Can Kevyn Adams convince Terry Pegula he deserves more time as Sabres GM?

BUFFALO, N.Y. — As of now, Kevyn Adams is still the general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. Whether that remains the case could depend on the tone of the meetings Adams and coach Lindy Ruff have with owner Terry Pegula in the days to come.

Adams declined to say Saturday whether the Sabres will make changes to the coaching staff or front office. But changes to both should be expected after the season the Sabres had. Adams also did not say whether he received assurance from Pegula on if he would remain in his role as the team’s GM.

“What I can tell you is I talk to Terry every day,” Adams said. “He’s as frustrated as I am with the way the season went and where we are. And I’m certainly sure that he’ll be asking me a lot of hard questions and why we are where we are and where do we go from here. But that’s just kind of the normal process that we go through.”

This should differ from the normal process, though. These end-of-season check-ins during Adams’ first four seasons as general manager were different as the team was in various stages of rebuilding. This season was a disaster. The Sabres once again regressed, from 84 points to 79 points in the standings. They had a 13-game winless streak that doomed the season before Christmas. The Sabres have seven losing streaks of at least six games during Adams’ tenure as general manager, and they have never finished higher than 20th in the standings under his watch.

Even with contributions from newly acquired veterans Jason Zucker and Ryan McLeod, the Sabres couldn’t overcome their immaturity as a team. For most of the season, they were too careless with the puck. Only two teams allowed more goals than the Sabres. Both special teams units were well below league average. So this shouldn’t be just a quick end-of-season catch-up between Pegula and his hockey operations leaders. Five years should be plenty for Pegula to assess the job Adams has done as general manager, and Pegula needs his review to be thorough. With dwindling attendance and a half-dozen players eligible for new contracts, both the fans and certain players need to be sold on the direction of this franchise.

“It’s not good enough,” Adams said when asked how he’ll make his case to Pegula. “That would be the first thing I would say is, to be honest. I believe we should be a playoff team right now and we failed. So, it’s owning that, taking my responsibility for that, and then moving past that and saying, ‘Here’s how I see us improving and what we can do to fix it.’ So, as always, just being very honest in my conversations with Terry to say where I think that I made mistakes and I think we can fix certain things, and that’s what I’ll do. I believe that we’re closer than further, but the words are the words. We need to win hockey games, and I understand that.”

Five seasons is a long time to be a general manager in the NHL without making the playoffs. It’s long enough for Adams to have fired two coaches and hired two of his own. It’s long enough for some of Adams’ draft picks to have played three full NHL seasons. And it’s long enough for the playoff drought to have grown from nine to 14 seasons.

During his tenure as general manager, Adams has added some talent to Buffalo’s roster. But he’s made mistakes in the most important aspect of the job: constructing a team. In a behind-the-scenes video of the team’s trade deadline day, Ruff spoke about needing to change the culture. That’s a culture that Adams built not just with the team he assembled but with the decisions he’s made in roster building and player development.

Adams said, “Culture is earned.” And yet, so many Sabres didn’t have to earn what they have in the NHL. Mattias Samuelsson got a seven-year, $32 million contract after playing 54 NHL games. He got a letter on his jersey after spending most of the previous season injured. Owen Power just played the first season of a contract worth $8.3 million per season. He signed that after one full season in the NHL. Devon Levi got handed a spot on the NHL roster without playing a single game in the AHL. Then the Sabres handed him a spot again the next season. He finished both seasons in Rochester. Adams himself had no legitimate experience in hockey operations before Pegula made him general manager in 2020.

Why, then, should it be a surprise that the culture is still in need of repair after Adams has been on the job for five seasons?

“What I believe we need to probably reflect on and do a better job of, and I shared this with the players over the last couple of days, is more of our players starting with looking in the mirror first,” Adams said. “And if we all do that across the organization with, ‘OK, what can I do better? How can I be the best version of myself and my job and role as general manager?’ The coaches do the same thing, the players do the same thing. That starts to build a culture of accountability.”

Accountability was the buzzword coming out of these exit meetings last April. It was Don Granato who was truly accountable last time, losing his job due to the team’s poor performance. Will anyone be accountable this time?

Quick hits

1. Josh Norris said he was dealing with a torn oblique muscle at the end of the season, which is why he played only three games for the Sabres after the trade. Norris sustained the injury earlier in the season while playing for Ottawa. He said he came back sooner than he should have, and the injury kept getting worse. He would have been close to returning if the Sabres were in the playoffs and shouldn’t be impacted by the injury during his offseason training.

2. Power got a second opinion on the injury that kept him out of Buffalo’s final three games, and he won’t require surgery. He’s wearing a brace on his left knee and is using crutches. He expects to be off the ice for at least two months but said he should be able to get into the gym to do upper-body work soon. The focus of his offseason is on getting stronger, and the injury will make that a bit more difficult. But he avoided the worst-case scenario after an awkward collision.

3. Ruff and Adams both expressed confidence in Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who has four years left on a deal that pays him $4.75 million per year. Adams also left the door open for Levi to play in the NHL next season and said he’s confident in both of Buffalo’s young goaltenders. Ruff said he isn’t going to blame a goalie until he can get the team to improve its puck management. But it’s clear Luukkonen took a step back this season. Levi is still unproven in the NHL but has a chance to put together a strong run with the Amerks in the AHL playoffs. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that teams around the league believe Luukkonen could be available in a trade. Luukkonen played just four times in the team’s final 13 games as 37-year-old James Reimer took the bulk of the starts. That’s a strong indication that the team’s confidence in Luukkonen wavered.