The Buffalo Sabres, at their season-ending press availability, were all singing from the same hymn book, and the song was Bruce Hornsby’s “Gonna Be Some Changes Made”. The questions that will be utmost in the minds of a frustrated fanbase will be what kind of changes, and in the end, will those changes have the desired effect of ending the club’s 14-year playoff drought.
Over the next few weeks, we will look at several players, the coaching staff, and management, and analyze what the club may do over the next few months. The most critical area to face the organization will be who is at the helm. The future of GM Kevyn Adams appears to be up in the air. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported earlier this month that there would be changes in the club’s front office, but it is unknown what form those changes will take.
“We want to get better. We’ll look at everything. We’ll have meetings with Terry (Pegula) coming in the very near future where we’ll, as we typically do after a season, review everything, talk about the roster, talk about everything in the organization, (and) hockey operations. Where can we improve? What do we need to focus on? And we’ll make any decision we need to make to help us get better.” Adams said. “I talk to Terry every day. He’s as frustrated as I am with the way the season went and where we are. Certainly, he’ll be asking me a lot of hard questions: Why we are where we are, and where we go from here.”
Unlike other organizations, the Sabres do not have a two tier hockey management structure, like the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Washington Capitals, Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks, and most recently the Seattle Kraken have implemented. The club would benefit from another voice, someone with vast hockey experience, to either take over or help Adams.
Veteran Cup winners like Ken Holland and Lou Lamoriello might have interest in a Team President or VP of Hockey Operations role, as could experienced hockey men like former Habs GM Marc Bergevin, or former LA Kings Assistant GM Mike Futa (currently working for Sportsnet), if they had a say in the direction of the franchise, but Pegula would have to be willing to relinquish some control.
The other possibility might be promoting Adams to Team President and hiring a GM, but if that occurs, the logical question would be whether those changes would be just cosmetic or represent a true change of direction.
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