Kevyn Adams GM thread

[1point21Gigawatts]

On top of all of the other issues, GMKA has made it impossible to move players without losing the trade. Somehow he managed to take the little value our guys have and make it lower.

 

[Jimmybarndoor2]

I think Kevyn's more likely move is to be patient with "his core." Fans do not want to hear it because of the drought, but Adams has been more patient than the fans to this point. It won't shock me if he's getting calls on guys like Cozens and Quinn and he doesn't want to move them out of fear that they pop elsewhere like other talented guys he's moved out of town.

Not much can change mid season that will help team unfortunately

 

[joshjull]

It's not some sort of conspiracy.

It is just more evidence that Pegula is not interested in doing everything possible to bring a Stanley Cup to Buffalo like he proclaimed when he bought the team.

Conspiracy describes the many things posters believe. Not the actual spending.

The point I was trying to make is the last several seasons is nothing new with Pegula. His cash payments for the roster have usually been where they are now relative to the rest of the league. But many don’t know that. So posters want to believe any theory thrown out there. There was no fundamental shift on Pegula’s part in the 2020 offseason after the “economic and efficient” comments. Outside of one year with a skeleton crew front office.

 

[Tijuana Donkey Show]

Pegula has repeatedly dismissed the idea of a POHO and has implemented more flat reporting structures with the Bills and Sabres. I don't think he wants to run his team that way.

My guess is that when the day comes that Adams is no longer the GM, he probably slides to a job either with the Jr Sabres or HarborCenter or on the business side of the Sabres.

Sorry if this is being pedantic, but Terry has always had a flat management structure. I will never forget pretty early on in his tenure with the Sabres and somebody asked about all the "Secret meetings" with Darcy without including then President Ted Black and Terry's response was something like "Nobody in the org has a monopoly on hockey knowledge".

I knew from that day forward we were sunk.

 

[Jim Bob]

Sorry if this is being pedantic, but Terry has always had a flat management structure. I will never forget pretty early on in his tenure with the Sabres and somebody asked about all the "Secret meetings" with Darcy without including then President Ted Black and Terry's response was something like "Nobody in the org has a monopoly on hockey knowledge".

I knew from that day forward we were sunk.

The funny thing is that Tom Dundon in Carolina is even worse from what Craig Custance said yesterday in an interview about his new book.

 

[Jim Bob]

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Will they be confiscated off your back by Arena security ?

 

[Beerz]

Sorry if this is being pedantic, but Terry has always had a flat management structure. I will never forget pretty early on in his tenure with the Sabres and somebody asked about all the "Secret meetings" with Darcy without including then President Ted Black and Terry's response was something like "Nobody in the org has a monopoly on hockey knowledge".

I knew from that day forward we were sunk.

Why would Ted Black be in meetings with Darcy when Ted Black had nothing to do with the on ice product except the Turdburgers. Black was President of the Financial side of the Sabres. There would be no reason for him to be in on any meetings with Darcy if it pertained to players/construction of team.

 

[Sabresbyswords104]

It's not some sort of conspiracy.

It is just more evidence that Pegula is not interested in doing everything possible to bring a Stanley Cup to Buffalo like he proclaimed when he bought the team.




Here is proof of life.

What a joke when he talks . Concerning…..

 

[Sabresbyswords104]

Kevyn Adams chuckles and leans into the microphone, “Being a GM is a lot like choosing palm trees for your garden. You’re looking for the one that stands tall, can handle the heat, and always keeps its cool.”

He winks and adds, “And when you make that No. 1 overall pick, you’re hoping it’s like the perfect palm—strong, resilient, and maybe even has a few coconuts to drop down the road.”

He grins, “And when the owner claps, you know he’s thinking, ‘That’s a tree worth planting.’”

 

[SundherDome]

Will they be confiscated off your back by Arena security ?

Apparently the club released a message saying they are fine with palm trees, just nothing can Interfere with fans viewing the game, which is fair

 

[sabremike]

Apparently the club released a message saying they are fine with palm trees, just nothing can Interfere with fans viewing the game, which is fair

The only thing they would be blocking are empty seats.

 

[Ace]

Apparently the club released a message saying they are fine with palm trees, just nothing can Interfere with fans viewing the game, which is fair

Were the empty seats complaining?

 

[Fearnot]

What a joke when he talks . Concerning…..

Sounds like he didn't even care about the team and bought it on a lark. I hope those other female investors teach his girls to be billionaires!! YAY GO PEGULAS!

 

[joshjull]

The fact our GM is Kevyn Adams is a perfect example of why we are on every no trade list in the league. If you were a player would you want to come to such an unserious organization?

His tenure certainly hasn’t helped at all. But I’m pretty sure we were already on those lists before he even became GM. Our suck was already legendary.

 

[Archie Lee]

Pegula has never spent a ton of cash on the roster relative to the rest of the league during his ownership tenure. So why is now some sort of conspiracy?

In general, I agree. Pegula has not been one of the league's big spenders. I think the #'s are a little misleading though.

When Pegula took over the Sabres, they were a cap team. Within a couple of years they were in tank mode and there was no reason to spend near the cap. From Eichel's 2nd year though, through to the 2nd year of his post ELC, the Sabres spent at 96% of the cap, twice in that 4 year period being essentially a "cap team". I would argue that Pegula was showing then, a willingness to spend money that matched with expectations. People were expecting, in Eichel years 2-5, that the Sabres would be contending for the playoffs and the Sabres spent like a playoff team. After that stretch, spending and expectations fell. This is the first year since Eichel year 5 where there have been real playoff-expectations. Spending, while ticking up a bit, has not reached the level that is equal to what we generally are seeing from teams that expect to be in the playoffs.

None of this is a conspiracy.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Will they be confiscated off your back by Arena security ?

They would be smart and make them wearable from both sides. One side this, one side normal.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Apparently the club released a message saying they are fine with palm trees, just nothing can Interfere with fans viewing the game, which is fair

Someone reported at least two times palm trees were confiscated. But here is the PR side

NHL's most tropical controversy: Sabres clarify stance on inflatable palm trees

Sabres fans have responded to the team's recent playoff woes with tropical flair.

www.espn.com.au

 

[jd1970]

It's now humorous watching this loser crash and burn.

 

[joshjull]

@Jim Bob

I’ve been looking at Sportrac and their Total Cash and Active Cash stats. Neither stat can accurately tell us the total amount of cash a team spent on their roster in a given season. This isn’t about the Sabres but I was using them to work through these stats.

Total Cash: that’s not the total amount of cash a team spent on the roster. It’s the total value of every NHL contract they have. Regardless if the players in the NHL, AHL, ECHL or Juniors. It also adds on to that buyout payments, Full season LTIR and any salary retention.

This season we have a Total Cash amount of 102.03mil. Which includes 20 players in the minors with NHL contracts totaling 16.823mil in value. We wont spend near that amount of them. There is no team in the NHL who could spend any where near their total cash. Teams would need 40-45man rosters for all thsoe players to make a full season of NHL money. This stat certainly can’t tell us how much a team spends on their NHL roster. I honestly don’t see a point to it.

For the life of me, I don’t understand why they included NHL contracts in the minors. If they left that off, It would give an accurate picture of the amount of cash spent on the roster.

Active Cash: This is the cash total of only the healthy players active on the NHL roster. It doesn't include anyone on injured reserve, LTIR, buyouts or salary retentions. All of which is listed separately on that website. But you need all of those to get the true total of cash spent on the NHL roster.

Just look at this season (As of today)

Active cash -> 66.91mil (26th)
On IR -> 15mil (Dahlin/Lafferty) **
Buyouts -> 3.3mil (Skinner/Ehrhoff)(5th highest)
Total -> 85.2mil (no rank)

** ranked 5th most in cap space on IR (13mil) but I didn’t see a ranking for IR cash spending. But I’d assume its near that number.

I f***ed up posting Bens tweet before looking further into the Sportrac stats. The stats he posted are useless. I figured something was up when going over the Covid season.. It had us ending the season with 50mil in active cash. Which would be impossible with a 64mil lower limit and our end of season cap hit at 72.68mil.

Our cash total the Covid season was actually 78.69mil

Active cash -> 50.3mil
IR —————-> 12.8mil (Jack+McCabe)
LITR ————-> 2mil (Girgs)
Retained salary -> 11.9mil (Staal/Hall/Montour/Lazar/Johansson
Buyouts ———> 1.65mil (Hodgson/Erhrhoff)
Taxi squad ——-> 54k


We have rankings being posted that don’t tell an accurate story about team spending. I would love to know where we fall now and in the past. Then we can see how much separates us and what the factors are (like LTIR or buyouts for example).

Sportrac has all the info to put together a useful and accurate stat for a teams total cap hits and cash spending on their NHL roster. If they already have it on their site, then I missed it. I suppose if I lose my mind some day. I could calculate every teams total after subtracting their minor league NHL contracts.

 

[Ace]

In general, I agree. Pegula has not been one of the league's big spenders. I think the #'s are a little misleading though.

When Pegula took over the Sabres, they were a cap team. Within a couple of years they were in tank mode and there was no reason to spend near the cap. From Eichel's 2nd year though, through to the 2nd year of his post ELC, the Sabres spent at 96% of the cap, twice in that 4 year period being essentially a "cap team". I would argue that Pegula was showing then, a willingness to spend money that matched with expectations. People were expecting, in Eichel years 2-5, that the Sabres would be contending for the playoffs and the Sabres spent like a playoff team. After that stretch, spending and expectations fell. This is the first year since Eichel year 5 where there have been real playoff-expectations. Spending, while ticking up a bit, has not reached the level that is equal to what we generally are seeing from teams that expect to be in the playoffs.

None of this is a conspiracy.

Tell all this to the more than two dozen people he sent Adams to fire on his first day. The people Botterill wouldn’t fire because it would gut the organization for no reason other than saving Pegula money. Not the tens of millions he’s saving ON TOP of an artificially low cap done to pay back owners for years…just pocket change.

Tell it to the staff that were laid off in the middle of the pandemic whose total salaries wouldn’t even be noticed as a rounding error on his accounts.

Tell it to the deadlines the year we finished a point out with a fake contract getting them to the floor as they added RILEY STILLMAN to fix a porous defense.

Tell it to the smallest pro scouting department in the league.

Tell it to the constant in house cheap promotions like Granato and Appert in key positions.

Tell it to New Jersey who is paying Lindy more for his two years signed here than Pegula is.

Tell it to Skinner’s buyout savings that aren’t being used as the team flounders while the need for a top 4 D and top 6 forward were known by all in the offseason. Tell it to the next five years of cap used by doing it that provide more fake spending as the move saved…as always…Pegula more cash.

Tell it to the season ticket holders when they get their annual gift of unsold Sabres puzzles and a discount card for the Sabres store.

Tell it to the GM awho has spent YEARS saying he needed money fto re-sign his failed core only to ship one out immediately when he needed a deal and had arb rights and a better season than the guys he already paid. Tell it to those RFAs that won’t be getting the money anyway because they’re shit…in part because they are forced to play over their heads too young BECAUSE HE WONT SPEND MONEY.

Actually…scrap all that. Tell it to a f***ing wall

 

[ValJamesDuex]

I don't hate Kevin Adams, he is South Buffalo born (they are pretty tough). Just wish he would of surrounded himself with an experienced hockey man, not had to learn from every god damn mistake and not wasted 5 more years of the fans time, money, and patience here. Now the excuses build up to try and cover. Best to tell the owner if's someone else's turn and maybe stand up to him at the same time.

 

[TehDoak]

I don't hate Kevin Adams, he is South Buffalo born (they are pretty tough). Just wish he would of surrounded himself with an experienced hockey man, not had to learn from every god damn mistake and not wasted 5 more years of the fans time, money, and patience here. Now the excuses build up to try and cover. Best to tell the owner if's someone else's turn and maybe stand up to him at the same time.

I don't think anyone feels animosity towards him as a person. He seems very nice.

It's the incompetence I don't like. And that isn't even his fault. he should have never been given this job.

 

[ForsbergMoDo21]

Tell all this to the more than two dozen people he sent Adams to fire on his first day. The people Botterill wouldn’t fire because it would gut the organization for no reason other than saving Pegula money. Not the tens of millions he’s saving ON TOP of an artificially low cap done to pay back owners for years…just pocket change.

Tell it to the staff that were laid off in the middle of the pandemic whose total salaries wouldn’t even be noticed as a rounding error on his accounts.

Tell it to the deadlines the year we finished a point out with a fake contract getting them to the floor as they added RILEY STILLMAN to fix a porous defense.

Tell it to the smallest pro scouting department in the league.

Tell it to the constant in house cheap promotions like Granato and Appert in key positions.

Tell it to New Jersey who is paying Lindy more for his two years signed here than Pegula is.

Tell it to Skinner’s buyout savings that aren’t being used as the team flounders while the need for a top 4 D and top 6 forward were known by all in the offseason. Tell it to the next five years of cap used by doing it that provide more fake spending as the move saved…as always…Pegula more cash.

Tell it to the season ticket holders when they get their annual gift of unsold Sabres puzzles and a discount card for the Sabres store.

Tell it to the GM awho has spent YEARS saying he needed money fto re-sign his failed core only to ship one out immediately when he needed a deal and had arb rights and a better season than the guys he already paid. Tell it to those RFAs that won’t be getting the money anyway because they’re shit…in part because they are forced to play over their heads too young BECAUSE HE WONT SPEND MONEY.

Actually…scrap all that. Tell it to a f***ing wall

The pandemic firings go beyond hockey. That damaged my belief in humanity.

 

[OkimLom]

I don't think anyone feels animosity towards him as a person. He seems very nice.

It's the incompetence I don't like. And that isn't even his fault. he should have never been given this job.

It’s the smugness that he does the job with that makes me not like him. He did a decent job hiding it, but once in a while it’d creep out with one of his answers. But since the presser he had last year when he let Granato go, where he presented himself with a different attitude (where a lot of people here found themself convinced he’s changed) and started answering a lot more questions with snark, he’s been downright unbearable and “uncheerable” to see succeed. And he still doesn’t have the resume to allow that stuff to slide.