Jarmo Kekalainen Bolsters Sabres w/ Paul Hamilton | The Jeremy and Joe Show

Jarmo Kekalainen Bolsters Sabres w/ Paul Hamilton | The Jeremy and Joe Show

mr paul Hamilton joining us on the Western Hotline paul did you see the Northern Lights last night i I I saw the forecast was that we might get some joe you haven’t anybody seen him last night well you might live in an area where it was more likely than than me i don’t know yeah maybe i I didn’t I didn’t know there was a possibility yesterday have you seen him before i have not all right i remember last summer we saw him last summer though it was a thing where like you could barely see them until you put your phone up to it and then in your phone you could see them clearly and it almost felt like it was fake but you could see a little bit last year anyway good morning Paul how are you i’m well how are you i’m I’m I’m you know I’m good back from vacation refreshed ready for this uh Stanley Cup final between Edmonton and Florida i mean you know before we get to the Savers I think it’s uh I think it’s good for the league this this series last year was great and had an incredible storyline and for that to come back again I think it’s a win for the NHL this series yeah I’m hoping we get a good I mean I thought Dallas and Edmonton was going to be a good series and it turned out not to be and uh we wound up with only five games and uh it wasn’t all that great and so I’m hoping uh you know I have a lot of hope that this is going to be a great series go to seven games and uh you know maybe replace what I thought we were going to get with Dallas and Edmonton do you have a thought Paul on what transpired at the end there for Peter Dbor and Jake i’m back i’m back from vacation so I didn’t know if you guys talked about this but I wanted Okay good i wanted to make sure because what on earth is Peter Debor doing and not even just like one p there’s pulling aer there’s the weird video of them not making any eye contact on the bench but then I don’t know Paul like how often do you hear a coach talk the way he did about a player when he said that he and he’s he’s he’s right like he said he’s lost six of seven games to Edmonton talking about not I mean how many 999 times out of a thousand a coach is going to you know butter that up to be like it’s the team and we’ve lost you know there was no Wii it was more talking about Oddinger specifically yeah and if that’s a thing that you want to bring up and and thinking about well that’s something you’re going to talk about before the game that’s that’s your starting goalie i mean if if that’s a thing and you’re thinking well he’s lost six of seven we got to do something else well then you would have went to Smith to start the game not after there you started the game you’re in the game and there’s been two shots and they’re in your net and that’s your reason for you know for pulling i mean I I I I kind of get it but the thing is too this isn’t just some January game you know where well you pull the goalie maybe maybe you get the team fired up and you know I I understand all that but at the end of the day you need you need to win this hockey game who at the end of the day gives you the best chance to win the hockey game even after the two goals and the second goal yeah I’d like a big save there absolutely it’s you know the guy breaks in you you want to get a big save out of your goalender especially a goalender who’s one of the better goalenders in the National Hockey League but again I I’ll say it again i mean who gives you the best chance to win the hockey game even when you come back and they Dallas started to come back they started to they scored a couple of goals and they started to come back and then I’m thinking well if Dallas scores again here they may be sorry they did this because they’re not going to go back to him you know so uh it just you know didn’t make any sense and then you know the way he talked about afterwards and you know Auter spoke for like 10 minutes at locker cleanout and was you know he he didn’t rip into his coach or anything else you know he he talked about that you know he needs to be better and and uh he wasn’t and you know he was he was pretty classy in the way he handled it i know it’s still a couple days old and we’ll get on to the Savers and Kalina but was it one of the all-time great moments in broadcast history to see Ray Ferraro standing right next to him talking about him i mean all time awkward moments and what what a watch that was when that But give Ray credit he did not back down of his comments at all um you know he said what he felt and what he had to say and I I give him a lot of credit for that’s not an easy thing to do the other thing quickly on this that was kind of crazy again like Dbor weirdly how this was handled is after he calls that timeout they they they huddle up he’s giving the fiery speech or whatever and they all separate odder starts skating back to the net and then Dbor is screaming at him like “Hey get back here you’re out.” Like it’s interesting that he didn’t communicate to Oddinger that you had been pulled or maybe just didn’t hear him because it was loud in there i don’t know but the whole thing is weird especially that’s your star goalie he was under contract for eight years like you’re not going to want any type of poisonous relationship with him going forward and he said he hadn’t talked to him yet at all you know afterwards i mean it’s like you haven’t talked to him yet you might want to you you do have a season next year uh I don’t think they’re going to fire you or anything you You might want to get together with them and chat with them yeah so does Yarmmo Keolin have what it takes to swing a trade for Jake Ainger because he’s going to be so upset yeah i’m just going to We’ll save it for a Let’s Get Stupid later today later this week later this off season yeah stupid season’s about to begin right why not all right Paul so the the addition of Yarmmo Keoline into the Sabres front office you know what’s the what’s the big picture view of you here it’s something the Sabres wanted to do we knew they wanted to add some kind of senior leadership how do you like Kalinan as the uh as the landing spot well the nice thing there are some there are a lot of nice things about it i mean he’s he did the job for a long time in Columbus he’s done pretty much everything in the front office you know he was director of player personnel with Ottawa he was assistant GM and director of amateur scouting with St louis he also was a general manager in Finland as well as uh with the with uh Columbus and he was able to make a big move in a market where you thought where you would say “Wow.” I mean think back to when Johnny Goodro was a free agent the Columbus Blue Jackets were never ever mentioned by anybody be as being in on that you know it was all the the big teams you know I’m trying to think i know the Rangers might have been Philly and New Jersey were in on that too right you know it was those big teams and then next thing you know well the Columbus Blue Jackets have signed Johnny Goodro and it’s like what they did when did that happen you know nobody really knew anything about it so you know he’s not afraid to take a big swing and he’s been able to take a big swing when nobody thought he could get it done and get it done and that’s what the Buffalo Sabres need is to be able to get it done i mean uh I I I talked about how you know Adams wasn’t wrong when he was saying this isn’t a destination when he was with the palm trees and all that kind of stuff but it’s not a destination because they’ve gone 14 years in a row without being in the playoffs yeah and part of the problem Paul there was the guy that’s supposed to sell people to come here isn’t supposed to say that out loud you know yeah but that’s it he wasn’t he wasn’t wrong in the premise of what he was saying um so you know they this is a big off season and I mean you know I’ve talked about g getting Eblad as a partner for Owen Power well Eblad I’m sure Buffalo isn’t number one on his destination list uh to come here i mean it’s going to take you know some some gumption and and some maybe figure it out uh in a in a way that maybe other teams didn’t uh type of thing to get a player like that or if you’re looking at a Sam Bennett or somebody like uh that I mean all any name you want to bring up here none of them probably have Buffalo at the top of the list so you’re going to have to be able to do something that helps get a player here and get that type of thing done because that to me is Adam’s weakness i mean I know it’s difficult i know you need two people to have a trade partner i know maybe the guys who you wanted to trade for last summer weren’t traded at least at that point one of them was traded in the middle of the season um but still it’s your job it’s your job to be able to get that done so Paul with that in mind do you feel like this is a not exactly a preview but is this an offseason that needs a move like that you’re talking Ecklad or Bennett or a big trade or an aggressive mindset from Kkaline whether that’s the Patterson trade idea something that you know the the Sabres need a little bit of a a push to get over the line do you feel like this is an offseason where there could be a a move that kind of turns heads that surprises people because it’s a big move from them well that’s what you know they they need to become better defensively and they need to find a partner for Owen Power well who could help you in both those areas that’s where you know the Eblad idea would come i mean he’s tough he’s been around he He’s a champion uh he’s a very good player are you going to have to overpay yeah sure but go ahead and overpay i mean you you have a a salary cap that’s going to be going up each of the next three years um so to me it’s worth it i I think he is perfect for what you know Owen Power needs right-handed shooting defenseman he brings toughness he brings a winning pedigree um you know he’s just the type of player that I think Owen Power needs so all right how How do you figure out how do you to to go get that because they’re not going to make the playoffs that they’re still 29th in the NHL in defense uh hanging their goalies out you know and and all that so that to me that’s such a priority for them uh that uh you know that that’s what I’d be looking at paul Hamilton with us on the Western Hotline paul have you thought at all or do you think any you know this wouldn’t be a part of it i’m sure for the Sabres when they’re making this hire or at least Adams but if this season doesn’t go well I don’t know does doesn’t Kalinan kind of strike you as a as a reasonable guy to replace Adams if a year goes by and they miss again or just goes poorly you’ve said this too like trying to predict what they’ll do with GM what Terry Pagula will do is almost impossible but I don’t know i feel like if they’re ever going to move on from Adams that Kalinan’s resume you know is the type of guy where I’d be impressed if they would hire him as a GM let alone a senior adviser oh yeah he would definitely have the inside track you know if uh you know Terry Pagula now would have somebody that he knows that is that he has worked with you know that’s important to him uh when when he can get somebody like that so um definitely I think if it does go south and uh you know they need to make a change he definitely would have the inside track paul Hamilton on the Western Hotline his appearance uh brought to you by Railax Honda relax we got this paul structur structurally um is it just an a very easy senior adviser like he’s just who had this job before Ken Sawyer or some you know when this when when the pagulas bought the team they had a lot of people in there and maybe it seems like Craig Craig Patrick was in would be the one to think about okay all right very good then then yes I’m thinking about Craig Patrick maybe is this just a good sign maybe whatever it doesn’t have to be a big good sign but that they’re hiring people without people going out like adding to the hockey department willing to invest a little bit in a spot that’s not on the ice but just they they feel like Adams needs support that that’s really what this is i just I need other people in there with me i need to have a team if you’re the GM because a lot of these teams a lot of these GMs um these franchises do have lots of voices in the room and the Sabres just feel like they need more yeah and that’s the thing here here are the Sabres doing this and I think they did a good job here but they’re five years too late you hired a GM who had never even approached doing this job before it wasn’t even close uh and uh when when you hired him now of course you couldn’t have gotten this man because he was already the he was a GM at the time but that that’s when they should have been doing this bring somebody in then but if you recall what was one of the things that the one of the things that Adams was hired to do it was gut the hockey department so they certainly weren’t creating jobs they were getting rid of people they were hiring the same guy to be director of amateur scouting and the director of pro scouting and he hadn’t done either job before you know that’s that’s what they were doing so you know they certainly weren’t going to do it then but that’s when they should have been doing this is when they hired a guy who was inexperienced and bring somebody like this in to help him paul Hamilton with us on the West Her hotline paul as we enter the off season for the Sabres and for really the whole NHL other than the finals here a lot of teams blogs media social media there’s a lot of PURA talk out there how do you think it goes for him this summer do you think it just there’s a short-term bridge deal between him and the Sabres do you think offer sheet is possible like I don’t know how do you think of what type of summer we’re headed for with with him yeah I don’t think I’ve read anything from anybody credible about Purka i mean uh couple of people who were playing games with I with offers they go “Yeah right.” You know type of a thing um I I don’t know if I would see an offer sheet for him or would be worried about that um I really I don’t really worry about offer sheets at all well I mean there were a couple of them last year which means it’ll probably be another five or six years before we see another one cuz that’s the way the NHL rolls i mean why would you use the rules to your advantage i mean uh GMs I I never get that but and I know Jeremy doesn’t get it either he’s been talking about this longer than I have um but uh if if somebody were to get an offer sheet from the Sabres I think it would more be Bo uh possibly than JJ Purka uh you know JJ Purka still isn’t a great two-way player you can’t ignore 55 goals in two years he’s better i I thought he improved but still he’s not a good two-way player he has a long ways to go before he’s going to be able to do that and um before you have a coach that really you know is is all excited to have JJ Purka he’s got to be a better two-way player so um yeah I I I I I would be so I still think you know he’d wind up the only way I think you would see him traded is if the defenseman we’re talking about and a really good defenseman became available and might take him to get that defenseman then you want to flip your depth a little bit um then I think you could see that as a possibility paul we also got the news as we get closer to the NHL draft which comes up later this month that the Sabres will be using the Bills facility for this yeah I heard that uh for a while now and they they confirmed that yesterday for us so um it’s a big draft room i mean the Sabres facility just you know when you got everybody there and your whole staff you’re going to be cramped and even for us as media I mean we’re basically in a closet they had forgotten to do a media room when they redid the arena so they did the best they could and put us in a closet for the most part it’s a big closet but it’s it’s it’s not big for as a media room so certainly being down there in the Bills media room will be a treat for us also to cover it but uh you know the the the draft room that the Buffalo Bills use is state-of-the-art and something that the Sabres really you know it makes a lot of sense for them to be able to go down and utilize that so uh you know and of course you got Powelli who’s COO of both teams and uh so it it just makes a lot of sense for them to do that all right thanks Paul okay take care paul Hamilton’s appearance brought to you by Railax Honda rail X we got this

Jeremy and Joe are joined by Paul Hamilton to discuss the Sabres addition of Jarmo Kekalainen to the front office. The guys start off by asking Paul for his thoughts on the upcoming Stanley Cup Final, which looks to be an unbelievable series. The guys also discuss the fallout from Dallas Stars coach Pete DeBoer pulling and calling out his goaltender before being eliminated by the Oilers. Then the guys get into the Sabres news, Paul explains that the Sabres filled the exact sort of need that they were looking for with the hire. Kekalainen brings a willingness to take risks, respectability for the team, and the ability to attract top players. They also ask if Kekalainen could be the next GM of the Sabres if things don’t go well for current GM Kevyn Adams.

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