In the upcoming days, Kevyn Adams will be sitting down with owner Terry Pegula about the season in review, and another poor finish for the Sabres. After placing 7th in the Atlantic, this is now Kevyn Adams' fifth year as General Manager, and there is no playoff appearances to show for it.
Adams and Pegula have a close relationship, but there comes a point where you have to do what’s best for the team. Two years ago, the Sabres missed the playoffs by one point. Somehow in the past two years, they have managed to get worse and move farther from a playoff spot.
“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 we go from here. But that’s just kind of the normal process that we go through.”
Five seasons is a long time to be a GM in the league without making the playoffs. It’s long enough that Adams has fired two coaches and hired two as well. I think Adams has brought in some great talent, but his structure of the team has been poor. Owen Power played one season and was given an eight-million-dollar contract. Mattias Samuelsson got 32 million over seven years and played less than 60 games.
Adams also had no experience in hockey operations before Pegula made him general manager in 2020. Adams had been an assistant coach for a long time, including coaching under Lindy Ruff for his first time in Buffalo.
Adams talked about accountability and how it builds culture. Yet we haven’t seen Adams take accountability for any of the mishaps he’s put together. Last time, the blame was on Don Granato for the team’s poor play from last season. The issue now is, who does Adams blame?
I think it's time for the Sabres to move on from Adams; he just isn't cutting it, and the team has gotten worse. I'm not sure Pegula even knows what is going to do yet. With rumors swirling of Adams taking a new role, I think Pegula needs to rethink his GM position.
