The Sabres GM and Front Office Thread, UPDATE: Adams Back As GM for 25-26, Eric Staal hired as Special Asst. to the GM

[Reddawg]

And Byram didn't add anything that was missing from the D-corps, and he traded away the wrong C in the process. At least he traded Cozens later, but the point is that the C position was nowhere near good enough to be dropping one...let alone the wrong one...let alone for a redundant D-man. It was a case study in "what a GM does when he doesn't know his roster, or what he's doing at all".

Well, hindsight is always 20/20 and so much of building a roster and running a hockey team is about forecasting and trying to predict the future while simultaneously managing the budget and the salary cap at the end of the day. These moves don't exist in a vacuum even if we judge them that way. I'm ultimately more than fine with the end result that has Norris, Byram and McLeod on the team and Mitts and Cozens not on the team. It doesn't matter to me how we got there. And if we can flip Byram into a great RHD partner for Dahlin or Power (or flip Power if that makes more sense) then that works out well too. As long as we're not the ones trading away solid cost-controlled young potential stars away for draft picks and prospects, I'm pretty happy. And we're not doing that anymore. Little by little it's shaping into something good.

 

[Jacob582]

I don't care if Adams is GM.

This team is not making the playoffs with Terry Pegula at the helm.

 

[sabremike]

The fact that virtually nobody in the entire sport thinks this team will make the playoffs next season should indicate just what a bang up job Adams has done constructing a roster.

 

[sabremike]

I don't care if Adams is GM.

This team is not making the playoffs with Terry Pegula at the helm.

The only way is finding a hockey version of Sandy Alderson who was able to navigate his way around cheap and stupid owners (The Wilponzis) and make it work.

 

[slip]

Personally I plan on enjoying Dahlin’s last season as a Buffalo Sabre.

 

[Mattilaus]

Personally I plan on enjoying Dahlin’s last season as a Buffalo Sabre.

Enjoy isn't the right word.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Enjoy isn't the right word.

I honestly will enjoy it when Dahlin asks for a trade, just because that will be the second “franchise cornerstone” player that demands out of Terry’s embarrassment of a team, which would be a first in all of sports.

The greatest failure ever in the world of pro sports ever.

 

[Mattilaus]

I honestly will enjoy it when Dahlin asks for a trade, just because that will be the second “franchise cornerstone” player that demands out of Terry’s embarrassment of a team, which would be a first in all of sports.

The greatest failure ever in the world of pro sports ever.

To each their own. I won't enjoy it. I would understand it, but I think it would just make me more sad.

 

[SundherDome]

Holy f***, a lot of y'all have gone off the deep end. Just digging in self made conspiracies.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

To each their own. I won't enjoy it. I would understand it, but I think it would just make me more sad.

The sad part is right now, realizing that Ace was right all this time and that keeping the team afloat for the lowest investment possible is the team’s only purpose. Winning doesn’t factor in.

After this, I’ll probably just want revenge and want nothing but bad things. The sad part will be over.

 

[Ace]

When you have two cornerstone LHD it's such a comically bad idea to acquire a third one.

Adams flat out said he didn’t really have a plan for how it would work…he saw a chance to get a talented player and took it. Took until his exit presser in year five to say maybe he has to think more about team building than talent collecting.

He’s somehow getting a year six

 

[slip]

The Bills modicum of success allows Pegula to treat the Sabres as the red-headed step child of Buffalo sports. f*** you Josh Allen!

 

[OkimLom]

The Bills modicum of success allows Pegula to treat the Sabres as the red-headed step child of Buffalo sports. f*** you Josh Allen!

The Sabres are the middle child of the Pegula family. Makes sense.

 

[Ace]

Can I present a counter argument to whatever Adams said to Pegula?

Won’t take days.

Only need five minutes.

 

[THUNDERBURST]

Clown show.

 

[Sabresbyswords104]

I think this was good bringing him back for his last chance . I think he knows he needs to go for it this draft. That first round pick+ will be tradet for a center . Then trade for a rhd and being in depth in free agentcy. But if he cant fix the team and they start bad he is gone 100% . If not making the playoffs he is also gone.
Because if he miss next season they know for sure he cant make it as a gm. But fire him now it Will be one season to early

 

[Sabresbyswords104]

To big question is more does we have good enough of the really good players to go far in the playoffs

 

[Sabresbyswords104]

We Will be in next season

 

[OkimLom]

To big question is more does we have good enough of the really good players to go far in the playoffs

Nope. What pushes teams to advance in the playoffs, this group of players haven’t shown close to having it. They don’t have enough of it to even make it into the playoffs.

If all it took to succeed in the regular season and the playoffs was talent, I would comfortably say we could make the playoffs quite easily and they’d be a hard team to face. But the traits and intangibles that separate the teams that are perennial contenders to perennial basement dwellers are what Adams and the scouting staff need to find, and reshape the core players with.

We need guys that will drag the rest of the players into the fight with them on a consistent basis, that is outside scoring goals. And we need those players to be able to get to another gear when that happens. We need guys to be able to get their teammates engaged into the details at crunch time. We need guys prepared and willing to skate into guys to squeeze them against the boards, not lean/stretch towards them with no effort.

And we need those type of players engrained to play that way. It shouldn’t be something the coach needs to ask of them.

 

[CaliSabresfan24]

The Eric Staal part is very interesting... Surprised he would want to come back in any capacity

Blake would be a good addition. Highly doubt that would happen though...

 

[Willgamesh]

The Eric Staal part is very interesting... Surprised he would want to come back in any capacity

Well KA has been presenting, maybe he also got on his knees?

 

[Jim Bob]

Not to be obtuse, but of course this is hope … Is there anyone here who actually wants the GM to stay the same?

Not to beat a dead horse, but the issue here is that one source has put that out and the only thing they’ve ever reported correctly is the trade of eichel where one of the people involved in the trades Tuch family member lived with one of the hosts (Peters).

In 2025 you have to be careful when a single source says something is a fact without any confirmation for anything… If something is true immediately afterward, most of the time there are multiple confirmatory tweets from different sources locally and nationally that confirm the statement. The fact that has not happened yet besides the radio station, which is horrible, just repeating what the one post said, doesn’t really mean the typical confirmation of a story.

Not trying to be difficult here, but typically, even when Chad post something I wouldn’t trust it until another person confirmed it regarding a trade or else wise. Look what happened with the Norris trade… Multiple people confirmed the initial suspicion after it happened… That just hasn’t happened in this case so it’s sort of raises an eyebrow doesn’t it?

In any case, can you blame someone for hoping that the organization doesn’t just prove once again that they don’t care about winning by not changing anything? I think in this case there is still just a glimmer of hope that no one else has confirmed it.

Just because I want certain things to happen with the Sabres does not mean that I will willfully ignore all the signs pointing to no major changes happening this offseason.

Where is the glimmer of hope? There are zero legit signs that point to Adams not having a major role in the Sabres FO in 2025-26.

People can dismiss Rivet's report that Adams will be back as GM all they want. What else is out there? National talking heads that also said Adams was likely out if they didn't make the 2024 playoffs?

If it was as simple as "Playoffs or you are fired" like so many of the national media have talked about, then Adams should have been fired the day they were eliminated, right?

 

[Jim Bob]

The Eric Staal part is very interesting... Surprised he would want to come back in any capacity

Blake would be a good addition. Highly doubt that would happen though...

The more interesting part to me is the senior advisor with GM experience.

I wonder if that is the role that Jarmo takes for 2025-26. I also wonder if this advisor is the GM in waiting in the event that Adams fails to get the team into the playoffs in 2025-26...

 

[sabremike]

The more interesting part to me is the senior advisor with GM experience.

I wonder if that is the role that Jarmo takes for 2025-26. I also wonder if this advisor is the GM in waiting in the event that Adams fails to get the team into the playoffs in 2025-26...

Guess that's a positive: having an experienced exec tasked with overseeing the Dahlin trade when he tells them "GET ME THE f*** OUT OF HERE".

 

[Jim Bob]

Guess that's a positive: having an experienced exec tasked with overseeing the Dahlin trade when he tells them "GET ME THE f*** OUT OF HERE".

I doubt that happens.