Former Sabres GM leaves after a reeling franchise after five and a half seasons at the helm
The Buffalo Sabres gave Kevyn Adams nearly half of the 2025-26 season to see if the club could turn things around before finally relieving the GM of his duties on Monday, but the pathway to his demise was laid over the last few years by a series of bad decisions. Over five and a half seasons, the Sabres, with a roster strewn with top draft picks and talent that went on to win Stanley Cups in Florida and Vegas compiled a 178-196-42 (.478) record.
The trades of former captain Jack Eichel and two-time Cup winner Sam Reinhart were necessitated by the dispute over Eichel’s surgical path and the fact that Reinhart was one year away from unrestricted free agency and likely would have signed elsewhere, but the return for a pair of franchise cornerstones paled in comparison to what Vancouver received for Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes over the weekend.
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For every good deal that Adams made (Bowen Byram for Casey Mittelstadt or Ryan McLeod for Matthew Savoie), it was counteracted by a headscratcher (Dylan Cozens along with a second-rounder for Josh Norris). His inability to attract free agents or make trades was blamed on the city, the weather, the taxes, and no trade protection, but franchises like Winnipeg and Minnesota have no issue trading for or keeping their players. It is a reality that players are more open to going to larger markets like Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles, or warmer climates or in cities in no-tax states like Florida, Tampa Bay, Dallas and Nashville. Often teams in higher tax or colder locales have to overpay players to get them to sign on the dotted line.
The reality is that Adams oversaw a second Sabres rebuild in the last decade with a core consisting of two top overall picks (Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power), and a sprinkling of experienced forwards (Tage Thompson, Jason Zucker, and Alex Tuch), but the formula that Buffalo pursued was to draft and develop talent internally. In spite of some of their top picks (Jiri Kulich, Noah Ostlund, Zach Benson, Isak Rosen) beginning to show some promise at the NHL level, the Sabres have selected 39 players outside of the first round in five drafts, and only one of them (Tyson Kozak) has played a game for Buffalo.
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