Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams & AGM Jerry Forton Pre-Draft Media | 2025 NHL Draft

Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams & AGM Jerry Forton Pre-Draft Media | 2025 NHL Draft

when uh JJ spoke with us at the end of the season he gave us no indication at all that he was unhappy or anything like that has that changed and if so what’s changed yeah I mean I thought at the exit meeting with JJ uh with with me and Lindy separately who both were very positive productive honest uh conversations about you know things he’d done well and how he progressed and things where he needed to be better and I think that’s one of the things I really like about you know JJ Purka is his ability to um analyze his own game and say “Hey I need to be better defensively i need to you know do more to help the team win in games.” And I think that’s a sign of maturity from him um so no that’s all positive on the JJ front there from from those conversations so is he asked to be moved um I you know this is the best way I would say i don’t think it’s probably productive or beneficial for me to get into specifics on on our players right now this is the time of year where um there’s so much going on and you know there’s probably Mike a lot of misinformation out there um and I guess probably leave it at that you know we we have a plan that we came out of the end of the season with you know after the exit meetings after the coaches meetings and you kind of break down the season and start to forecast like what are we looking to do um meetings with ownership you know all that happens you come out with a a game plan and a to-do list of where do we go from here and you know we’re executing that plan we’re in the process of it um it’s an exciting week busy week ahead but you know you look back over the last couple months and you know hiring Yarmmo hiring Eric uh Stall uh Brian Gallivan completely retooling the strength conditioning uh department um just looking at areas that we thought we needed to to be better change um we’ve been doing that and now we’re just kind of in that you know process of now we’re draft week and we continue but um you know it’s been an exciting for me personally offseason so far and some of the additions we’ve made and we’ll keep at it here through all that that’s not no I I don’t I I don’t want to say yes or no because I just don’t think it’s it’s the right time you know and I can probably after the draft get you know and and when we have other conversations get into more specifics on things but I just don’t think it’s fair to the player to be honest with you to really even respond to that i think it’s just better to to keep it to the the fact that we have a plan we’re working towards helping our our team get better we’re willing to do whatever it takes to get better and I don’t know like I get a I get memos on my desk every morning from PR of things and I feel if I’m being honest like I feel bad for our fans the stuff that’s out there there’s so much misinformation so much of it’s nonsense i mean some someone that has no idea what they’re talking about reporting that we were going to buy Sammy out we’ve never had that conversation once like it’s ridiculous so I don’t even think it’s worth me really getting into it but um I guess I just leave it at that how much ahead how much do you anticipate staying at night no I think it’s uh like we do every year and Jerry and his staff do a great job being prepared for everything um I would say I’ve had conversations up to this point from teams that are all the way up at the top of the draft right to teams behind us you know preparing for every possible scenario moving up or down which you’ve seen us do in the past um and also being able to willing to move the pick all together if there’s a if there’s a way to make our team better um and it involves pick nine we’ll have zero hesitation in saying that we also believe we’ll get a good player if we make a pick a nine so to me that’s the exciting part of the draft you know going through this process but we’re we’re wide open but our focus remains the same how do we help our team get better just to dig a little further on that um is given where you are um with with your prospects and all that do you think there’s more of of it’s more imperative maybe that’s not the right word to deal that pick for established talent at this point of where you are as part of your play i think I’d say imperative might not be the right word but open to it more than maybe I’ve been in past years would be fair you know like I think we had to really kind of try to build this organization up the the appropriate way and I do believe in building through the draft and developing players and uh making sure you have depth in your organization which is you know which I think we’ve done a done a really solid job of have a good group of prospects good group of players that aren’t even in Rochester yet that are coming so does it give you the I don’t know what the right word is give you the the comfort of saying if we move pick nine you know we still have a lot of young good assets absolutely but um I don’t think you want to go into it saying “Hey I’m just moving this pick no matter what these are these are valuable picks and um but you’re open to everything and trust me the league knows that I’m absolutely open to moving pick nine if it’s the right deal for us.” Kevin what needs do you want to fill organizationally from this draft from the draft specifically uh yeah i mean it’s it’s when you’re talking about ordering your list you know it’s um especially in the top couple rounds you’re you’re taking the best player available um as you get later in the draft um do you maybe go steer get off your list a little because you’ve drafted maybe some forwards you want to take a D then that’s you know something you look at but I think we’ve got good prospects and depth across the organization and our philosophy won’t change um we’ll take the best available player if we’re making that pick at nine is there anything uh positionally in particular well I think you know in general you’re always going to say that uh you’d love to have a good depth on the on the D especially right shot D are hard to come by so if you can build that in saying that we have multiple right shot D in our system that are coming um so centers defenseman um goalenders you know that’s all um maybe some wingers mixed in there um just just depth and make sure that you’re adding to your pipeline um but you know I I defer I have a lot of respect for Jerry um Jason Nightingale our amateur staff we have our January meetings where I get to know these players for the first time and then I start to get more involved on the amateur side um after the January meeting and then we had our May meetings where um you really dig in and you spend a lot of time morning till night going through all these players so I familiarized myself by this point um with with many players and then I I love the work our guys do and I love the passion they show and that’s that’s what you know when it all comes together Friday Saturday is a lot of fun for me to watch our amateur guys debate and um you know hopefully get to the right answers you started building this thing there was a big emphasis on guys that wanted to be here and I’m curious as you get to this point you know whether it’s JJ or any of these other guys is there’s contract situations there’s the frustration of losing like how do you draw that line of like maybe a guy doesn’t want to be here but you have team control and and you’re kind of trying to find that balance between basically giving guys a free pass right like oh I don’t want to be here so like everybody gets you know anybody can get traded at any time like how do you kind of find that line now that you’re five six years into this yeah I mean I think just it’s it’s important to have people in your organization players coaches staff that believe in what you’re doing and and want to be here for the right reason and I mean I’m sure I’ve said this before but I’ll I’ll make the point that um you know paying someone more money um hoping that they’ll make them happy isn’t usually a recipe for success you know you have to have players that buy into and believe what you’re doing and wake up every day in Buffalo excited to be a saber i I think that’s important in saying that are there hard conversations with times or players at times frustrated with things absolutely and that’s that’s part of the relationship building that I believe in from my job through the coaches um having those conversations it’s there’s hard days too where players are frustrated or I’m frustrated and um but that doesn’t mean you just you wake up because a player is upset at that day and you’re just trading them you know it’s it’s kind of so I guess my my point of saying all that is yeah getting players to believe in what we’re doing is critically important um having them for me be transparent with them to explain why we’re doing things um decisions we’re making have them part of the uh equation of helping helping me with the right answers and then also they need to perform and if they perform that’s that’s going to be a win-win for for them and us as far as far as the goalies go Hukapeka didn’t have the year many expected devin did very well in Rochester you had James i don’t know if he’s going to play again like do you envision Devin starting with the Sabres again what’s your goalie plan for next season i guess as of now yeah I you know I think I said this probably right after the season you know for me I have all the faith in the world and um UPL and Devin Levi I have I believe in my core that both of them are are going to be excellent National Hockey League goalenders i think we need to play better in front of them um better defend better and that’ll help our goalending we’re open you know from Devin and what I’ve you know and this is not something new to him you know he and I have had this conversation within the last few weeks that I believe in him um the timeline’s up to him you know he he’s going to he’s a young goalender still now he’s got a you know some more experience under his belt that um when he’s ready to take the step he will and we’ll be ready for that do I have do I have a problem if those are our two goalies opening night absolutely not but I’m also you know gonna make sure that we’re smart how we do things and put our team in the best position so um you know what I guess most excited about is I I believe in those two guys hey Jerry how you doing um how do you think this draft shakes out after five um and knowing that you’re at nine just it seems to be somewhat of a consensus you know for the first five guys how does this draft shake out and and where where’s the when does the injury start for you well I think I’ve I’ve seen some people refer to it even as a two-player draft um we don’t quite see it that way we see more five six seven players and then maybe a little bit of a drop off and a big cluster of players after that so I guess the intrigue and the nervousness will be will one of those you know how we view the top six seven to be will one of those be there at nine for us and could there be a situation where we move up if we have to pick do we move up do we move back um if all the players are gone or if one of them’s still available there at you know seven or eight do you think with Kevin saying he’s open at number nine but Is there some point that you might advise Kevin to say “Well we’re we’re done.” You know maybe we should move back or or I mean it it puts you in a curious interesting situation yeah and to some extent we did that last year we moved down three spots because we were pretty confident we were going to get the same player at 14 that we were going to get at 11 um you’re taking on some risk and you know that’s that’s our opinion that the the players are equal players or maybe you’re even getting a slightly better player than you you thought you were going to get at that spot um so yeah it’s it’s interesting i mean you know trading the pick is interesting you got to have teams that want the pick and want to give you NHL players back for the pick i think I said this the last couple of years like nothing would make the amateur staff more excited than if we’re helping our team right now and we trade away trade away our first round pick um so we’re always open to that as well have you had any have you gotten any sense from teams higher in the order that maybe there’s an open like trading up doesn’t seem like it happens a lot but from what Jerry’s saying if there’s that that pocket of players like we all talk about trading yeah uh it’s historically it’s very challenging to move up you know to the very top of the draft um we do have a unique I think position the fact that we have a lot of assets um that would be pretty valuable in terms of young prospects players extra picks all that stuff so I think that gives us every opportunity jerry does a really good job of kind of clustering players for me um okay this is the time to strike of a deal if you can make a deal do it now because this is the guy i mean we did it last year with Zemer um you know there was we had him at a certain spot and we felt that we got to get this kid right now and we were able to get up and get him you know so I think Jerry and his staff work all year to be able to give me that information because sometimes you only may have two minutes to to make that decision so that work’s done beforehand i would add to that too i think every year there’s a lot of teams trying to get up in the draft and as you say it it rarely happens i think it would probably have to be part of a a big trade uh for it to happen or for the most part you need multiple first round picks to get up at that point in the draft kevin every year like around this time we hear teams are going to start using offer sheets more and then in like a week and a half that doesn’t come to fruition do you get the sense that that is a possibility and then tied to that with restricted free agents does that build in a timeline of like okay we kind of have to make the decisions on these before that offer sheet window opens yeah I think it’s I mean it’s a mechanism in the CBA that um every team has well if you have your picks every you have the ability to um look at that as we go through our own process we we plan out and uh prepare budget-wise for for those type of things so it’s something that um you know we don’t wake up every day um fearful of anything we we plan appropriately um but you know I think there’s a it’s an element of the CBA that it it’s not that teams are un um not wanting to use it or don’t understand it it’s that it it’s not as easy to find the right fit to have it work you know you have to you have to have the the appropriate picks you have to have the cap space you have to you know there just a lot of things that you have to really like the player and all these other areas so I just think that’s why you don’t see it that often because it’s just not um something that’s is easy to pull off but I think every team’s going through their own discussions internally just like we would if there’s an area to make your team better you want to do it kevin what are the advantages or disadvantages of the decentralized draft format this year and what did you do to prepare for it as an organization well the advantages we are at one Bill’s drive and maybe that gives us some uh some I don’t know maybe there’s another NHL team using an NFL facility but I not that I know of so we’re pretty fortunate that uh Terry and Laura and Pete Brandon Shauna you know offered this up when they when they called and asked me I I jumped at it i think it’s it’s great so um we’ll have the ability to have a big space in a room that Brandon uses um that’s built for this exact type of draft um so for us that’s a that’s a huge huge win huge benefit um the downside you know maybe maybe just the the running into people that you know on the draft floor at that moment but it’s not like I can’t call or text or you know so you’re not going to not do a deal because you’re not together but you know there is something about you know the draft everybody sitting together where you you know you make eye contact and say “Give them a nod and let let’s chat real quick.” um you know so that’s something that’ll be a little different for all of us but um in terms of workflow um we’re treating this just like any other draft and you know fortunate that we have this facility he’s been you know with you now what’s he brought to the organization and why did you feel that he was the guy that you wanted Yeah I’m glad you asked Paul I I think this is this is a role that I’ve been personally kind of thinking about trying to add someone for a long time um I wanted to be very selective picky what’s the right word to say in in who that person was cuz I had a there there was some really specific criteria that I was looking for in someone in this role and that was one someone that’s sat in the chair before that’s knows exactly what it feels like um in certain moments whether certain things you deal with pressure um that has perspective to be able to help two I was looking for someone that um wanted to work you know not that okay I’d done that role and I’ll be there once in a while if you want a phone call yarmmo in my discussions with him um leading up to hiring him was I’m all in and I’m gonna be you know every part of this uh organization he’s going to get involved with um add his experience his perspective um he’s you know he’s going to be based out of Columbus which in some ways is great because he’ll you know there’s an NHL it’s an NHL city and you get a lot of the pro scouting reports that he can add but then four and a half hour drive for him to be you know in the car and here in Buffalo and he’ll be here a lot so he has been in a very short time a really really big asset for me personally for the whole organization and you know my style is an absolute you know in terms of leadership is collaborative flat organization where everybody’s got a voice talk to each other um get in the room debate um sometimes fight and come out with what we think’s the right answer for the Buffalo Sabres and um having his 30 years of knowledge is great but you know 11 years a general manager is a long time and a lot of experience in a similar type city to what we have in in Buffalo in terms of smaller market and um so home run um and besides that I guess while I’m on it just a great person you know treats people the right way so many phone calls after hired Yarmmo from the hockey world just wow did you get a good one and the respect he has in the league and the credibility um it was a and he chose us he had a lot of offers and opportunities and he wanted to be part of the savers and I I it meant a lot to me brought in Brian Gall how would you characterize the fact you expect him to be yeah galley is uh you know when I started the process of really thinking about our organization and where could we where could we improve or elevate um you know you’re looking at every single part and when I started going down the strength conditioning road a little bit and trying to think about you know what do we need to do or why if we made a decision his name kept coming up in the hockey world and he was kind of known um as probably the elite strength coach in the world um that wasn’t you know part of an NHL roster and so as I started getting um having conversations quickly and we hired him um quick because yeah he was the guy I wanted and um he’s going to be a huge huge huge asset to our organization he’s made a big impact already in terms of the strength conditioning his own program what he’s doing we hired two other strength conditioning staff members um that that we brought in as well with with Galley so um it’s a huge part of of the offseason that’s why I didn’t want to wait around you know I wanted to get him in right away and get you know working on our players so excited to have him kevin a couple of housekeeping issues here uh I know the governor’s meeting is today what is Laura Pul’s role in the Savers organization at this point yeah Laura Laura has been you know getting more and more involved um in terms of well she’s an alternate governor um so I would say a maybe it was a year or two ago she went to her first board of governors meeting i was with her um you know get to meet all the other owners and a lot of people involved at the the high level on the business side um and then since then just been getting more and more involved with you know and Pete on the business side and you know understanding exactly the different things going on but then also sitting in and listening and in hockey meetings and you know scouting meetings and just just just taking it all in and I think that’s that’s great um for her to be more involved so yeah she thinks she’s in LA is it today whatever the day of the meeting today or tomorrow uh with Pete and um then she’ll be here for the draft as well and the second thing what is the status of the assistant coaches uh yeah I think you know we have an excellent coaching staff i guess I would say the way I look at it um Lindy is clearly someone that’s done this a long time and has a lot of experience and um knows exactly what he’s looking for out of a coaching staff but we’ve talked about you know he and I is if there’s someone to add to the coaching staff that he thinks would be beneficial additive um then let’s let’s do it and he’s had a number of conversations with a lot of people um but overall I think uh you know I’ve asked Lindy to just evaluate the coaching staff um give me your thoughts and if there’s whether it’s changes we would make changes we’re still open to to adding though as well but um obviously for Lindy he’s someone that um has to trust the people that he’s in the trenches with every day and he clearly does so are they under contract for this season or uh Yep yep every one of our current coaching staff is Yes under contract so you understand I think the perception is that you had a 79 point season and essentially the only thing you traded out was the strength and conditioning coach that’s to be frank is odd i mean you’re not going to fire the coach he just got here you’ve been here a while no assistant GM’s move no assistant coach has moved do you get the sense that why people think that’s unusual and you’re just running things back from the same unit yeah i mean I don’t worry about what people think or um I don’t pay attention to noise or outside perspective i I uh I think I’ve been pretty clear i’ll do whatever I I believe is right to help the organization which is something that we’ve backed up over the years in terms of whether it’s coaching changes or like you just mentioned a complete new strength conditioning adding Yarmmo adding Eric Stall i mean Eric Stall has just left a meeting that had incredible in my mind perspective and you know the way he articulates uh this this is a really big addition to our staff so um you know and I think I just said that like if there was an upgrade to make in the coaching staff that that Lindy or I felt was going to help our team then we would do it um so not worried about you know what people may think this is about us doing the best we can in our minds to to to put the best team on the ice and best staff how do you feel coming out of your initial conversations with Alex Tuck’s game uh yeah yeah I mean he is really to me um an important player for us he loves Buffalo wants to be here that was very clear and we we believe in him and realize you know what he brings every night so there’s a lot going on right now in terms of you know the draft and just everything around this time of year but uh he understands he’s a priority to have Eric Stall who’s been on the ice with a lot of these guys that were available this off season yeah it’s a great question you know we we’ve spent a lot of time since we hired Eric you know in in meetings and conversations and uh if he didn’t play with him he knows someone who who did and I I’ve always believed this um it’s really valuable to have someone in your hockey operations department that’s pretty fresh off of playing i mean to have someone like Eric with the Hall of Fame career and the he’s done everything he could possibly do in this game um successfully so is even better but um yeah I mean instantly he you could ask about a player and he said “Hey you know this is what I see here’s playing against him this is what it was like.” And it’s it’s valuable um but he’s obviously I’ve known Eric a long long time so that that helps there wasn’t too much of a burn-in um time for us cuz uh because of how close we are but um no he’s been great with um the Panthers winning backto-back cups obviously they play a a physical nasty brand of hockey like do you have the sense that you know there’s a couple guys at the top of this draft Brady Martin and Porter Martin that kind of bring a little bit of that do you get that that is going to be a premium maybe uh in this draft or you could be being a bit of a copycat league sometime oh for sure there’s always recency bias you know I think what we try to do is we try to look at our entire prospect pool um it’s more about our prospect pool than it is our NHL team when we’re drafting and if there’s players that are close in you know certain pockets of the draft um and we’re maybe lacking something in our prospect pool that we think is ideal for down the road at the NHL level we might lean one way or another but we’re not going to jump off the list or take a lesser player can I ask Jerry yeah go for Jerry and defenseman could you talk about those two players uh two great defenseman that I think will have longtime NHL careers um Aterson brings very much an old school approach to the game i could certainly see him be one of those players that might get the the recency bias bump um there’s very few players you know in junior hockey college hockey and Europe that play the way he plays um very unique and he he brings some offense especially off the heavy shot as well um MKA very unique package uh to be able to move the way he does at 6’6 um almost more agile with the puck if that’s possible a smart player at both ends um I was over in the Czech Republic early in the year when he wasn’t getting a lot of playing time in the men’s league over there um to see what he was willing to do to move to North America um comes from you know a background where he has very little in way of resources for hockey or anything outside of hockey uprooted you know high character kid um huge ceiling I think so two guys that I would certainly expect to be you know in the top you know three four five defenseman off the board

Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams and assistant general manager Jerry Forton spoke with the media on June 24, 2025 ahead of the 2025 NHL Draft. They addressed topics including JJ Peterka, Alex Tuch, assistant coach contracts, the NHL Draft pool and their strategy, and more.

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