Sabres GM Kevyn Adams discusses recent moves, including potential trade of Byram
Other topics of discussion with Adams included recent broadcast changes, allowing JBD to walk and more
Sometimes, being a Sabres fan can feel similar to riding a tidal wave of emotion, day after day, waking up to bad news about your favorite team. Well, Wednesday appeared to be more of the same for the Buffalo faithful based upon the social-media reaction to General Manager Kevyn Adams’ post-free-agency comments Wednesday morning.
The 15-plus-minute media scrum conducted at LECOM Harborcenter during the team’s developmental camp began with questions about Bowen Byram, as trade rumors have swirled around the restricted-free-agent defenseman the past several days.
“A lot of conversations with his agent right now,” said Adams. “Nothing’s changed in the sense that we believe Bo is an excellent hockey player that can help our team win. I’ve maintained the same position that if there’s a deal out there that makes sense for us that we think is going to improve our roster, we’re open to it.
“But if there’s not, we’re not in a situation where we’re looking to move him out or looking to move him for futures or stuff like that. For me, we want to help our team win hockey games, and he does that.”
Adams was then asked if the team would be willing to match an offer sheet for Byram if another team were to submit one in the coming days.
“Absolutely,” said the Sabres GM. “That’s why the position and the moves we’ve made and the position we’ve put ourselves in from the cap perspective have been strategic. If you leave just enough room in your cap where you may see a projection on a one-year deal and then someone comes over the top, you’re potentially putting the organization in a very tough spot.
“So, the moves we’ve made and the decisions we’ve made for weeks now leading up to this point is with that in mind. We’ll be matching and will have the opportunity to have a player under contract, I think we think helps us win.”
The hope for Sabres fans was that a trade involving Byram would warrant a top-six forward on the open market, but thus far, that has not materialized. At this point of free agency, the cupboard is just about bare when it comes to that caliber of player, but one remaining hope left out there is winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who Chris Johnston of The Athletic reported Wednesday may be close to making his decision.
If Buffalo lands Ehlers, it would be considered a win for the Sabres, but let’s not hold our breath. The team has failed to make anything resembling a splash the past several years and no one should expect that to change. That doesn’t mean it a trade for Ehlers couldn’t be on the horizon, I just find it unlikely that we will all of a sudden see Adams burst out of the phone booth with his cape on, ready to wheel and deal for impactful talent.
When asked if he believes the Sabres, as constructed, have enough offense to win games, Adams discussed the team’s offseason plan centering more so around competitive, hard-nosed players who can help the team shore things up defensively. In the eyes of the Sabres GM, the team fulfilled those goals with moves that acquired the likes of D Michael Kesselring and others.
“As we’ve set out our offseason plan, we want to be harder to play against, we wanted to be better defensively, we wanted a bit more of a veteran presence,” said Adams. “Of course, you want talent. But I think we have a lot of talented players that can produce offensively. We need to be better defensively in order to put ourselves in a position to take that next step.
“So, the moves we’ve made, starting with the Peterka trade right through yesterday, have been with that in mind. I want to have skill players, but I want to have harder players. Players that play on both sides of the puck, that compete, and that goes back to what I just laid out. I think we have the talent and skill to score goals, I just think we needed to clean up some of the other areas.”
Adams was then asked if he’s felt any frustration in the team’s quest to add more offensive firepower, particularly after it let go of a 20-plus-goal scorer from a season ago in F JJ Peterka.
“I think based on the decision we made on JJ, you know you’re moving a talented, top-six forward out, but you’re improving your team in other ways,” he said. “And by getting a 6-foot-5, right-shot defenseman that I’ve been chasing for a couple of years, was critical to cleaning up our D core and how we’re going to play. And then getting Josh Doan, who you guys may not know as much — he’s relatively young in the league still. But powerful, strong, plays both sides of the puck. We think he is just going to keep getting better and better.
“You’re improving your team in a different way, and that’s kind of how we set out this offseason plan — I like skill, of course, you want that. But where we decided to focus our attention and spend the dollars in different ways was to be more competitive, harder to play against, better defensively, and that was our goal, and that’s why we’ve made the decisions we’ve made.”
The conversation then shifted to the team’s questionable decision to allow defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker to walk in free agency when he was a relatively low-cost restricted free agent Buffalo could have retained at a team-friendly rate.
“I think from our perspective, where his projected salary was going to come out and where we had him slotted in the potential eighth slot, let’s call it, with the moves we’ve made over the last few days before that, just felt like that didn’t make sense,” he said. “In terms of also with having Ryan Johnson, and signing (Zac) Jones and (Jack) Rathbone is a guy that could come up, and that’s not counting the younger guys that you never know exactly where they’ll be, but that’s why we made the decision we did.”
The response was confounding considering Bernard-Docker is a right-hand shot defenseman, which the team has expressed is a style of player it covets. In addition, he signed with Detroit for $875,000, which is near the league minimum and appeared to be not much more than a potential qualifying offer from Buffalo. Adams was later asked to clarify his comments and he proceeded to insist that if the Sabres had submitted a qualifying offer to JBD, the number they would have wound up paying was well over the salary he was provided by the Red Wings.
“When I’m talking about salary, so people understand, when you qualify a player to retain their rights, but then based on their rights they have after a qualifying offer, if they have arbitration rights, they’re slotted in based on comps in their class,” said Adams. “And that number was significantly higher than ($875,000) based on the market and the comps that go into it. So, when I tell you that the number, of where we had him — and I really like JBD, he’s a good kid, he’s a good player — but with our ‘D’ core and the decisions we’ve made and the changes we’ve made we had him slotted in that spot. That number ($875,000) was a lot lower than what the arbitration number would have been.”
Other topics covered by Adams during his presser included:
Recent staff changes to television broadcast, report of perceived oversensitivity from organization: “I love Rayzor (Rob Ray), I think he’s funny, Duffer (Brian Duff) does a great job, Marty Biron is maybe the most positive guy on the planet so who do we got? Dan Dunleavy’s awesome, did I miss anyone? Those guys are great.”
Signing F Ryan McLeod to a four-year deal: “One of the things I love about Ryan that he showed last year, third, second line center, he can move over to wing, he can play power play, he kills penalties, an all-situation player right in the prime years of his career as a centerman. And he was two years from UFA, so I felt that he’s a really important piece with our team and the role he plays, you’re also buying two years of UFA years in the deal that he signed, so I think it was a win-win for both sides.”
On the urgency to get a new contract done with F Alex Tuch: “There’s not a pressure point like there is in other situations, but I did sit down with his agents yesterday or whatever the day was recently and just explained exactly how we feel about Alex and that will be ongoing. But there’s not the pressure point of other decisions at this time.”
The acquisition of free-agent goaltender Alex Lyons: “Competition. I think he’s a proven goaltender in this league. I think he’s a really good veteran. He checks the box of in terms of veteran presence as a high-character guy. He’s proven in the league, he’s played well during his time in the National Hockey League, and he’s going to challenge and push. We think he helps us win hockey games.”