The Athletic LeBrun: There are no easy answers for the questions facing Kevyn Adams’ Sabres

[May Day 10]

That wont happen as long as Pegula is owner.

I cant imagine it will... which is why these results will continue for the forseeable future. The ceiling for this franchise is snaking a 2nd wild card spot and losing in the 1st round by 4 or 5 games.

What will likely happen is they will conduct a shifting of job titles and Karmanos will become the "named" GM, and not much will change. This will get the media off their backs for awhile and half or more of the fanbase will shift into "you have to give Karmanos a chance to clean this up" and "you cant keep changing GMs". Then, in 4 or 5 years, we will be back at the precipice like where we are now.

 

[Fjordy]

I cant imagine it will... which is why these results will continue for the forseeable future. The ceiling for this franchise is snaking a 2nd wild card spot and losing in the 1st round by 4 or 5 games.

What will likely happen is they will conduct a shifting of job titles and Karmanos will become the "named" GM, and not much will change. This will get the media off their backs for awhile and half or more of the fanbase will shift into "you have to give Karmanos a chance to clean this up" and "you cant keep changing GMs". Then, in 4 or 5 years, we will be back at the precipice like where we are now.

Even if Karmanos becomes GM he will only have 9 months to fix the situation, no excuses work, you have a core that is already aging and they don't have much time and a bunch of kids and marginal players. Only 9 months.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

I can as long as Adams continues to communicate well with Terry. And from when Kevyn said recently, he talks to Terry every day.

And continues to pay such close attention to the bottom line ($$).

Pegula has his “efficient and economic” vision he wants to see through and Adams is executing that for him.

 

[Chainshot]

In the realm of “no shit Pierre”.

 

[57special]

Lots of correct things. I wish people would stop adding the requirement of how much of a nice/likeable guy Kevyn Adams is. Is he really? What he stooped to in order to land that position (bloodbath firings in a pandemic) (and also, if you are to believe Peters, bad-mouthing Botterill to Kim and Terry Pegula in the shadows)... makes me not really like him. His stances in his PCs and interviews arent likeable.

There is only 1 answer here. The most important Lebrun sentence is the shortest one: "It is a damaged brand".

This is absolutely the case. It is damaged on all fronts in the hockey world, with fans, and I wonder if the players aren't too prideful and hopeful in playing for this organization. The only way to fix this is a seismic change in the way Pegula has done things. That is immediate dismissal of Kevyn Adams and bringing in a POHO who has been given contractual autonomy and promised resources to build a professional hockey program once again. An apology to the fans would be appreciated, but I would take the rest of it without the apology.

No one ever said Sam Pollock was a nice guy, or Scotty Bowman. Nice is optional, winning is not. Get a guy who knows how to win. Zito, Fitzgerald and even Armstrong have been good or better young'ish GM's that have been hired relatively recently, and have done a good job building their teams from a similar place to where BUF is now.

Pegula needs smart people in his ear, who know the up and coming organizational talent in the league.

 

[ClearTheTrack]

Lots of correct things. I wish people would stop adding the requirement of how much of a nice/likeable guy Kevyn Adams is. Is he really? What he stooped to in order to land that position (bloodbath firings in a pandemic) (and also, if you are to believe Peters, bad-mouthing Botterill to Kim and Terry Pegula in the shadows)... makes me not really like him. His stances in his PCs and interviews arent likeable.

There is only 1 answer here. The most important Lebrun sentence is the shortest one: "It is a damaged brand".

This is absolutely the case. It is damaged on all fronts in the hockey world, with fans, and I wonder if the players aren't too prideful and hopeful in playing for this organization. The only way to fix this is a seismic change in the way Pegula has done things. That is immediate dismissal of Kevyn Adams and bringing in a POHO who has been given contractual autonomy and promised resources to build a professional hockey program once again. An apology to the fans would be appreciated, but I would take the rest of it without the apology.

nothing to add but just wanted to point out that all of this is gold - notably pointing out the faux nice-guy label being given too often to KA. Probably stems from the fact that he can give a big smile which obviously can't be trusted.

 

[Ace]

Gonna be a real monkeys paw situation when Adams is promoted to president of hockey ops and everyone gets the Pegula version of what they asked for

 

[MagnumForce2]

Yeah. This team isnt one swift trade away from competiting. Fire Adams. Let the new GM navigate the market and get a feel of who he wants to keep. The last thing we need is Adams making an impulse trade trying to save a season that's already down the toilet.

Pegula should be focusing on a GM/HC search rather than allowing Adams to make another trade.

This… good post

 

[Chainshot]

No one ever said Sam Pollock was a nice guy, or Scotty Bowman. Nice is optional, winning is not. Get a guy who knows how to win. Zito, Fitzgerald and even Armstrong have been good or better young'ish GM's that have been hired relatively recently, and have done a good job building their teams from a similar place to where BUF is now.

Pegula needs smart people in his ear, who know the up and coming organizational talent in the league.

Zito was someone the Sabres did a preliminary interview with Buffalo when they hired Botterill. Not saying he would've had the same impact, but it's certainly a swing and a miss.

And Lebrun makes the point I've tried making time after time - they don't have enough experience and hockey people in the front office. There is no publicly known senior advisor. There isn't a guy like Dudley or Bowman (yick) who scout on top of providing advice. Nothing.

f***, the last time Pegs did interviews for that in 2020, he interviewed Doug MacLean founder of the famine that was the 2000's Blue Jackets.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

They all need to go. Whitewash. Maybe not all at once because they need to keep the lights on, but in my mind, some of these long tenures that management has been attached to need to be severed:
Adams
Ruff
Appert (the rest of the asst coaching staff and also that new appert they hired in Rochester (Terry has a 'type")
Nightingale
Forton
Jakubowski
Crowe
Ventura
Karmanos.

It needs to be completely rebuilt from the top-down without any preconditions.

You do know Forton is the owners relation, and was just given a raise/new position this summer ?

 

[Fjordy]

You do know Forton is the owners relation, and was just given a raise/new position this summer ?

And I was talking about nepotism.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

And I was talking about nepotism.

Forton has sounded like the most competent man in room during the draft process.

 

[May Day 10]

All the more reason to get rid of him if he is holding a high level position for the wrong reasons.

If we need to keep food on a relative's table, make him vp of alumni relations or something. He can send those fences and not contribute to the further damage of the on ice product and integrity of the franchise.

 

[Fjordy]

Forton has sounded like the most competent man in room during the draft process.

Appearances can be deceiving, and while I don't blame Forton for Adams' failure, we definitely need to rethink our scouting department, like everything else. But I also have a lot of questions about the draft.

 

[May Day 10]

That's also not a very high bar to sound the most competent out of this crew.

I will say, IF a hypothetical and not happening POHO had a place for forton, I'd be fine with it.
I just think, if this hypothetical and not happening search for poho is happening and there are all sorts of preconditions that they are required to maintain a bunch of the dead baggage here, then nobody is going to be interested.