With Sabres at crossroads, GM Kevyn Adams mulls a shakeup

Frank Seravalli
Frank Seravalli(frank_seravalli)
With Sabres at crossroads, GM Kevyn Adams mulls a shakeup

TORONTO — The Buffalo Sabres are at a crossroads. In a year with increased expectations and mounting pressure, they got off to their worst start in seven seasons. That’s saying something, since clock is running on the longest active playoff drought in North American pro sports at 13 years.

Yet, when you watch the Sabres closely – it’s far from all bad. On the one hand, the Sabres are seventh in the jam-packed Atlantic Division by points percentage. On the other, they’re two wins away from third place.

Since their three-game malaise that began in Europe, the Sabres have scored the fourth-most goals per game in the NHL (3.94). Their offense has come alive again this season, paced by Tage Thompson – who leads the league in even-strength goals (10). They already have seven skaters with double-digit points. 

But while their forward group has clicked at 5-on-5, other parts of their game have fallen short. It’s been a grind.

“Look, I’ve said it many times, I like our team,” Sabres GM Kevyn Adams said on Tuesday at the GM Meetings. “I continue to go back to process, try to remain process-focused, and there’s a lot of things to like about our process. But it has to all connect and we haven’t been connected. If we score, we get a night where our special teams let us down. Or we have a miscue in our own end. Or sometimes we don’t get that one extra save. That is the hard part.”

Buffalo’s power play has struggled to score with regularity, ranking 23rd. Their penalty kill is in the same exact position in the bottom quartile of the league. In net, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has played better than his overall numbers might indicate. But Devon Levi has struggled again this season and Adams reclaimed veteran James Reimer on waivers on Wednesday after losing him to the Ducks in October.

Perhaps the biggest surprise this season for the Sabres is that their defense, the backbone of the roster, has not defended well enough on a consistent basis.

On paper, the Sabres have arguably one of the best young defense corps in the NHL: Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Bowen Byram and Mattias Samuelsson. That hasn’t been the case. Monday against Montreal was the latest indication of their willingness to trade chances instead of locking a game down.

“I do think the attention to detail has been there, and Lindy has done a great job with that,” Adams said. “One thing that stands out about this group is that they truly want to be held accountable. They want to get better, they want to learn.”

Adams said that the team’s internal metrics and analytics indicate they have defended better than the results might show. Therein lies the rub, the constant push and pull between process and results.

One thing Adams isn’t willing to hide behind is that the Sabres are a young team. Statistically, they have the youngest roster in the NHL by average age at 25.6 years old.

“We may be young, but we have too much experience now to be considered a young team,” Adams said. “Look through our roster, you’ll see a lot of guys with a few hundred NHL games now, and that can’t be used as an excuse. We need to start to turn that experience into results.”

He’s right. Dahlin is 452 games in, Thompson is at 388, Byram, JJ Peterka and Power are all quickly closing in on 200 career games.

And so, all of that has left Adams to wrestle with: Is now the right time to shake up the Sabres in an attempt to push them toward the playoffs? Adams has previously made no bones about the fact that it’s “go time” in Buffalo; it is Year 5 of his tenure. His predecessor, Jason Botterill, only lasted three years before owner Terry Pegula made a change.

Sources indicated Adams has been active in recent days and weeks calling around the league, with rival teams suggesting he is looking for a top-six addition at forward. But Adams also knows he has to give to get, and that won’t be an easy decision. It’s a crossroads, trying to strike a balance between process and results, and tinkering with the mix or hoping for continued organic growth that may or may not happen.

“I think, you know, I’ve made lots of calls to understand the market and what’s out there,” Adams said. “This is a difficult time of year to make trades, not every team is ready to do something. But I’m open to different things and I’m not going to stop trying to improve this team.”

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