Kevyn Adams staying as Buffalo Sabres GM + Sabres fall to 9th in NHL draft lottery

Kevyn Adams staying as Buffalo Sabres GM + Sabres fall to 9th in NHL draft lottery

Well, the GM is staying and the Sabres will be picking at number nine. The lottery, the news on Kevin Adams, the report on Kevin Adams, all coming up here on today’s episode of the Locked On Sabres [Music] podcast. You’re Locked on Sabers, your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabres, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What’s up everybody and welcome into this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Sabers podcast and thanks for making us your first listen every day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast including our YouTube channel where you can watch the show. Be sure to check us out there. Like and subscribe. And of course you can hit us up on our text club at joinsubttext.com/lockedonabers. Part of the locked on podcast network. your team every day. Today’s episode of Locked On Savers is presented by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Sneaky Jody Biosi here on a Tuesday. Thanks everybody for tuning in. We’ve got a lot to get to on today’s show. We have got news, a report on Sabres general manager Kevin Adams. we have to discuss what possible changes there could be coming because if this isn’t the change, well, we were promised a change. So, maybe we’ll uh have something else on the dockets. That’s coming up on today’s show. And then, of course, the draft lottery. But, uh, of course, the Rochester Americans are through to the next round of the playoffs, the North Division Finals. Um, they swept the Syracuse Crunch tonight. We could see who they play. The Laval Rocket against the Cleveland Monsters. The series at the moment is Rocket 2, Monsters one. So, if Laval wins tonight, they’ll win the best of five series and then it’ll be the Rocket against the Amirs. If the Monsters win, then they will go to a game five. Uh, so we’ve got a long period in between here because the Amirs did such quick business with the Syracuse Crunch. Um, in fact, of the four series that we’re waiting to find out, eight teams, there we go. Eight teams will punch their ticket to the next round. The Amirs are the only one that have done that so far. Uh, every other series is still ongoing. Now, some of those haven’t even played in game three. Look, Coachella, the San Jose Barracuda, um, Rockford Ice Dogs, and like these teams, well, some of these teams, all of those, actually, scratch what I just said because I forgot. there’s some playing stuff at the AHL and sometimes there isn’t. So, uh like Texas for instance is one series that has only played two games of their series against Grand Rapids. So, we’re just waiting around on the Amirs and um hope to get that series going probably by next week at some point in time. But, a lot of Saber stuff to get to on today’s show and I want to get in some reaction from you on our text club about the news. But, let’s start with what happened yesterday. The NHL draft lottery commences. I have a lot to say on it. I liked the show, by the way. I liked the show. Maybe it wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but it was right up my alley. I loved having the live odds changing from one lottery ball to the next lottery ball to the next lottery ball and seeing how they changed depending on which number got picked up. So, if you were watching along and you were a Sabre fan, there was some drama where the first ball gets picked up and the Sabres odds went down from 6.1% to 6 and a half% to 5.6%. It’s like, okay, not great, but I’m not dead. Calgary, for instance, was eliminated after the first ball. So, they knew. Then the next ball gets picked and the Sabres go back up to like 6.1% right around where they were normally. And the third ball gets picked and now we’re up to 9.1% and I’ve got like five teams that have already been eliminated. I mean, you would have been hanging on on a wire a lot more if you were a Penguins fan because the Penguins, I think, had like a 20% chance going into that final lottery ball because they had two possible combinations left. That to me was the best part of it all. Like the interviews are horrible and are completely pointless. And my biggest nitpicky thing is the league didn’t show and the ESPN didn’t show the second lottery drawing. Instead, they showed an interview with the New York Islanders president, which is to completely useless to all these fan bases that are waiting to see the second pick. And by the way, this is a draft class where the first and the second pick are probably not different. In fact, some teams might be fine with the second pick. If I’m the Sabres, Matthew Schaefer, defenseman from the Iriotters, is right now the top ranked guy, left shot defenseman. I want a forward. If the Sabres got the first pick, I’d want Michael Misa. If the Sabres got the second pick, I’d want Michael Misa. So, for me, number one and number two were almost the same thing. And yet, all that process was shown for the first selection. And then the second selection, I gotta watch this old guy with the Islanders wearing his baseball cap and getting pointless questions while Bman and uh the the process is going on in the bottom right corner and it’s impossible to follow along on at that point. So that was my most critical part of it. But I did love going back to the first lottery process. I loved having the ability to know going into that there was a TV timeout between the third and the fourth ball. They drew four balls and between the third and the fourth they showed a graphic which showed the exact number that every team needed. There were 14 lottery balls and it showed what number do you need? And for the Sabres they needed ball number two. So, it was three minutes of commercials and go, “Come on, cross our fingers. Ball number two. Come on. Ball number two. They don’t get it.” And thank you to Sal Kapacio who has to twist the knife even more. I I actually do love that he tweeted this. The screenshot, if you didn’t see it, check out Sal’s Twitter at Sales Sports. The screenshot of the final ball, number 13, I believe, getting sucked up the tube to be the selection. And right there in the cylinder, right below the number 13, basically I think it would have been the ball that was shot up if 13 wasn’t there. And what ball was that? The number two ball, of course, because we’ve got to make this as torturous as possible to be a Saber fan. And why not add the draft lottery onto ownership and management and players and failures and loss? Let’s just throw the lotteryies on top of it, too. Um, so yeah, not a great night. And the two teams that jump the Buffalo Sabres push the Sabres down to number nine. The Islanders go from 10 to one because, you know, I you know what, a lot of reaction to really the Islanders win. I hate the Islanders. The Islanders are boring and maybe they could become an exciting team. Again, I don’t need that to happen. and they’re in the Eastern Conference, but um I would have much preferred them to the Penguins or the Bruins winning it. And then Utah jumps from 14 to four because you could only move up 10 spots. So, they get up to number four. And because you had a team that was slotted 10th and 14th, winning those two selections, the Sabres go from seventh to 9th. The odds on that were only 5.3%. The odds for the Sabres to pick ninth were lower than they were to pick first and much lower than they were to pick first or second. So, couldn’t have been a worse night for the Buffalo Sabres in the process. And we’ll get into some more draft content as the summer progresses here. But early on, the indication for this draft, talking to a few people that are in on these prospects, there’s a top four in this draft and then a top five even and after that it’s kind of like whatever. There’s not a lot of depth in this class. There’s not even the elite prospect. There’s like five guys that should really get you excited and then everything else is kind of a crapshoot in this draft. So, we’ll talk about some of those options. Maybe there’s a guy we could fall in love with a little more among the rest. That’s what you do in a draft. Even in a bad class, they’re going to be diamonds in the rough. You try to find one. Um, so we’ll get into that a little bit more in the offseason, but doesn’t sound like ninth is going to be somebody you would expect to make an impact anytime soon for the Buffalo Sabres, but more of a long-term prospect guy. Um, you know, we’ll see what we get. So, pick number nine. When we come back, the other big news of the day, it sounds like Kevin Adams is indeed staying on as general manager, and I’ve got a couple of thoughts on that when we return here on Lockdown Savers. Today’s episode of the Lockdown Savers podcast is presented by Monarch Money. Ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it’s easy to lose track. And that’s where Monarch Money comes in. Your personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, you stop just managing your money and you start building wealth. Wealth instead of juggling multiple apps. You can use Monarch to check your finances, track spending, even plan long-term goals. Managing your money with your partner is smoother than ever. 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Um, Adams meeting with Terry Pagula and then we heard nothing after that. So, as every day passed, it seemed more and more likely that Adams is just going to be the general manager. Then last night during the lottery, they show a team representative um from all the 16 teams that were involved in the lottery. And sure enough, there’s Kevin Adams as the Sabres representative. Now, remember, part of the conversation about Adams wasn’t just that, oh, will he be the GM or not? It’s will he still still be in the organization or not? So, even last night, I thought I am not thinking at all about him not being the GM, but I guess if they did want to make him a different job title, him being the representative of the organization when he still works in the organization, I think you can get away with that. But sure enough, after the whistle, Andrew Peters, Craig Rey, who are obviously very plugged in on all things Sabres, tweeted this morning, “Good morning, Buffalo. We’ve been told that after multiple days of presenting to Terry Pagula, Kevin Adams will return as the Buffalo Sabres GM for the 2025 26 season.” So there it is. Adams or is going to come back. And interesting though some of the term analogy there that it took multiple days of presenting to Terry Pagoula. You could read into that I guess for did Pagoula need convincing to let Adams remain as the general manager and did he like what he heard and he must have liked what he heard to some extent. Um, it almost makes it sound like, and this is kind of how Adam sounded at the end of season press conference, that he needed to convince Terry to continue to do his job. It wasn’t just an automatic, “Oh, yeah, you’re going to stick on.” I don’t know that. And I’m I’m reading into something there that might not even be there. Um, but one way or another, Adams remains the general manager. And there’s a couple of things I have on that. one on how it looks, how one on Adams himself and one on Lindy. Before I get to that though, it just, you know, this this team, this organization, I mean, they are so they’re such a joke, a laughing a laughingtock by league standards compared to their peers in the NHL that you really shouldn’t be that surprised that this general manager, who I don’t think everything he’s done is terrible. I want that to be very clear. I do not believe everything he’s done is terrible. In fact, I like his recent success making trades. I wish they happened a little more often, but three big trades in a row within, you know what, a six uh 14month window. Middle staff for Byum, Seavoy for Mloud, Cousins for Norris. Three hockey trades in a way that I like all three of right now. I think Bo Byum is trade bait at the moment, but even if Byum never plays for the Sabres again, he’s a better trade commodity than Middlestad is at this point. So, you’re up on that one. Matt Seavoy, I still think is going to become a good NHL player, but Brian Mloud is every bit and maybe a little bit more of what the Sabres would have been hoping for when they acquired him. So, that’s a win right now. And then the Cousins for Norris trade, which you can’t call a win. I mean, Norris has played three games for the Buffalo Sabres. But Cousins, I mean, already you’ve got Ottawa people and media tweeting about how, man, he’s got to improve his defensive game and his two-way bit like, yeah, yeah, that that Dylan Cousins is an imperfect second line center and probably should be more like a third line center. Um, so they’re already seeing a little bit of the holes in his game that in part I think got him traded out of Buffalo. Meanwhile, Josh Norris, I mean, I like the risk on a better overall hockey player that you just got to figure out a way to get healthy. So, even that trade right now, I think you could defend it one way or the other. I like that trade right now and I would do it again. Maybe not everybody would. I would hit the button on that trade to do it again. So, I like some of the things Adams has done, but come on now. It is six years. This is year six, five seasons without the playoffs. And maybe some of my thoughts on Adams at the outset of him doing his job are going to bleed in here. But he was not somebody with the typical resume that would get hired as a general manager. If he gets fired tomorrow by the Sabres, he will never be a general manager in the NHL again. That’s most likely true that he would never get a second opportunity to become a GM. I mean, he’s less qualified on paper from the outset of the job than the previous three Saber general managers, Botel, Murray, Reggie. Two of those three didn’t get another opportunity. Botel did and I think he’s probably the least qualified of the three that should have had a second opportunity. So to think Adams is this I mean he he came from the business end of things for the Buffalo Sabres and before that assistant coaching and yes he was a former hockey player and again he’s done some nice things but I just don’t think he’s a serious general manager in the NHL but what does Terry want? Terry wants somebody that he trusts and he has that in Kevin Adams and he told everybody five years ago the last time he took questions on the Buffalo Sabres that he felt let down by the hockey world and that was in talking about people he had brought into the organization to run things. So, to think he’s going to change his tune on that, I I guess I I thought it was more likely than it probably was. And he’s going to give Adams every opportunity to get this right and to make the playoffs and to end the drought. But you just don’t often see GMs go five seasons, not make the playoffs, only come close once, and get a sixth chance at it. It’s not common. And it is why you see a lot of reaction from fans today that, well, Terry just doesn’t care. I’m not putting that on Terry. I think he cares more than people probably think. But also, you do put that face on when you accept failure from somebody because you love and trust that person. And that appears to be the dynamic right now between the owner and the general manager. So, I would not have kept Adams. I don’t really think there’s any reasonable defense to keep Adams as the GM. It doesn’t mean it can’t work. They could very well make the playoffs this year. He makes one nice trade for a right shot Owen Power partner on the blue line and they get a goalending season out of Lucan and her Levi and bam, just like that you’re in the postseason. It could happen, but to expect it to happen and also there’s a credibility thing here. I don’t know they care about this and I know Jason Zucker said that it’s just not a thing around the league, but I I don’t I don’t believe that their reputation isn’t in the toilet around the NHL. it. There’s too many whispers about it for it to think, oh, like Buffalo’s just like any other team. I think that Adams being their general manager hurts their credibility because I don’t think from things you’ve read from Freriedman over the years or how other GMs, you know, I think reacted in anonymously when he was hired that he’s somebody that commands a lot of credibility from the Sabres across the NHL. Now, we talked about this with LML last week. If you want full credibility, there are people you could go hire for that. LML would do it. Someone that’s someone that is going to take the call. Last year, Andy Strickland reported that the Sabres wanted to hire Craig Baru and he went to Toronto. Like, he was not coming to Buffalo. And maybe if you had a GM with more credibility, you might be more able to bring a guy like that into the boat. or when Matt Murray tells you no a couple of years ago. Again, I’m not assuming any other GM could do better than Adams on these things. But I would have liked to see somebody get the chance to try, I guess. Now, just because Adams is staying on as GM doesn’t mean the same dynamic is going to exist in the organization. Talked about this with Paul Hamilton at WGR a couple of days ago. It’s possible that this front office shakeup that Elliot Friedman spoke of on 32 thoughts a couple weeks ago won’t be reflected in anybody’s job title. Today, we saw a strength and conditioning coach fired by the Sabres. Otherwise, there’s been no real change. If they make no changes on payroll and in job title in the front office, there could still be a shift in dynamic and it would be Lindy having more say and more power on personnel decision-m than he did last year or even the year before where Adams is running the show. Maybe Lindy now will be running the show in a similar fashion to what the the dynamic was when Adams first got the job. When Adams first got the job, Ralph Krueger, who had a career and had experience in sports in sports executive positions, he got what he wanted. if he wanted Michael Frolik or at the time that was a penalty kill specialist, Ralph Krueger was going to get his guy. Now maybe the GM would execute what Krueger wanted, but the direction of the team was shaped by Ralph Krueger. And since Krueger got fired, I think the direct the shape of the team has been more in the in the light on the name of Kevin Adams. I wonder if going forward it goes back to well if Lindy wants this guy this guy and this guy those are the players that they’ll go get that they’ll go not less of a suggestion and more of a Lindy really likes you know Lindy loves Sam Bennett for example who’s in the news today and he’s a free agent at the end of the year Lindy badly wants Sam Bennett all right Kevin go get him go get Lindy’s guy for you I’m wonder I don’t know that that’s the case, but I’m wondering if that is the shakeup that Freriedman was talking about a couple of weeks ago because it’s not going to be in GM title at the very least. All right, no GM change. That’s the possible for um the front office though. Want to talk about the playoffs a little bit. Toronto winning game one and my opinion of the Sam Bennett hit elbow to the back of Anthony Stolars’s head in a very complicated situation with Stallar’s concussions and Bennett and whether a player deserves the benefit of the doubt or not. There’s a lot the NHL’s got some problems and this is I think a couple of them were highlighted in this game last night. Florida and Toronto. We’ll get to that when we come back here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast. Today’s episode of the Lockdown Savers podcast is presented by Upwork. Scaling your business requires the right expertise at the right time. With Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers, freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more. Experts ready to help you take your business to the next level. Upwork gives businesses flexibility by connecting them with top freelance talent all across multiple industries. That includes IT, AI, web development, and marketing. Whether you need extra hands for a project or a long-term partner, Upwork makes hiring simple and affordable. If you need help with a marketing campaign, Upwork can connect you with all those top experts who delivered incredible results. 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Whether you run for the love of it, for your company, or if you’re just looking to build some lasting bonds and network, this is your moment. Teams of four participants or more can register today. Registration will close on Tuesday, May 13th. You still have a week, but get on it now because it’ll fill up. One part run, one part party. The corporate challenge has earned its reputation as Buffalo’s corporate social event of the year. Join us for some great competition, teamwork, company pride, and a true sense of accomplishment. Go to jporgganchaseccc.com, choose Buffalo as your location to start your registration today. See you on the course at Delaware Park. Back here on the Lockdown Sabres podcast, the hockey playoffs continue and we are into the second round. What a game seven from Winnipeg the other night against St. Louis. I had an argument with a buddy, not even argument, it was like a two series two tech series, but we were in a group chat and Winnipeg scores to tie the game with 1.6 seconds left or whatever it was. And my buddy texts, actually it was Jordan Hansen, our former co-host here on Locked on Sabers. He texts, “That’s one of the greatest goals in playoff history.” And I went, “It isn’t until they win it.” That’s how I was thinking in the moment. Like, that is an alltime moment, especially for a Winnipeg Jets fan. It’s your best moment probably following your team ever. It pro probably is. You don’t have a cup to speak of. It’s not that though until you win it. Remember, you you might not. Danny Briier scored a game tying goal in game two against Ottawa in 2007 with five seconds to play at home. Building going absolutely berserk. Nobody remembers it because they lost the game. You got to win the game. But Winnipeg did get home. They won it in double overtime. The thing though I really want to talk about today about the playoffs was last night. Toronto comes out firing. They score three goals in the first period. Willie Knander 33 seconds into the game. Toronto takes game one against the defending Stanley Cup champion, Florida Panthers. I am uh I’m sure you can probably call me a Toronto hater. Um I love when the Leafs lose. I think it’s hilarious. At the same time, I’m not like that mad as they’re winning here because I do think the best story the league could have would be Toronto making it to the finals. I don’t know about them winning it, but because them losing in the finals might be the funniest part of it, but there they are. They win game one. Anthony Stolars though leaves the game in a pretty dramatic fashion. He has a concussion and to the point where he was vomiting on the bench, had to be stretchered out of the building and taken to the hospital. Now this morning he checked out of the hospital and we’ll see about his status, but I don’t think he should play anytime soon. It would be crazy to me, but that’s hockey. He might get back in and that’s tough for Toronto, right? because he’s been awesome and we know Toronto’s goalender woes in the past and he’s helped to stabilize that. So to not have him will make it very hard to them for them to go on that cup run that I was just talking about and even get through the series against Florida. The play he was definitely concussed earlier in the night, right? There’s almost no way he gets hit on a a a hard wrist shot by Sam Reinhardt in the first period right up high with the mask and the mask falls off. He puts it back on. He shakes his head a little bit, which it, by the way, we had some people on Twitter say pointing out that’s a tell. That’s a tell for concussions is that little headshake. It’s an involuntary thing that people do when they get a concussion. So, he might have just been fixing his helmet though. But either way, he probably was concussed right then and there. Third period. Sam Bennett coming across the crease from behind very close to the goalender. His elbow is out a little bit, but not like to an extreme extent. And I don’t think he’s It’s not overt what Sam Bennett is doing. And his elbow makes contact with the back of Anthony Stalar’s head where there’s not a lot of padding on that helmet. He goes right down. He lays on the ice. He’s clearly out of it. and he goes to the bench and that’s where he pukes and he’s out of the game. That play from Sam Bennett, it’s one of those where it’s not easy to make the call because you watch the clip and it’s debatable, but it does look kind of harmless. It looks like I just rubbed against the goalie. He’s not trying to hit him in the head. I could totally understand anybody’s takeaway being, I don’t think he should be suspended. I don’t think he should be fined. I think it was just the guy’s going hard to the net. He didn’t mean to make contact. He’s even a former teammate. Last year, Anthony Stars was on the Florida Panthers when they won the Stanley Cup. He didn’t do it on purpose. I understand anybody saying that. The reason I am not having that be my opinion on the whole situation is is because it’s Sam Bennett. And in my opinion, you have to take the history of the player into account when you can’t quite tell whether he tried to do it on purpose or not. in the history of this player would tell you one, he absolutely goes over the line all the time. And two, he is an expert. Sam Bennett is an expert. Remember the sucker punch on Brad Marshon last year? Sam Bennett is an expert at covering up intent to injure and making it look like a part of the game accidental. And that’s where I I am not in charge of the Department of Player Safety. If I were in charge of the Department of Player Safety, I would absolutely consider him a repeat offender and I would suspend it for a game because I think he did it on purpose because I’ve seen this guy repeatedly do things exactly like this and he always gets away with it. He never gets suspended for it because he’s amazing at making it look accidental. And that was a little bit the Marshon play last year for Bennett. If you don’t remember, Bennett clears the puck in. Marshon’s coming in to check him. Bennett with the stick that with that is the hand that his stick is in, fires a jab at Marshon as he’s flying across the ice. And Marshon goes straight down. I think he maybe even left the game that I don’t remember. And the ref doesn’t see it because from everyone’s angle, like every normal angle you saw during the game and on the ice, it looks like a completely accidental play. It looks like just contact. It wasn’t until I think the next day we saw that alternate camera angle from the other side of the ice where you went, “Oh, he did it on purpose. He punched the guy in the head.” And it was a smoking gun in a way for Sam Bennett. And I believe it happened after they had already decided not to suspend him. You’re That is your evidence right there. This dude knows how to get away with it. And it’s hard for me to believe that he didn’t do the same thing to Anthony Stallars that he knew, oh, if I just move my way through the crease here like I’m going hard to the net and I hold my elbow firm exactly where it is. I don’t stick it out. I don’t shoot it out like an elbowing, but I just hold it right then and there. And I let my momentum skate into him. And I basically Bennett saying to himself, “Oh, I’m about to hit the back of his head. I’m just not gonna move out of the way. I’m not gonna move into it. I’m just not going to move out of the way and I’m going let myself hit him.” I think that’s what happened. So, I would have suspended him for a game. I don’t think he deserves the benefit of the doubt. I think he’s a dirty player. Um, I’d like to have him on the Buffalo Sabres. I used that as an example earlier. Uh, I think though he is a dirty dirty player and I would absolutely believe that he did that on purpose. So, but that’s what makes it tough, right? Because you kind of have to guess. You kind of have to guess because that’s how good Sam Bennett is at this. He knows how to injure people without having it be clear and obvious whether he tried to. All right, that series one- nothing Toronto. That’ll do for us here on the Locked on Sabres podcast. Um, a lot of good playoff action coming up. My Stanley Cup pick will begin play tonight. And again, tonight we’ll figure out whether the Amirs will play the Rocket or whether we got to wait another couple days to see if they will play um they will play Laval or Cleveland. By the way, Carolina will be starting Freddy Anderson again tonight who signed an extension. Sweet. So there goes another top goalie off the market. All right, that’ll do it for us today here in the Locked on Sabres podcast. If you look are looking for more playoff talk and of course on the Bennett hit on Stallars, check out Locked on NHL game night every game, every night until a Stanley Cup champion is crowned. Get your local analysis on a national sta scale. Find NHL game night on Lockdown NHL on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. We’ll talk to you tomorrow here in the Lockdown Savers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

The Buffalo Sabres are reportedly keeping Kevyn Adams as the team’s GM into 2025-26, despite tons of calls for his job from the fans. What possible defense is there for Adams staying as GM? Sneaky Joe says don’t assume this isn’t going to be Lindy Ruff’s front office going forward. Plus, the Sabres fall two spots in the NHL Draft Lottery to the 9th overall pick. How much worse is the 9th pick from the 7th pick?

And why Joe would’ve suspended Sam Bennett after hitting Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz.

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