Kevyn Adams CONTROVERSIAL Presser w Paul Hamilton | The Jeremy and Joe Show

Kevyn Adams CONTROVERSIAL Presser w Paul Hamilton | The Jeremy and Joe Show

joining us on the western hotline mr paul hamilton who was there in attendance jeremy and joe good wednesday morning good morning paul good morning guys how are you doing all right alexander mcgilly gets in the hall of fame as well that’s uh big news 17-year weight for him he gets in let’s start there paul it’s a it’s a nice good topic people love and you know how did that news hit you long overdue and uh very happy for mil yes absolutely i mean uh i i never dreamed that he would have to wait till he was 56 years old to get into the league i mean here’s a guy that had scored 30 and 39 goals and then in his fourth season has 76 goals in 77 games in the 9293 season um and matt didn’t even lead the league by himself if you remember he you know he he you know um you know he he had the 76 holes it didn’t lead his team in scoring was what i was trying to say uh pat la fontaine his centerman had 95 assists and 148 points in that season uh it was just a joy to watch those two maneuvered together and for the most part they they played together uh you you know hockey sometimes lines get shuffled but for the most part they played together and dale howard chuck was also a big part of that team uh and and almost had 100 points so uh it was it was a great team to watch he was a great player to watch and you know he it wasn’t only as a buffalo saber either i mean even when he went to the vancouver conucks and to the new jersey devils where he won a stanley cup i mean this is a guy that had 1,032 points 473 goals um i just never could understand why he wasn’t in the hall of fame he was also the first russian to be an nhl captain and the first russian to be named to an all-star team paul and i wanna i want to fight back on that okay why the only reason he had to see on is because uh laf fontaine was injured so it was more okay he was more of like an inter he filled in for lafante when he was the captain he was never like named captain of the team but if you look through the sabres uh you know their captains he’s listed there but so is everybody when they were doing captain of the month right you know they were listed as captain sue and it’s like spotchuck’s on that list or something yeah um so i i’ve never when i see pictures of him you know with the sea on i’m always yeah he wore the sea but he wasn’t really the captain he was just filling in when pat la fontaine was injured that’s fair well what i was going to say is more that the story of how he gets here is almost worth him being having inclusion in the first place because of i mean there was a sportsnet documentary i think like 10 years ago about him leaving and that’s like compelling hearing jerry mian talk about how they thought in sweden they’re being followed by the kgb while they have him in the car while they’re waiting for their flights like really like it feels like espn or somebody could do like a deeper dive documentary on that yeah they were going through different countries and you know there they could have lost their lives doing this you know what they were doing it wasn’t just you know well you’re i mean back then it these things weren’t done and you’re dealing with russia and you’re defecting from russia kgb as you mentioned um you know it could have turned really ugly uh had they been caught on the way through so you know for him to decide you know like he’s going to defect from his junior team and come and play and the sabres i don’t well they they weren’t anticipating that was going to happen they basically took a flyer on him they knew the type of talent he had and they they you know all right fifth round pick you never know type of a thing i think the way they looked at it you know he’s he’s our property and uh is i think is the way they looked at it and if something happens where russian players do start playing you know then you know he he’s your guy but uh you know it it it worked out really really well for them that they did take a flyer on him paul hamilton on the western hotline so moil to the hall of fame they woke him up at 3:00 a.m with the news paul um maybe moil you know got on his phone and then started reading the sabres press conference notes maybe you know go just to wgr550.com read your recap what was your um larger takeaway from from yesterday there’s a lot of little stuff to dig into but the press conference itself got a lot of reaction from sabres fans i think that called this station listening to the afternoon show um what was your biggest takeaway zooming out on what kevin adams and jerry foron had to say believe it or not the one thing that really stuck with me and maybe i’m the only one that said this really stuck with me is kalinan um his home base is going to be in columbus i i my ears really perked up with that and i thought that’s not what i thought this was i mean i i really like this hire i think it’s an i think they did a really good job hiring him and bringing a guy in who’s been an nhl gm for 11 years um and i i think he can be a fantastic sounding board for adams and the organization he’s been through a lot of situations where maybe they haven’t and to be to be have a guy like him there to collaborate with but i i i don’t know i just think he should be here um and and adam said “well it’s easy to get him here it’s only a four or five hour drive whatever it is and yeah but i i i don’t know that that that just hit me wrong i just thought you you hired this guy to be here and to be in on conversations and to be in on on decisions and i know he he will be here sometimes and and but i i just thought to i don’t know what you guys feel about that but i just kind of thought i i i think this is a good hire but i i need him to be based in buffalo i need him to be here all the time and and be available like that yeah paul i’m glad you brought that up because when when that happened i thought the same thing initially and i thought all right that but remote work like that happens you’re going to have some advisors or consultants that are remote in this case is it basically that your belief is that kalin and we thought he’d be working so closely with this organization and this hire that the idea that he’s oh he’s just a 4 and a half hour drive away and adams also defended it by saying it’s another hockey city he sees more people he can see games like i thought adams did a good job maybe explaining how it could be viewed in a positive but i’m very much open to it still seems like it’s a little bit uh i don’t know rinky dink of an operation if he’s not even coming to town and i’m not saying it can’t work yeah you can we have zooms and everything else i mean he can he can be in on every meeting through zoom i mean and and that type of thing but um just like when you’re sitting watching a game together you know how as as as fans like let’s say you go as a fan to go see a game and you’re you’re with your friends uh and you you’re you’re talking about baseball you’re at a blue jays game you’re you’re you’re talking about uh you know the league and those things and all of a sudden things come up in a conversation uh as as you’re watching but when you’re a member of the organization and you’re watching something and you sit there and you’re together in every game and and you can say you know what johnny smith here i have seen him now for five straight games doing the same thing here uh you know and just in general conversations what do you think do i mean do you do you like what you see here does this have to be corrected uh type of a a thing and i just um it just isn’t what i was envisioning the that that thing because i do think it’s a very good hire but it just wasn’t envisioning um what what i thought now on the other side of the coin one thing i think was very encouraging is what he said about alex tuck because i think that’s an extremely important resigning and you know i don’t think alex tuck was you know at the end of the season he just sounded like you know if you were a buffalo saber fan i think i’d be a little bit worried what he sounded like now he didn’t say he didn’t want to be here or anything like that but he also didn’t say that he did and it was just kind of like uh but you know the kevin adams has said twice now he said it in april and again that this is a priority priority he has made it very clear to alex tuck that he is a priority he said that alex tuck wants to be back and uh you know it’s so i think if you’re a fan i think that was a positive part that you heard there that a guy cuz he he has a skill set and does things on the ice that just nobody else on the team does and i think he’s an extremely important part of this team if they are going to get better uh to to be here so i think that that at least was an encouraging part of the press conference paul hamilton on the western hotline talking about last yesterday’s sabres pre-draft press conference which is a lot about the team and a little bit about the draft as well we can get to that paul purka are his days numbered i get the distinct impression they don’t want his days to be numbered i i think and if i’m right on what i’m what i believe this is and i think this is agentdriven i think you know and and this isn’t wouldn’t be the first time this has happened in buffalo um where an agent said you know we got to get you to a bigger market you’re gonna make more money you know the whole the whole thing and um i jj purka i think back to that press conference in april and i’ve listened back to it and he gave zero indication that he wasn’t happy with the buffalo sabres he talked about how he can get better next year he talked about playing for lindy ruff um it just and and i i don’t know i just i just get just because i know this agent and i know how he operates alan walsh um i i i i just wonder if peter got talked into this by his agent because he did say that day that oh the contract came up and he goes i have nothing to do with that he goes i i put all my trust in the agent and my agent he takes care of that that’s his thing you know and and and i don’t know i just kind of think he got so to to make uh i’m getting long-winded here as far as this from the saber standpoint i think they still feel that maybe this can work out you know and and and i know they don’t want to trade him i i i don’t think it’s something that uh you know they they want to do and you know adams has talked about you know you know he’s had hard conversations with players and players get frustrated and he gets frustrated and he goes you have hard conversations with players and um i still think they would like to keep him and i don’t think they’ve given up on keeping him but conversations of course are are you know are are being had and you know you see what what what’s out there and what’s going to happen none of us know exactly what’s going to happen but i i still think they they feel there’s hope in keeping him here yeah and that’s where you know these uh these two opposing ideas meet where adams again yesterday talked about how important it is for a player to want to be a buffalo saber and wake up and be a buffalo saber and if a player has indicated or if an agent is pushing for that player to not be that would put adams in a spot where he has to well i’m going to sign this player even though that player might not feel that way i thought i thought it was a bit of a puzzling comment his idea you know this this kind of gets to the perska thing it gets to free agency his note about how giving a player more money doesn’t make them happy they have to want to be here and wake up be here and happy like if that’s the case then agents might seize on that and say like “all right well that that’ll be easy we we’ll just say we want to get out of here.” because if you don’t value paying the player and instead you value this you know intangible notion of what it’s like to be a buffalo saber which you know for league standards right now is what it is i i just wonder if the agent sees that from adams and doesn’t see that as you know an opportunity to act on it maybe i didn’t take it that way that they don’t want to pay a player um i took it as we don’t want to pay a player thinking just giving him money will make him happy you know we got to we got to make him we got to get him on board before we pay the player is is the way i took it um i didn’t take it as we never want to pay the player type of a a scenario but um you know i think that’s that’s the way they they they that’s the way i took that out of the press conference okay devin levi and uppl of course it it gets to that kind of season it’s kind of like the nfl draft oh we’re very comfortable with our insert position here and then you go out you draft that position anyway you know for adams to say he has all the faith in the world in upl and levi and say if i start with those two in the season that’s fine you know the offseason has not happened yet so he can say that and he doesn’t necessarily have to mean that we’ve talked about it a little bit we talked about it earlier in the week whether or not they would seek any goalending help and adam’s comments about levi oh it’s up to him whenever he’s ready whenever he’s ready paul a team that’s pushing for the playoffs and trying to end a drought has to be aggressive trying to find saves at any cost and i don’t know that he means he’s going to be passive at goal but to say he has all the faith in the world in those two that was the plan last year and it did not really get him anywhere and he said it twice now he said it in april also you know and with the same exact thing uh so nothing really had changed in his feelings on that and i you know he’s not going to come out publicly is the way i looked at it and say “yeah i’m really nervous wi with those two.” uh you know he wants to build them up build their confidence up especially lucin i mean lucin is a confidence thing as far as i’m concerned and he admitted that when i asked him about that you know he did not have the season last year that he had the the year before where his numbers in his last 35 games were as good as anybody’s in the national hockey league uh that you know he had some games that were good but it certainly was a regression last year um so you’re counting on that devin levi is ready to be an nhl goalender and that his skill set and his season and his year and a half in rochester is going to carry over into the nhl or that lucin is going to rediscover the goalender he was uh not this past year but the year before and you know that’s a lot of ifands and buts as far and it could happen both could be great they could come to training camp and both could turn into great goalenders as a general manager i would not count on that especially in a year that you absolutely have to make the playoffs because if it doesn’t work and you don’t have good goalending you’re not making the playoffs we know that this is this is the nhl and if your goalending is is subpar you’re not going anywhere and you’re not going to be in the playoffs so that would not be a chance that i would take that well it could work out yeah and yeah but also it you may have two guys that aren’t ready or aren’t up for it and the free agent goalending market is nothing to be excited about so you know i think if you’re going to improve in goal i think it’s going to have to be done through the trade market paul what about what adams had to say about and the tone he had when he talked about the matias samson report which he wasn’t even asked about by the way the b the buyou part of it maybe it would have came up at some point in the press conference well it was on my list to bring up but yeah he he wasn’t asked you’re right he just brought it up just got right to it h how defiant he was about it to say paul that they haven’t even really considered it um two parts of it i guess like the the tone that he’s setting there and whether that’s not the tone you want to be having in a press conference like that and then also i guess why why not from you like why do you think they wouldn’t even consider buying out samuelson this off seasonason i wouldn’t either i don’t i would want do not want him on the books for 10 years now it’s not it’s it’s under $800,000 but i you know i i wouldn’t want him on the books for 10 more years uh i mean they’re still paying christian airhoff now i’m not saying that they should keep him but i think i might be looking more at a at a trade even if i basically give him away um but that i think i would be looking more towards that the thing is is instead of i don’t think you come off well the way the way he came off doing that if you just say nothing and wait until somebody asks you the question and just say that that report isn’t those reports are inaccurate we we are not going to be buying him out not something we thought about and leave it at that and and you know if you’ve been asked about it but to bring it up like that quite simply all right you know how you you say that that report isn’t accurate you just let it you just don’t you’re not you all right you’re not going to buy him out so everybody will find out that that report isn’t accurate when you don’t buy them out buy him out when he’s either traded or playing next year and you haven’t bought him out you have proven that that report is inaccurate so i don’t know why you have to make a big deal of it right now just go about your business and and do what you’re going to do and these it’ll it’ll take care of itself whether reports are accurate or not i wondered paul if that if that was a reaction to maybe like a there was a different source from that frustration because that reporter frank cavelli has been the one reporting the most stuff about jj purka and he was talking about purka and then referenced a cavelli report about samson i was almost wondering if that was i don’t know if misguided is the word but if that frustration was was coming from his frustration with that reporter it could be because that reporter is wrong quite often more than more than others uh who are nhl insiders and you know he was the one uh and i remember we talked about it as happening the trade deadline and all of a sudden he’s talking about burka and the rangers and i don’t know did he go go as far to say that the deal is is getting close to maybe being done or something like that and it wasn’t even happening it wasn’t even right it wasn’t even correct uh and that’s why i i i think i think i mentioned with you guys yesterday something that pierre lebron said about the purka thing and and his reporting was i think is dead on that the sabres do are not do not want to trade purka and they are still hoping that it works out and and you know they they of course are listening to offers and and it’s not like they haven’t talked about it but it’s still not something that they’re convinced that they’re going to be doing or have to be doing so you know that seemed like a more accurate report than anything else that i’ve read about it and uh but that partic i get honestly because when those reports come out of course you got to look into them you have to you know check them out and that particular reporter frustrates me too i mean that that he makes me sit there and chase down things that i pretty much know aren’t right and uh you know so that there’s a frustration but i just think there’s a better way for him to handle that paul hamilton thank you paul we’ll be uh you know keeping up on draft coverage first round is friday evening correct yes yes and uh i’ll be more i you know i wrote a very long article and really there was just so much to talk about from that and today i will be tackling the actual draft stuff from those two so that’ll that’ll be today’s article where we can actually talk about the things that are coming up this week all right very good thanks paul take care

Jeremy and Joe are joined by Paul Hamilton following Sabres GM Kevyn Adams’ press conference on Tuesday. Jeremy starts off by asking Paul for his thoughts on Sabres legend Alexander Mogilny finally being inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame. Then Jeremy asks Paul what some of his biggest takeaways from the Sabres pre draft conference, and Paul shares he finds it odd that new senior advisor Jarmo Kekalainen will be based out of Columbus and not Buffalo. Then Paul highlights one of the positives from the presser in Adams’ comments on Sabres F Alex Tuch who is available to sign a contract extension on July 1st. Then Jeremy asks Paul if he thinks JJ Peterka will be off the Sabres roster soon. Paul explains why he thinks it’s likely Peterka will get traded, but he’s not convinced that it’s Peterka’s idea solely. They wrap things up with a conversation on the Sabres goaltending and why it’s so crucial this year.

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