Kevyn Adams GM thread

[TageGod]

Cozens almost went to Detroit.

 

[MOGlLNY]

Cozens almost went to Detroit.

Still might. Friedman said he doesn't know where it stands.

Could see something like Compher (retained) and Kasper for Cozens knowing how much the Sabres brass loved him at the draft.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Some of this is right. Some of it is an oversimplification that’s conflating things and has a pinch of conspiracy sprinkled in, just a pinch though.

There are two main factors that form the context of Adams hiring.

1) Off ice stuff/front office -> Botts wouldn’t gut the front office and it lead to his firing. Adams was willing to do so, it’s part** of why he got the job. That’s the “do what Pegula wanted” part.

2) On ice stuff/roster building -> This is when Krueger emerged. Pegula believed he found his McDermott for the Sabres in him. He was given similar power and answered directly to the owner not the GM. Adams was essentially his right hand man. It’s the exact same management structure the Pegula’s have had since they took over the Bills.

** Despite Adams having no qualifications to be a GM, he got the job in large part because Pegula knew/trusted him. He felt burned by the previous two GM situations and the advice he’d gotten. Although Pegula only has himself to blame for the LaFontaine/Murray situation.


Where the pinch of conspiracy comes in is you implying Pegula wants a yes man/puppet as GM. All based on one act, gutting the front office.

I don’t know how you’re allowed to spout this bullshit as fact, with no proof to back it up, day after day, month after month, year after year.

Your Pegula fan fiction is the most ridiculous crap anyone posts on here…and it really shouldn’t be allowed without any sources to back it up. You literally think you are the only one who knows what Pegula thinks and it’s almost always completely wrong.

 

[MOGlLNY]

He has been talking to Adams every day and made a big deal about going to see the team in Montreal.

Pegula is absolutely tuned in to what the Sabres are doing.

I have no idea how people still think Pegula doesn't pay attention to this team lol

 

[Jim Bob]

I have no idea how people still think Pegula doesn't pay attention to this team lol

I think it because how they view what is going on and what needs to happen very different than Pegula does, they assume he isn't seeing what they see.

When it is obvious that he views things differently than most fans and media do.

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

As long as Kevyn Adams is in daily communication with Terry Pegula and continues to make decisions that Pegula is on board with, I think his job is safer than fans and media will hope for.

Pegula wants a GM that will be in constant communication with him and that makes him "feel heard." I think that is something that Adams is really good at.

Much of the GM and owner discussion in here (all of HFB) is what we think he should do versus what we predict he will he do.

I'm hoping Pegula has his breaking point, and 5 futile years is it, but you may very well be correct that Terry's "feels" are paramount.

 

[joshjull]

I am going off of what Pegula has publicly stated when Botterill was fired and Adams was hired, along with what Pegula said publicly when Murray was let go.

Communication and "feeling heard" has been a constant theme throughout the moves from Murray to Botterill and then Botterill to Adams.

Neither time was competence in the position stressed. And it is not about being a yes man or a puppet. It is keeping Pegula in the loop and having the owner's trust. Given that Pegula felt like he did not get a person he could trust as GM by hiring from the outside with the NHL's help, my guess is that when he moves on from Adams, it would be for a person that he can trust and has worked with. So, that leads me to expecting an internal hire who Pegula knows as opposed to an outside hire that he doesn't know.

I don't know why that is a conspiracy theory at all...

Communication, “Feeling heard” and being in the loop are things Pegula wants and gets from both franchises he owns. He directly communicates with both coaches and GMs. He’s also involved in draft meetings, free agency, meetings, etc. for both teams. He voices his opinion on players he likes in those meetings and wants to know what the people running his teams think about them. But ultimately he allows the people he hired to run the teams make those decisions. There is nothing you posted above that disputes that. It’s more of the same, trying to hint at or imply things.

Let’s also not engage in revisionist history. Botts was considered one of the top AGMs in the league ready to make the jump to GM. The process leading to his hiring was also as normal as it gets with Pegula consulting the league offices for advice. In fact it’s the only normal hiring of the last 3 GMs. Botts even built up a huge front office and support coaching staff. That his tenure failed spectacularly doesn't change that.