QCity

Some quotes from today's Athletic article on his experience: No two general managers in the NHL have exactly the same experience, but Adams’ background stands out among his peers. Of the currently employed NHL GMs, Adams is one of six who never held an assistant general manager or vice president of hockey operations title in the NHL prior to his hiring. Of those six, he’s one of two who never scouted or consulted in an NHL hockey operations department. The other is Canadiens GM Kent Hughes, who was a longtime prominent NHL agent and has an experienced president of hockey operations above him. Outside of the afternoons he spent in his cubicle in the Sabres hockey operations department from December 2009 to August 2011, Adams had no prior NHL hockey operations experience. “I think that’s what rubs people the wrong way,” said one former scout. “He wasn’t in Fargo watching a game. He wasn’t in Medicine Hat watching a game. He wasn’t at the U18s in Slovakia in August missing family vacation. That’s the grind. That’s what pretty much everybody else did unless your name is Joe Sakic.” signing Taylor Hall (imagine thinking Taylor freaking Hall is the difference between an 80-point team and a Stanley Cup contender) On Oct. 11, 2020, five months after hiring Adams, Pegula stood inside his new general manager’s office. At that point, Adams had no assistant GMs. His director of scouting was Jeremiah Crowe, who had three years of pro scouting experience before getting elevated to that role. The analytics department was Jason Nightengale. This was the first day of NHL free agency. Pegula and Adams discussed the possibility of signing Taylor Hall to a one-year, $8 million contract. Hall had won the Hart Trophy two years earlier with a 39-goal, 54-assist season for the New Jersey Devils. The Sabres had failed to qualify for the expanded 24-team playoff during the pandemic, extending their playoff drought to nine seasons. “We sign this guy,” Pegula said to Adams in a behind-the-scenes video released by the Sabres, “we’re not only trying to make the playoffs. We’re trying to win the Cup.” “Yeah,” Adams said. “I mean this is … yeah.” Hall signed with the Sabres and scored two goals and 19 points in 37 games before he was sent to the Bruins at the trade deadline. Buffalo finished in last place, and Adams fired coach Ralph Krueger. power dynamic In a behind-the-scenes video of the Sabres’ trade deadline process, Ruff noted that the team’s culture needed to change. In that video, Pegula is on a conference call multiple times throughout the day, weighing in on decisions. That offered a view into the dynamic between Adams and Pegula, a dynamic that other potential general managers might view as a red flag. “Any self-respecting GM who takes that job is going to say, ‘I have to be able to run this for you,’” said one former NHL executive. “I know it’s your team and I have to talk to you about things, but I have to be able to build a team and make decisions. If I have to run a simple (Henri) Jokiharju for a fourth by you, what are we doing here?”

The idea is to get him a gift not start a fight.

Absolutely not permitted per the CBA. Raises many issues including circumvention of salary cap rules.

Not all. Fans are always going to cheerlead re-signings regardless of money, term, structure etc. Those threads are just echo chambers. Re-reading that thread is absolutely hilarious though.

A real NHL GM with actual experience from outside the organization is definitely something. I would feel a lot better if Adams reported to him but it's a start.

With Hyman done for the year Jeff Skinner gets to play in the Stanley Cup finals. The tradition of ex-Sabres immediately winning a Cup is still alive.

The Bills have never said that 80% of STHs have purchased PSLs. The 80% figure is their sales conversion rate.

Yeah, right lol. "Don't do all of it" - S. Diggs 2025 Anyways good for him, it's hard to make new friends in your 30s.

We used to do this with EJ, Jeff Tuel, and Thad Lewis.

Here's the quote from the Buffalo News a few days ago - "The Bills say that 80% of season ticket holders who visit the stadium experience sign up for new stadium PSLs." All this means is that out of every 10 people that go through the stadium experience, 8 wind up buying PSLs.

Completed canopy 360 view

I don't think they have ever said it will be 100% complete i.e. "done" by 2026 opening day, they simply said it will be ready ("substantially complete and ready for football"). You can't tell people it will be completed in Spring 2027 it would be too confusing to season ticket buyers, as evidenced by the number of people right here that don't even understand this latest news report. Anyway here's a recent video.

Maryland "blue laws" restricted business operations on Sundays. Even baseball and football had to wait until 2:05 to start. Of course, that's so long ago Baltimore was still in our division. I wonder how many people got arrested at that home Miami game on Monday night?

It's clearly obvious Rich Eisen does not know about the rule change. "This is not from the list of teams that get forced to do it" no Rich, playoff teams can get forced to appear now. And if this is upsetting to you, maybe go outside and get some fresh air because that's crazy.

Really? This isn't hard to justify or understand.

The NFL is not now, nor ever been, proactive. It's going to take an injury to get it banned.

Fantastic news, must see TV for fans! I wonder if the usual suspects who show up every year in the annual Hard Knocks thread just to b**ch and moan will watch?

Getting talented players has been the "formula" for every team in every league in every sport since, well, forever. It takes some serious leaps of logic to attribute this as some sort of McD innovation.

We don't have to, the non-season ticket holders whine enough for us. Besides, we have already sat in these seats at the stadium experience before putting any money down.

He got picked faster than Shedeur Sanders.

Keeping Adams isn't that shocking, both his and Ruff's contracts expire at the end of next season. This was sort of expected (but still disappointing) when they gave Ruff that 2yr deal. But giving Adams the hiring power to expand the front office and bring in his BFF from Carolina was definitely not on any Bingo cards.

This. The writing was on the wall for Pickens as soon as they traded for DK. Watt isn't going anywhere.

Sabres drop 2 spots in the Lottery to 9th. Adams still in the GM seat repping.

So if our first 4 picks are defensive players, then we take 4 offensive players in rounds 5-7 it's "even?" Maybe you should have taken 2 seconds here.