Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550/WBEN) - Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams met with the media on Friday, because the media asked to speak with him, not because there was any news.
Adams admitted right off the bat that they need to be better than 22nd in the NHL with a points percentage of .481. It’s been two years plus 24 games that this group of core young players have been together. Adams has committed huge money and long-term contracts to many of them and at this point, it’s not looking good for some of them as there’s been a severe regression.
I’ve been wondering if Adams is thinking about changing his mind on how he does business with younger players and could he be looking to move some of them and changing the core. He said,
“There’s ups and downs and you have to understand when you’re building your team that you’re going to go through that when you have young players in the lineup and I’m a firm believer that there’s no better way to learn than go through it and experience things, so you have to go through it, you have to get better, we’re 26 games in, you have ups and downs and you look at where we're at and things are tight and all these teams are going through similar things that we are and our job is to clean up some of these things and get more consistent.”
This team is young age-wise, but it’s no longer a crutch that can be used. Here are the NHL games of the core:
- Rasmus Dahlin: 461 games
- Tage Thompson: 393 games
- Henri Jokiharju: 367 games
- Dylan Cozens: 306 games
- Peyton Krebs: 240 games
- Bo Byram: 190 games (He has also won the Stanley Cup)
- Owen Power: 189 games
- JJ Peterka: 185 games
- Mattias Samuelsson: 163 games
- Jack Quinn: 128 games
- Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen: 118 games
- Zach Benson: 91 games
- Jiri Kulich: 18 games
As far as willing to trade some of them Adams said, nothing should be off the table,
“You’re always evaluating, you’re always looking at every possible scenario to improve your team, we should be in on every conversation which we are.
“Honestly, we’re not a destination city right now where you’re going to be able to go out and get UFAs that are the key guys and I don’t think that’s the way to build a sustainable winner, so you evaluate your core, you look for trades, if there’s UFAs that you can add that make sense and work, of course, so yes, you always look at everything.
“We don’t have palm trees, we have taxes in New York those are real and those are things you deal with and I’m in conversations every day and there’s a lot of players in this league that we’re on their lists (no-movement lists) so we need to earn the respect and that starts with getting over the hump, getting in the playoffs and competing, I mean look at the Bills, I would assume that this wasn’t a destination or signup up to play for when they were in a 17-year playoff drought and they’ve done a phenomenal job over there and you get Josh Allen and people are lining up because they have a chance to win the Super Bowl every year and that’s what we’re working to build here.”
Adams was asked about trying to make the playoffs with a roster that’s average age is under 26-years-old and how he squares that with trying to win now. Adams got very defensive and said sarcastically,
“Yes, we should’ve signed Craig Anderson and he’s 40 and then it would’ve added a year and you wouldn’t have asked me the question.
“And it’s exactly like I told you, when you’re going to build a franchise for sustainable success, year after year, you’re going to have to go young and you’re going to have to give the players the opportunity to battle through some of the ups and downs.”
Buffalo is six points behind the Boston Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division, a position the Sabres were in just two weeks ago and they’re two points behind the New York Rangers for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot. Adams said,
“You don’t make the playoffs on Dec. 6, you need 82 games and that was a tough loss (Colorado) and that loss hurt and I promise you it bothers me and the coaches and the players more than anyone, but it’s one game, you have to go over the video, you have to talk about it, you have to own it and you have to move on.”
Adams was asked about the inconsistent play of Owen Power and the GM snapped back,
“Do you see some of the good things too?”
He then went on to say,
“You have to look at the whole body of work, he’s a work in progress and I would tell you that I think Owen played just under 30 minutes last night and I think he competed hard and did a lot of good things and you could see him looking to engage physically.
“When we drafted Owen Power we knew he’s not bringing Scott Stevens because that’s not his style, but do we want him to become more physically imposing and harder to play against, yes, and there’s there been daily work that’s going in right now with the coaches and Owen to do that and he wants to do that and I want players that show up every day and want to get better.”
The Sabres have approximately $6.2 million in salary cap space this season and Adams was asked about it again and as far as using it in trades last summer he said,
“There was in my mind a trade that we worked really hard at this summer that we went all in on, you guys probably would’ve roasted me saying we were going to overpay to get the player and they ended up not trading him and he’s still on that team, so it’s not from a lack of want but we’re not going to go and just make a trade so you guys can say we’ve spent to the cap.”
The Sabres are riding a season-long five-game losing streak into Saturday’s game against the Utah Hockey Club.
Join Brian Koziol and myself for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 12 p.m. EST when you’ll hear from Adams, Lindy Ruff and Tyson Kozak.
