good since taking over, however, that has yet to translate to any tangible success on the ice.

The goal is to win games. In the NHL. To make the playoffs. And win the cup. Not amass prospects. And yes, having a good prospect pool can lead to great things. But, you need to be able to construct a legit NHL roster that can make the playoffs for that to matter. If all you are doing in developing prospects to the point they get sick of losing in the NHL and want to leave, you are just a developmental team for the rest of the NHL.
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I didn’t read all that but prior to the 2020 season Jack Eichel admitted that he asked for a trade. From that moment on everything changed.
 
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Sabre Dance said:
Rebuild again? They just added Taylor Hall. He asked for a trade that summer.
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That is why they signed Hall. Adams wanted to nuke it from orbit and build around Eichel. Eichel said 'no mas' and they opted to 'run it back'. They just did a super shitty job at it. When that bombed it was the last straw for Eichel (along with the medical disagreement)
 
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TehDoak said:
That is why they signed Hall. Adams wanted to nuke it from orbit and build around Eichel. Eichel said 'no mas' and they opted to 'run it back'. They just did a super shitty job at it. When that bombed it was the last straw for Eichel (along with the medical disagreement)
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I don’t believe Eichel said improve the roster or trade me. I know that’s how he puts it but I don’t trust him. Makes him look like the good guy. He didn’t want to be here anymore and his play showed it.
 
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TehDoak said:
He told ownership that "if you are going to rebuild (again) trade me"

They then chose to rebuild again.
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Reinhart said that. Eichel said he thought it would benefit the team more to trade him and use the assets. No indication about not wanting to participate in a rebuild as the team hadn't indicated that they were rebuilding at all.

Edit - just to add that i don't think anyone would expect Eichel to sit through a rebuild during his prime. The bad blood between eichel and fans was a result of eichel stating he did not request a trade only to walk that back and admit otherwise after the fact.
 
Fjordy said:
I hope he doesn't ask for a trade if they don't make the playoffs again.
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Let him. I don't blame anyone for not wanting to be a passenger on this train wreck. I have officially lost all confidence in Adams and the direction this team is heading in. He just keeps making things harder for him to clean up. He loads up on the positions we are already loaded up on. He rolls three goalies knowing that it's going to shorten the bench and not provide any consistency for goalies to build off of. He trades away one of our best players for more of that one position we are maxed out in. Can't trade picks for anything substantial. Can't sign any substantial free agents on opening day. Where do we go from here? how do we fix this? He doesn't know.
 
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This guy praised himself yesterday for building a 4th line. Any GM could build endless 4th lines every day.
What he needed to do was build a mentally tough top 6.
I remember Alex Tuch blasting his teammates last year for folding every time something negative happened in a game. "Boo Hoo" is how he phrased it.
Adam's did nothing to address that glaring weakness.
 
I still haven’t heard one person talking Sabres ask the simplest question. If Adams is really comfortable with this roster entering in to his fifth season…the one that has a gaping hole in the top 6, a joke at 3C and still needs a competent vet D not running back the same bullshit. The one that banks on everyone who regressed to turn back around their careers and go back to having career years. The one that banks on getting the same level of goaltending as last year because god know he doesn’t care about scoring out of trouble when you have two lines that flat out will never score…if he really believes this roster can eke it’s way into a wild card avoiding any injuries at all because God help us if Tage or Cozens get hurt for even a shift…

If he thinks he is due for the luckiest season in NHL history…

Why not use the cap space and assets you have to make it a team you think can do more than eke into a wild card spot?

He’s had a bottom five payroll every season since Pegula demanded economy and efficiency. He leaves holes everywhere with more than enough means to fill them. He watched last year as the team desperately needed to do something and he did…nothing. Not when Quinn went down. Not when he claims to have known Granato wasn’t working out early in the year. Not when the PP stayed in the shitter.

When is he going to build a team that is meant to do more than get lucky and eke in?

Because when you build that team. The one without the holes you refuse to address…it makes the just getting in part a lot f***ing easier.
 
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TehDoak said:
In 2020 Adams had a .500 team with a:

Franchise Center (Eichel)
Top Line Winger (reinhart)
1st overall pick d-man in development (Dahlin)
A starting goalie (Ullmark)

He had Cozens, Mittelstadt as former top 10 picks in the pipeline. Tage Thompson was coming off a major injury and really wasn't much of a consideration. And you had the Skinner contract looking like a big fat failure as well. You had Samuelsson, Jokijarhu, and Ryan Johnson in the defensive pipeline.

Thats the skeleton for a good team that a skilled professional GM with a budget could have built around and had success.

Unfortunately, we hired a loyalist with no experience and gave him no resources and no support.

His offseason moves, combined with bad coaching and injury luck, drove the team to a last place finish.

While the prospect pipeline is certainly stronger now that it was when he took over, the roster isn't in a significantly better place, at least in terms of results.

The management blew up what was a 7 year rebuild at the time and hit the reset button. Because the players weren't good? No, the cornerstone pieces other than Ristolainen have gone on and had great success since leaving. And even then, by all accounts, Ristolainen has done well in Philly. Because, they labeled the players as malcontents that "didn't want to be here". The angry players were the problem. But the reality was they simply wanted to be in a well run organization that knew how to win. It had nothing to do with the city of Buffalo and had everything to do with how bad of a job the Pegulas and the management they hired did in running the team.

So no, Adams has not done a good job since 2020. He dismanted a the skeleton of a good team, gathered assets, and his greatest success was missing the playoffs by a point....in a league where 50% of the teams make the playoffs. And that only happened because Tage Thompson came off the scrap heap to become a top line center, something he had no control over. Adams has constantly squandered dollars on bad players, left cap space assets ununused, and consistently failed to address obvious needs of the team.

The teams drafting has been, at least on paper, good since taking over, however, that has yet to translate to any tangible success on the ice.

The goal is to win games. In the NHL. To make the playoffs. And win the cup. Not amass prospects. And yes, having a good prospect pool can lead to great things. But, you need to be able to construct a legit NHL roster that can make the playoffs for that to matter. If all you are doing in developing prospects to the point they get sick of losing in the NHL and want to leave, you are just a developmental team for the rest of the NHL.
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People also forget he was going to give away Tage for a 4th or 5th round pick but was saved from his own stupidity when the other team backed out.
 
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Zman5778 said:
Wasn't that Botterill in the summer of 19?
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That can't be right because it would mean he was willing to give up on a guy he was so desperate to work he was forcing him to stay up and play/get annihilated on a nightly basis after a single season. Even by Botts standards that would've been beyond batshit crazy.
 
sabremike said:
That can't be right because it would mean he was willing to give up on a guy he was so desperate to work he was forcing him to stay up and play/get annihilated on a nightly basis after a single season. Even by Botts standards that would've been beyond batshit crazy.
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I'm pretty sure it was Botterill that nearly traded Tage for peanuts after getting him.

I'm trying like hell to find the source.
 
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HaNotsri said:
I think the sabres have been really, really lucky the last five years or so. All we have to show for it is almost making the playoffs in 19/20 and 22/23 but still, things could have been worse.
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One of the biggest ifs is would any other team have thought to try Tage at center like Granato did, if not then he might not be anywhere near what he is today.

Willgamesh said:
no way the 5th rumor makes any sense that's his 38goal year
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He didnt have 38 goals in 2019 or 2020
 
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Gras said:
One of the biggest ifs is would any other team have thought to try Tage at center like Granato did, if not then he might not be anywhere near what he is today.


He didnt have 38 goals in 2019 or 2020
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Granato did an amazing job up until last season. Reminds me of a great middle manager getting shit resources year after year and then taking the blame for a bad year.
 
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