The Athletic NHL agent poll: Best and worst owners, Connor McDavid’s contract, future GMs

[HOOats]

Terry showing up and talking in the room in Montreal and Adams saying he talks to Terry daily go against the idea that he is absent.

I don't think that he is anywhere near as hands on as Dundon is in Carolina. But, he is not as completely checked out and absent as many others say, either.

Adams has a job because he had a long history of working for Pegula and managing up well enough to be viewed as a good employee. The two previous GMs did not manage that relationship with ownership like Adams has for far longer than he's been the GM.

Yeah, I disagree. One visit at an emergency inflection points doesn't mean anything to me. Perfunctory check-ins are just that.

The idea that he's some hockey super fan obsessively involved with the day to day operation of the team is ludicrous imo. He's the owner of the most consistently winning NFL franchise of the last five years. Said franchise is in the midst of a $2B construction project.

Adams is the Sabres caretaker, keeping them under budget and above water.

 

[Jim Bob]

Yeah, I disagree. One visit at an emergency inflection points doesn't mean anything to me. Perfunctory check-ins are just that.

The idea that he's some hockey super fan obsessively involved with the day to day operation of the team is ludicrous imo. He's the owner of the most consistently winning NFL franchise of the last five years. Said franchise is in the midst of a $2B construction project.

Adams is the Sabres caretaker, keeping them under budget and above water.

Like most things, I think the truth is likely to be somewhere in the middle.

I think Terry is way more engaged than you seem to think and that he's not telling Adams who to draft and who to trade for, etc.

The fact that Adams had the OK to get close to making a trade for EP40 tells me that Terry is not just handing the keys completely to Adams and is telling him to spend to the floor. There is no way Adams gets that far down the road to acquiring a guy with as huge of a financial commitment as the EP40 contract is without the owner being involved.

 

[Beerz]

That would be nice. The conspiratorial idea that he's making out draft boards and negotiating trades is more than tired.

See the quotes on Carolina's owner. That's what we'd be reading about Terry if any of it were true.

He's absent.

Which is why Kevyn had to say "I talk to Terry everyday"

 

[Chainshot]

I wonder at the sort of engagement. Is Terry the one behind the reported issue that they don't want to get burned again? He has his hand in just enough that he's more worried about being dunked on in trade than the fact he's run this team into the ground?

 

[Zman5778]

I wonder at the sort of engagement. Is Terry the one behind the reported issue that they don't want to get burned again? He has his hand in just enough that he's more worried about being dunked on in trade than the fact he's run this team into the ground?

Terry certainly has appeared to have reacted to popular opinion at various points in his ownership. It wouldn't shock me at all if Terry is behind the whole "don't want to get burned again" notion.

It could also be true that Terry has said that enough to Kevyn that Kevyn believes it.....a bit of Stockholm Syndrome going on there maybe.

 

[TehDoak]

I wonder at the sort of engagement. Is Terry the one behind the reported issue that they don't want to get burned again? He has his hand in just enough that he's more worried about being dunked on in trade than the fact he's run this team into the ground?

Lack of a clear plan moving forward muddles everything.

Whether that is on Terry or Kevyn's feet, we don't know. But you can't move forward without someone who knows what the plan is. That is the sense I am getting from all of this:

Nobody knows what to do.

"We can sell off pieces, but we need help now so we don't want futures"

It's pretty common for bad teams to sell off pieces, get futures, then in turn use those futures for immediate help in June.

I just think we are handicapped by the front office. The only thing they seem able to do is sell off pieces and make picks. The deals they HAVE made have been minor guys, and in most cases they've overpaid.. Being unable to add any veteran pieces for immediate help in the top 6F or top 4 D in now 5 seasons without sending a key piece out is debilitating as a franchise.

Draft picks are capital. You need to be able to use them to buy pieces now.

 

[Chainshot]

Lack of a clear plan moving forward muddles everything.

Whether that is on Terry or Kevyn's feet, we don't know. But you can't move forward without someone who knows what the plan is. That is the sense I am getting from all of this:

Nobody knows what to do.

"We can sell off pieces, but we need help now so we don't want futures"

It's pretty common for bad teams to sell off pieces, get futures, then in turn use those futures for immediate help in June.

I just think we are handicapped by the front office. The only thing they seem able to do is sell off pieces and make picks. The deals they HAVE made have been minor guys, and in most cases they've overpaid.. Being unable to add any veteran pieces for immediate help in the top 6F or top 4 D in now 5 seasons without sending a key piece out is debilitating as a franchise.

Draft picks are capital. You need to be able to use them to buy pieces now.

It's the owner.

 

[Zman5778]

I just think we are handicapped by the front office.

And the front office appears handicapped by the owner.

 

[sabremike]

Bettman needs to do what Rob Manfreid did as MLB Comissioner over a decade back when he forced the Wilponzis to hire Sandy Alderson to fix the mess they had made.

 

[TehDoak]

It's the owner.

Its both. But...the owner hired this front office. So yes, it's the owner.

 

[Jim Bob]

Bettman needs to do what Rob Manfreid did as MLB Comissioner over a decade back when he forced the Wilponzis to hire Sandy Alderson to fix the mess they had made.

The NHL front office suggested Murray and then Botterill to Pegula.

Be careful what you wish for...

 

[sabremike]

The NHL front office suggested Murray and then Botterill to Pegula.

Be careful what you wish for...

Do you know who Sandy Alderson is and why hiring a hockey equivalent would be absolutely nothing like hiring the two entry level guys you mentioned?

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

In a nutshell, my perception is that although Pegula wants to be in the know about everything, his purpose is not to tell KA what to do like a micromanaging know-it-all, but mostly to tell him what he can't per his own risk-averse and stingy cap restrictions.

 

[Jim Bob]

Do you know who Sandy Alderson is and why hiring a hockey equivalent would be absolutely nothing like hiring the two entry level guys you mentioned?

And I am saying that I doubt the NHL front office would suggest an Alderson type GM if past performance is any sort of indicator of future performance.

 

[sabremike]

An odd thing is that the biggest indictment of Pegula isn't the on ice product but the off ice one. You can't control on ice results but you can absolutely control the GameDay experience and they have completely failed at this. KeyBank Center is a bland unremarkable shithole of an arena that is an embarrassment in every single way. The team Hall Of Fame is names on a wall inaccessible to the public. There are no displays of memorabilia like you will find at any other arena. Everything about the place sucks.

 

[Chainshot]

Its both. But...the owner hired this front office. So yes, it's the owner.

It doesn't matter who the GM is when Terry is the guy doing the hiring and setting the standards.

An odd thing is that the biggest indictment of Pegula isn't the on ice product but the off ice one. You can't control on ice results but you can absolutely control the GameDay experience and they have completely failed at this. KeyBank Center is a bland unremarkable shithole of an arena that is an embarrassment in every single way. The team Hall Of Fame is names on a wall inaccessible to the public. There are no displays of memorabilia like you will find at any other arena. Everything about the place sucks.

They don't care. They don't live in WNY, they weren't attending many games prior to Kim's stroke and now Terry sneaks in rather than deal with the public. They don't keep the displays up to date - that mural on the walkway was almost 20 years old before they changed it. That's something that can be re-wrapped annually and updated as players arrive and depart. They. Don't. Care.

 

[sabremike]

It doesn't matter who the GM is when Terry is the guy doing the hiring and setting the standards.



They don't care. They don't live in WNY, they weren't attending many games prior to Kim's stroke and now Terry sneaks in rather than deal with the public. They don't keep the displays up to date - that mural on the walkway was almost 20 years old before they changed it. That's something that can be re-wrapped annually and updated as players arrive and depart. They. Don't. Care.

I know the local media has to be more careful with what they say but I wish the outside media would just go scorched earth with blunt truth bombs on Terry.