Column: Grading Kevyn Adams' tenure as GM of the Buffalo Sabres

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The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
Column: Grading Kevyn Adams' tenure as GM of the Buffalo Sabres

Ethan Lyons, The Meadville Tribune, Pa. · The Meadville Tribune, Pa.

Thu, Dec 18, 2025 ·

7 min read

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In lieu of my weekly look around the NHL, I want to look at the tenure of Kevyn Adams as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres .

On Monday, Adams was relived of his duties. After five years of failure, I want to look back at his tenure as a whole and give him a grade. Now realistically, Adams failed to make the playoffs helping to extend the Sabres' playoff drought to 14 seasons and thus he deserves a F, but where is the fun in that?

Unfortunately, I do not have the space too look at all of Adams' moves, but I will highlight two of his best and two of his worst to show the broader point. I will also throw in a few honorable and dishonorable mentions, but not go into too much detail on them.

The good

• Sabres acquire: Ryan McLeod and Tyler Tullio; Oilers acquire: Matthew Savoie (A+): This is by far the best thing Adams did as GM of the Sabres. McLeod has become a perfect fit on the Sabres, putting up 53 points in his first season and earning a four-year $5 million extension last offseason.

McLeod added energy, character and speed to a team that lacked it for most of its 14 year (and counting) playoff drought.

The speed and energy McLeod brings helped the Sabres transform their center depth. McLeod is typically a third liner, but when needed, he can play on the first or second line for extended periods of time.

One of the problems throughout the Sabres drought has been the fear of trading one of the numerous B to A tier prospects for immediate help. Despite having the top ranked prospect pool in all of hockey for the last who knows how long, the Sabres refused to let any of these young guns go. With a jammed system, these players never developed correctly leading to their NHL careers being disappointing keeping the Sabres in mediocrity.

Savoie, Noah Ostlund and Jiri Kulich , were all selected in the first round of the 2022 NHL draft. With Kulich already breaking into the NHL roster, there were conversations about if the Sabres should move on from Ostlund or Savoie. To many, Savoie looked to be on track to be the better NHLer in the season he was dealt, but nonetheless, he was the one shipped away.

The trade at the time was heavily criticized, even drawing the infamous "Forsberg for Erat" comparison. Luckily, everyone was proven wrong.

Savoie has been okay for the Oilers since the trade, but he is nowhere near as impactful to Edmonton as McLeod is to the Sabres.

• Sabres acquire: Josh Doan and Michael Kesselring ; Mammoth acquire: J.J Peterka (A): It is funny that both of Adams' best moves came at the end of his tenure, but either way this trade has been surprisingly good.

After making another elite talent not want to play in Buffalo, the Sabres were forced to ship away Peterka.

At the time, I really hated this trade, but clearly I was wrong. I liked both Kesselring and Doan individually, but I thought the Sabres were giving away a 60-70 point guy for a good second pair defender in Kesselring and a middle six forward who would probably not ever crack 50 points. Boy was I wrong.

As of Dec. 16, Peterka has put up 25 points for Utah in 34 games, Doan has put up 23 points in 32 games for Buffalo. It is like Peterka never left.

I think Doan works much better in Buffalo's system and with the culture they are trying to build. Like McLeod, Doan is fast and has a lot of energy and character, he has brought such a shift to this team that will hopefully pay off.

Unfortunately, the Sabres have not gotten to see much from Kesselring as he has suffered a few injuries to start his Sabres career. As long as Kesselring lives up to what he should be, the Sabres got a home run from this trade.

Honorable mentions:

* Sabres acquire: Robbert Hagg, 2021 first round pick ( Isak Rosen ) and 2023 second round pick ( Anton Wahlberg ); Flyers acquire: Rasmus Ristolainen (A)

* Sabres sign and re-sign Jason Zucker (B+)

* Sabres acquire: Conor Timmins and Isaac Belliveau; Penguins acquire: Connor Clifton and 2025 second round pick (B)

* Sabres claim Tyson Jost (10G 18A 28PTS) (B-)

* Sabres sign Craig Anderson (B-)

I really stretched the good for the honorable mentions, but Adams did make several good moves.

Two of the biggest issues that hurt Adams' good moves, were not expanding on them and not having the right coach to execute on the moves.

There were slim pickings for the good, but boy the bad is a lot easier to pick from:

The 2023 offseason (F-)

The vibes has never been higher in Sabreland after the 2022-2023 season. The Sabres had 91 points, but missed the playoffs by only one point. There were clearly flaws on the team, the defense and inconsistant goaltending, but there should have been a plan in place to fix that.

What did Adams do? He brought in 35-year-old Erik Johnson who might be slower than me on skates and Don Granoto's buddy Connor Clifton.

Both moves in theory were not bad, but both ended up being the two worst defenders on the team. Clifton and Johnson were traded before their contracts were up.

Predictably, the Sabres took a huge step back in 2023-2024 finishing with 84 points and it has been downhill since then.

Scoring dropped, the defense was even worse and goaltending was a mixed bag.

I understand that Buffalo has never really been super active in free agency, but come on. You have your best finish since last making the playoffs (2011) and you do virtually nothing to address any needs.

I truly think if the Sabres did anything of note in this offseason Adams would probably still have a job and the Sabres would be a playoff team.

• Sabres acquire: Devon Levi and 2022 1st round pick (Kulich); Panthers acquire Sam Reinhart (F-): I do not believe in Levi. At one time I did, after his insane run to end the 2022-2023 season, hopes could never be higher for Levi. Since then Levi has looked awful in the NHL and average in the AHL.

I know it takes longer for goalies to develop, but man this season has not helped Levi's case. In the AHL, his save percentage dropped from .919 last season to .909 so far this year and his goals against average dropped from a 2.20 to a 2.79, not a great sign for your goalie of the future who is supposed to be lighting it up in the AHL.

Levi could still become an NHL goalie sure, but Reinhart is a top 20 player in the league coming off four straight elite seasons with the Panthers and of course, two straight cups.

This is yet another example of the Sabres running a superstar out of town and not getting anything for him (see the Jack Eichel trade).

This trade just encapsulates what was plagued not just Adams' but the Sabres for the last 14 seasons. They lost a superstar, got little for him and they have failed to develop the players they did get.

Dishonorable mentions

* Sabres acquire: Alex Tuch , Peyton Krebs , 2022 first round pick (Ostlund) and 2023 second round pick (traded) ; Golden Kinights acquire: Jack Eichel and 2023 third round pick (Mathieu Cataford) (C-)

* Sabres traded for and re-sign Jordan Greenway (D+)

* Sabres acquire: Beck Malenstyn ; Capitals acquire: 2024 second round pick ( Cole Hutson ) (F)

* Sabres signing and trading Taylor Hall (F-)

* Sabres draft one NHLer outside of the first round ( Tyson Kozak ) (F-)

Overall an F- grade is not far off from what Adams deserves. He did not do anything with what he inherited and when he did make a good move it was either followed by nothing or followed by the worst move you have ever seen.

The blame can not be entirely on Adams, as Terry Pegula had a ton of restrictions on Adams, but at the end of the day, Adams was not able to take a 91 point team and turn them into a playoff team the next season. That should define Adams' tenure as GM of the Sabres.

I think all things considered, Adams gets a flat D for his five years.

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