Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams, AGM Jerry Forton AFter 2025 NHL Draft

Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams, AGM Jerry Forton AFter 2025 NHL Draft

i’ll take a question a sec before I do that I just I want to make sure I say how uh how how great it was to have Greg Mansy and his family here and I want to thank the NHL for allowing us to have that opportunity obviously Greg’s going through a tough time right now and I just thought it was a pretty special uh time so it’s um something that uh for me personally meant a lot that the NHL allowed us to do that so I wanted to start with that and open up to questions kevin would you say both in trades and in draft picks organizationally you came into this wanting to be tougher more physical more right-handed and that was a major mandate yeah I think uh you know like we want to be harder to play against um from our team just you know our Savers teams now so you’re you know you’re looking at those type of opportunities to change that and and work on that which you know I felt that um we were able to do through these couple trades and you know yeah organizationally and it’s I think I laid this out the other day you know you’re certainly um especially in the top of the draft going the best available player um you know it just so happened that in you know our our first couple picks that you know we got some pretty good size and physicality and and right shot D you know they’re valuable so it um for me it’s just building that pipeline
this is the second straight year you’ve traded a second rounder just what do you have in common well we this is a guy that um we’ve we’ve had for a while somewhat on our radar as if there was a way to get him um you know that he we just thought he’d be a great addition to our group we still think he’s got upside to continue to grow as a player um you know when I talked to him on the phone today he said he was standing in his parents’ backyard and he could see Key Bank Center so I think they have a cottage right across um he grew up a Sabres fan uh another guy that truly wants to be in Buffalo and was couldn’t even express his excitement to me um just with the opportunity to come so you know that certainly uh checks out and we really like his game we just think he’s he’s a solid two-way player that um he’s big uh right shot and I think it just really solidifies our decor uh moving forward guy or do you think
Well I think he’s that’s you know today that’s probably what you know where his game is but as you guys have heard me say before like you do want to you project out you know and we see him as a guy that’s continuing to get better um and in last year later in the season the more minutes he played the better he played and so I just I do think there’s upside but um yeah I’d say right now that’s where he is
jerry what are your quick evaluations of each of these nine picks this year
um well the the right shot D aspect of it was interesting i mean Murker was a guy we had targeted and probably thought there was a decent probability we would end up getting um so we were excited about that there were you know we were a little bit nervous as it got to like seven and eight um and we certainly view that as a bonus you know the size and the right shot um helps but I wouldn’t say it was a a difference maker um with Bedcowski that was more of a coincidence to be honest i mean if you look at our prospect pool we have quite a few of our best prospects coming our right shot defenseman so he was by far the best player left on our board when we made that pick so it was more a coincidence than anything that we ended up taking two big right shot defenseman but certainly a guy that we did like and target a little bit for the toughness um especially with his size uh the the forward the Czech forward um Cuchartzik was a player that all the crossover scouts have probably had 20 viewings each of in the last couple years and then Frank Muso has had an awful lot of viewings within his league um and in many of the tournaments with us as well comes from a a very prominent hockey family in the Czech Republic good two-way player we obviously got a couple goalies um a few of our players you know the the path was interesting even some of the Europeans this is going to be a more common thing with how the CHL has opened up um to college hockey and just in general the Europeans seem to be coming over here more and more to the USHL and to the CHL and I think um even our Russian goalie may end up on that path in the very near future so you know the the two European kids we took um outside of Murka are will likely end up over here either in the CHL and the USHL and then ultimately college so you know you have an extended development path window with them as well yeah um from your perspective as well did the organization put a premium on selecting players with size and toughness and grit well I mean I as I I said a few days back you look at your prospect pool sometimes and you see what we might add to our prospect pool i I would not say that you know we thought we lacked size or toughness or grit in our prospect pool but I also at the same time said that you know there’s a recency bias you watch the way the playoffs are played um you don’t expect that to go away anytime soon we obviously want to be a playoff team in the near future and for a long time here so you’re trying to target playoff type players and I would say maybe we talked a little bit extra about that whether consciously or subconsciously that affected the placement of a few players on our list probably kevin when you think of your draft room obviously everybody’s going to talk about well Yarmmo’s new Eric Stall is new but Lindy was in your draft room last year but he had just got here what was it like what was Lindy’s influence this year given the fact now he’s been here a year with this NHL team and with the organization
yeah yeah i think from what Lindy does a really nice job of in the scouting room around the draft time is you know he doesn’t know the players like our scouts do but what he does well is paints the picture to our guys is exactly what is going on in the NHL right now and the type of players that he sees having success so when our when our scouts are debating or challenging each other on this guy versus this guy sometimes Lindy has a perspective that I think is is really important um you know I also think that Lindy has so much respect um from our you Jerry and his staff that um you know just the things he says go a long way you know so he he knows that the this isn’t for him it’s not the time to weigh in and try to make a pick it’s more to listen but then add his two cents no but he’s he’s an important voice in the room um and you know and he’s counted on a lot of different ways more than just coaching
timonss would he have obviously Lindy would have a lot to know about him and was it basically his opinion that he could upgrade you maybe in that particular position on your team
yeah I’d say the way the way I would uh the way I would explain it Paul is I really like Cliffy like Connor Clifton is a really good hockey player a solid NHL player a um great teammate and you know physical and you know all of that checks where we felt uh Timonss made our team better is just a little uh maybe just a little bit cleaner in terms of the way he plays the puck touches and just the the way he plays the game so um we just felt for the role that we were looking for in that spot in our decor timonss was a better fit and also someone that we thought could move forward with us for an extended period of time um where you know we knew Cliffy going into last year of a deal is probably that was that was probably going to be it so that was part of the decision as well
far as Benowski goes just for both of you whoever just what kind of vibe did you get from him we’re talking to him on Zoom and he was it sounded like he was ready to get down to business and he was very passionate when we talked to him just what what did you what kind of feeling did you get from him yeah I mean Jerry can weigh in in a sec because you know he knows him through the year better than I do but what I can tell you the due diligence that our scouts talked about um when I looked at my notes I had a two-minute conversation with him after and it was very clear to me that this is a this is going to be a good pro just his head on his shoulders how how he conducted himself i mean he actually made a comment to me about how much it meant that um how the pick was made and just you know it was really just impressive how in you know in an emotional time when you got a lot going on just his calmness and ability to talk about hey I’m going to get better and I’m going to do everything I can to be the best possible player I can be and I just think that when you hear the scouts talk about and then you see it after um you know it goes a long way
yeah what Kevin’s referencing there is the fact that Greg made the pick and his story was kind of told out in Los Angeles so here’s a kid and probably the most anxious nervous time of his life uh had the composure like that was the most important thing he wanted to talk to us about that there was an honor to him that the pick was made that way so that that obviously speaks to his character and um and his kind of poise and his understanding of the bigger picture to to be able to do that in the moment in terms of the player we’ve followed him closely for the past two years he was a a player in his underage year that caught our eye an awful lot graham Beeish our main Ontario scout has probably seen him play 30 or 40 times all the crossover scouts have seen him double digit times traded from Ashawa to Owens sound in a pretty big trade owens Sound targeted him uh insisted he was part of the package for them to make that trade at the beginning of the season not ideal for the kid because it was a step down in terms of the team he was playing for but he made the most of it and I I I mentioned you know someone asked me about the HSN kid the other day and this kid is very unique and very much in the same mold in terms of a throwback player and you know by the way also 65 so uh I I just I am very convinced he’s going to get the most out of his abilities did
the draft board fall the way that you kind of felt that it was going to when it came time for you to pick a nine were there any upsets there we were without going into too much detail yeah we were six for six on how the first six players went off the board uh which I anticipated would be the case so I you know I’m not afraid to say the player we got was our next player on our list um so for us that was you know very good value and we were excited about that um and then um you know after that it got a little scrambly i think you know as it does many times when you get into the teams uh but it’s every year it’s getting not just our list I think around the league more and more accurate i mean you go through 60 picks in the draft and you know we’re probably on you know we’re probably close to within five six players dead on at that point in terms of who’s calling off the board so it it fell all the way up until I’d say the fifth sixth round pretty much how we anticipated it would jerry you mentioned the other day that you saw Murka live when he was in check and you mentioned about his background a little bit also i’m wondering if you could expand just on what impressed you about the background path
yeah I think personally I have 21 or 22 viewings of the player this this year so and it actually started last year at the under 18s when he played there as an underager and then the Helinka this year i’d make the case he’s pretty easily the the best player in his age group you know by a decent margin over in you know Czecha but he played in the men’s league and he’s probably too good to play junior hockey over in you know Czecha and most of Europe for that matter and but the men’s league was accelerated for him i would make a case um he he he could handle it for a while but then uh playing on a a very in a very successful organization his his minutes started to dwindle a little bit uh he the league un the league and the team understood he might come over to North America to challenge himself and that maybe it wasn’t ideal to be playing at that age in the men’s league but he wanted to honor a commitment he had to the national uh under 20 program over there in November so I think all part all parties agreed that he would stay and play in that tournament and then he came over to play in Seattle and when you saw the growth in his game jumping into the WHL which is not an easy league just adjusting to the ring size a different style of play for a defenseman and I caught a couple poor games out there early as did some of our other scouts but we also caught some high-end games but at about the 10 game mark he just took off i think they might have been 18 or 20 points out of a playoff spot at the time on a rebuilding team in Seattle and I think everyone in the league would pretty much credit him and our goalie Ratzlaf for easily getting that team into the playoffs just all situations two-way defenseman uh high compete 6’6 kid still growing into his body he’s going to have some awkward moments i I project his skating to be very good um in in time but he has some awkward moments then he goes to the under 18 you know championships at the end of the year and if anyone wants to watch clips I’m sure you’ve seen some of them a little bit of an underman check team because they didn’t have all their best players there because of other commitments and against the US and Canada you know two of the best teams in the tournament i thought he was arguably the best player on the ice for either team so to see that progression all year long and then to know the character of the player um that he comes from you know very um you know modest uh background and he’s had to work for everything he’s gotten up to this point would indicate he’s got a pretty high ceiling to us combined with obviously the physical upside of the player
kevin when you talk about the draft obviously the trades go in concert with it i know the trade talk all around the league continue to talk what is your how do you focus in on in the next couple days looking into Tuesday seeing a how you can you know maybe pick up a couple guys to help this roster or b do whatever you’re going to do with Bo or whatever you’re going to do with any other players
yeah I think some of it’s um just continued conversations you know it’s been um probably for the last month a lot of conversations daily with teams some of it ends up getting parked when you get to the draft just because of the way the draft falls and then you pick it up tonight or tomorrow um sometimes they break down because they’re involving draft picks or potential swaps you know so that could go away too but um for me it’s I’d say continuing to look at ways to improve the roster um thinking about okay is there is there an opportunity to that the market resets I guess is a way to say it because after I think teams um whether it’s big trades they were looking to make and they didn’t go through or they did go through like what what are their needs now um and then there’s kind of another another kind of what I would say market that gets reset after July 1st you know there’s if certain teams are going after certain free agents you don’t get them they’re need you know so how does that go so that’ll just be um you just continue to work at it and see see how we can improve the roster in any way
would that kind of be what you saw last year i mean you got Mloud it was July I think it was July 5th
exactly
you know so it wasn’t on the first and teams made some moves and so in theory you know people want to know are you going to get a forward can you get one in free agency is it even possible but you could be doing something well after that when you have that second reset right
yeah it’s exactly right i think last year um you know we really were focused on like this exact time last year on on finding a third line center that we felt was you know an all situation player and um you know there different ways to do that we had talked about trading for players free agency um and it just the the trades didn’t materialize free agency didn’t get the player that we had talked about and um you know players in unrestricted free agency have choices so to your point though then if it was July 5th so that’s a few days later you know we stayed on it and then ended up being able to make the trade we did uh which you know fit you know I think that was a trade that we thought would help our team immediately and we had a player that we thought could be with us for you know in his prime years which um is the goal so yeah we’ll see how we’ll see how it goes over the next few days but we’ll certainly be in active and and trying in every way to improve the team kevin in that same vein you know as you construct the roster for this season how do you kind of how do you project the identity for this year’s team and this year’s roster
yeah it’s a great question because we you know I’m going to I’m going to say it again we have to be better defensively we have to be harder to play against we have to be a more mature team in terms of our puck management and decisions when you’re you know up a goal on the road late in the first period you got to get the you got to get it you got to you got to get it behind the D and not turn it over and give up a twoon-one and that type of stuff we just have to mature so I’d say the identity what I’m looking for is a team that um understands we’re that we need to take the next step to play winning hockey more consistently um I think we did take a step late in the season in terms of guys understanding what that means constant communication from the coaches to the leadership group um but yeah that’s and in defensively we have to be better i do think we have a very talented group of players we can score um we can we can it’s not about outskilling teams it’s about out competing teams with skill and I think that’s for me what I want to see more of hard hard hard compete with skill um and guys that’ll do anything to win um and how you what you call it I don’t know but it to me it’s just an identity of winning hockey and that’s that’s our goal
i know you mentioned you’re kind of open to anything with Bo Byum have you engaged I guess in like contract talks like where do you do you think you know that’s a realistic possibility
yeah I I I’ve spent a lot of time and um since the season ended well first of all I had a great conversation with Bo just one-on-one at the end of the season you know and just understanding where he’s at and he’s just a great kid and he’s a he’s he’s very um he’s he loves his teammates he lo he loves being a saber um but he also you know understands that you know I I I have I have this window in in my career and you know what does that look like and what are opportunities so we just talked about that and I’ve had a lot of conversations with Darren Ferris um and I’ve just been very honest with him i I understand the position he’s in where um where he is in his career and how far he’s two years away from UFA um and we’ll just keep talking i don’t think it’s great for me to publicly talk about any sort of contract negotiations but what he knows is we we we like him we we believe in him we think he makes our team better with it on but if there’s a trade to make that makes sense and we think it’s the right thing to do we’ll do it
what about him like
you mentioned with JJ like it was pretty clear it wasn’t going to work and you kind of pivoted what is it about Bo that you think like you’re kind of open to all these possibilities it seems like he has the personality that if it works out where he’s back here he’s kind of the type of guy that’s just going to be right back all in
100% um yeah and that and and that’s where we’re at like I’m comfortable if we’re Sorry oh it’s a it’s a Do you want me to tell you who it is gm and another team see I told you we’re going to keep talking about it um what were we talking about Bo um yeah i mean I’m open to doing a you know longer deal shorter deal like I’ve told them that they know that um but what I know about Bo Byum is um he’s if he’s back whether it’s a one-year deal or two-year deal or eight-year deal he’s going to be all in and and try to help us win and that’s what I truly appreciate about Bo um so we’ll get to the right we’ll get to the right solution um but you know it’s got to work for both sides but he understands how we feel about him and um he knows that we’re willing to do whatever we need to do to try to help our team get better and and we’ve been very transparent both ways so I’m looking forward to kind of engaging with Darren again here now that the draft’s over thank you
thanks

Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams and assistant general manager Jerry Forton spoke with the media after the conclusion of the 2025 NHL Draft. They talked about the new draft class, Bowen Byram, and more.

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