The Buffalo Sabres made a flurry of moves on Tuesday after missing the playoffs for the ninth straight season. The Sabres own the longest active playoff drought in the NHL.
The Sabres fired general manager Jason Botterill in the morning and named senior vice president of business administration, Kevyn Adams, as his replacement. Adams has no GM experience.
Members of the Sabres’ hockey operations staff, including scouts, were canned, as well as the coaches and GM at its AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans.
Here’s a quick rundown of everything that happened.
We have relieved Jason Botterill of his duties as General Manager.
Senior Vice President of Business Administration Kevyn Adams has been named General Manager. pic.twitter.com/TPAFXvAPej
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) June 16, 2020
A source with knowledge tells The Athletic that more members of the Sabres' hockey operations department, including scouts, are losing their jobs as I type this.
— John Vogl (@BuffaloVogl) June 16, 2020
BUF has also released director of amateur scouting Ryan Jankowski and a good chunk of amateur staff. Just an ugly day.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 16, 2020
The @BuffaloSabres announced today that General Manager Randy Sexton, Head Coach Chris Taylor and Assistant Coaches Gord Dineen and Toby Petersen have all been relieved of their duties. pic.twitter.com/G0hUY5gdzZ
— Rochester Americans (@AmerksHockey) June 16, 2020
Yeah. That’s a loooooot.
According to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, there was no GM search and the firings came with virtually no warning.
Terry Pegula says there was no GM search, that this was an in-house GM hire that was “very, very recent.”
(How recent? I was told Jason Botterill still believed he was the GM as of yesterday.)
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 16, 2020
The mass firings come three weeks after team president and co-owner Kim Pegula pledged that Botterill would return for a fourth season.
“He’s our GM. Our plan is to continue with him,” Pegula said to the AP in a Zoom interview.
“I realize, maybe it’s not popular with the fans, but we have to do the things that we feel are right,” she said. “We have a little bit more information than maybe a fan does, some inner workings that we see some positives in.”
Kim Pegula said 3 weeks ago the intent was to keep GM Jason Botterill. But that span “gave us a little bit more time” to consider the future.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 16, 2020
What a wild 3 weeks pic.twitter.com/rjFm8Qfkc6
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) June 16, 2020
In May, Sabres star Jack Eichel voiced his frustrations in an honest interview.
“Listen, I’m fed up with the losing and I’m fed up and I’m frustrated,” Eichel said in a conference call via ESPN. “You know, it’s definitely not an easy pill to swallow right now. It’s been a tough couple of months. It’s been a tough five years with where things have [gone]. I’m a competitor. I want to win every time I’m on the ice. I want to win a Stanley Cup every time I start a season.”
Eichel was contacted in the morning by Adams, the team’s new GM, and the two had a “great chat.”
Kevyn Adams: we had a great chat with Jack [Eichel] this morning just to get the ball rolling.
Adams said he plans to call every GM to get to know them a little more.
— Matthew BovĂ© (@Matt_Bove) June 16, 2020
The firings continue an embarrassing offseason for the Sabres organization.
Sabres since last game:
•Didn’t take care of employees
•Paused “super yacht” construction
•Announced they’re keeping GM
•Rasmus Ristolainen labelled “core player”
•Tried to call Lawrence Pilut’s bluff about going to KHL but had no leverage.. so he just left
•Fired GM
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) June 16, 2020
It’s weird how the Buffalo Sabres not making the playoffs in 9 years perfectly lines up with the 9 years they’ve been owned by the Pegulas. That’s got to be a pure coincidence so it’s good that they’re going to have more of a say in hockey decisions
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) June 16, 2020
Via the Sabres’ website, here is Terry and Kim Pegula’s statement.
“This morning, we informed Jason Botterill he will no longer be the General Manager of the Sabres. This decision was made after many candid discussions with Jason during a full review of our hockey operation. We recognized we have philosophical differences regarding how best to put ourselves in a position to compete for a Stanley Cup. So, we decided to make this change.
“We wish Jason and his family all the best moving forward, and we thank him for his time and energy devoted to our organization and to the City of Buffalo.
“New General Manager Kevyn Adams and Head Coach Ralph Krueger already have a close working relationship and we are excited to see what they can do together as we reconfigure our hockey operations. We have the benefit of this long 2020 pause to take time to reorganize and re-energize our hockey department. We recognize the importance of this offseason with so many player decisions to be made.
“We have had the pleasure of watching Kevyn build his post-playing career over the past nine years under multiple roles throughout our organizations. We are confident Kevyn and Ralph will work together to build a consistent contender. As always, we are here to provide the necessary resources.
“Our fans deserve better, and we are all tasked with the burden to improve and provide them a consistent, contending team for years to come.”
“We don’t think this is a rebuild.” – Kim Pegula
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 16, 2020
🤔 We’ll see about that.
In my first 10 seasons covering the Sabres, there were ZERO coaching or GM changes.
In the last eight seasons, there have been eight. https://t.co/Xf34DXWUSk— John Vogl (@BuffaloVogl) June 16, 2020
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