Adams said anything is on the table to get it right for Buffalo.
CHICAGO — By now we realize the Buffalo Sabres offseason each year becomes progressively more important to reaching their goal of returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2011. Each year that hope has been dashed has increased the pressure on the general manager to get things right to end the drought.
It’s the pressure Darcy Regier began when he traded Jason Pominville to the Minnesota Wild and whether it’s been Tim Murray, Jason Botterill or now Kevyn Adams, the first finish line to get across is making the playoffs. Fifty percent of the league makes the playoffs but over the past 13 years the Sabres haven’t been in the right half of the equation.
It doesn’t have to be said that the pressure on Adams to get it put together in 2024-2025 is as high as Mount Everest, it’s understood, and to get there he says anything goes, be it via trade, the draft, free agency or even buying out players like Jeff Skinner.
“What I can tell you is from the day our season ended–after my conversations with Terry (Pegula) and kind of where we go from here–every single thing that we’re doing this offseason we ask the question, ‘Does this help our team get better,’” Adams said. “Because this put us in a position to improve and we’ve made a lot of decisions up to this point where we sit today with that in mind and learning continues. So, nothing’s off the table. We’re going to talk about everything. We’re going to look at every scenario.”
Buying out the final three years of Jeff Skinner’s eight-year, $72 million contract more than qualifies as being a major move, should they ultimately do it when the NHL’s buyout window opens Thursday and goes through June 30. Skinner’s been a top scorer for Buffalo, apart from two seasons under Ralph Krueger, while taking on a dead cap hit for six years is a move that’s not entirely unexpected.
Opening a place on the roster for another player while saving a little bit of money immediately in the 2024-2025 season (yet having to take it on the chin in four years to the tune of $6.5 million in dead cap) is something that could be about making savvy moves with the roster…or it’s just NHL accounting and a reason to loudly grouse about it.
It was two weeks ago when Elliotte Friedman shared that talk about buying out Skinner was out there and that there was a possibility it could happen. I’d heard similarly around the same time as well although all messages to find out more went unanswered (naturally). It’s a big decision to make about a star player. Skinner’s a two-time all-star and a 40-goal scorer. He’s scored 30 or more five times.
But now the question becomes: What will Adams do to reinvest the money saved on the lineup and who will slot into the space vacated by Skinner? That’s what we’re going to hypothesize about.
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Subtracting Jeff Skinner from the Buffalo Sabres lineup is not an insignificant change. He’s an even-strength scoring maven, an offensive spark plug loaded with skill and a tenaciousness that drives opponents up the wall. All of those abilities provide a lot of value to the roster and losing that means finding a way to replace what they’re losing.
How Adams and the rest of the Sabres staff decide to attack this will tell us a lot about how they’ll want to do things with Lindy Ruff in charge behind the bench. With Ruff coaching the team and the mandate being to make the playoffs, it would point towards the possibility of filling that spot with a young prospect being more of a long shot.
Twenty-year-old Jiri Kulich has been electric in the AHL and with Seth Appert in place as an assistant to Ruff, there will be an authority in Buffalo to determine if he’s ready for the NHL or not.
There’s Isak Rosen whose game has grown immensely in the past two years in Rochester to the point where his all-around ability should make him a top option in training camp.
Matthew Savoie is fresh off a WHL title and Memorial Cup final run with Moose Jaw. He had a monster year as a 20-year-old in the CHL with 47 points in 23 games and another 24 points in 19 playoff games, but the chances are greater he spends most, if not all, of next season with the Rochester Americans. Other young guys like Anton Wahlberg and Noah Ostlund will be in Rochester as well, but it won’t stop some from suggesting maybe they should get a look too. But they shouldn’t. Hell, most of these guys shouldn’t even be considered. Ruff wasn’t hired to bring young guys along in the NHL and develop them there and he shouldn’t be expected to do that either.
All of us–executives, media, fans—want to see what guys like Kulich and Rosen can do when given the proper setup in the NHL. Their AHL numbers are too good to ignore and there’s some real genuine talent there, but unless they come to camp and make the case abundantly clear that they’re ready to go and can play in a middle-six capacity, it’s difficult to believe they’ll just be put on the team to figure it out on the fly.
No one wants to have these players make the roster out of some sort of fictional obligation to put them there because they’ve been in the AHL (or junior hockey) long enough and you have to find out if they’ve got it right now. It doesn’t have to work that way and it shouldn’t work that way in Buffalo anymore. When these guys are ready, it’ll be so obvious that they are that they can no longer be denied. I KNOW you’re all going to cite Kulich’s goal totals and say, “ISN’T THIS WHAT IT IS?!”
It was during this past season while the team was foundering and searching for goals, particularly on the power play. That would’ve been an apt time to give him an earnest look and see how it went, but given how the season played out, the fact that Don Granato was fired, and the team fell woefully short of their own goals…perhaps it wasn’t the right time for that Hail Mary to save the playoff hopes.
OK THEN WHAT?
If it’s not going to be a prospect taking that spot, then who is the veteran that should?
There are very good players that could be available in free agency on July 1, but are any of them realistic options?
Sam Reinhart just won the Stanley Cup with Florida and he’d probably rather gnaw off his own leg than come back to Buffalo and resume trying to get them back to the postseason.
Steven Stamkos would be fun, but if he’s not staying in Tampa Bay, the same question exists for him as it does Reinhart. Why would he go to Buffalo and join a team that’s not close to the Stanley Cup. Could they be down the road? I guess, sure. Are they right now for a 34-year-old star? Hell no.
Jake Guentzel is likely shopping for a contender or for a team eager to break the bank for him and, ideally, a contender that wants to break the bank for him.
Would 33-year-old Jonathan Marchessault work out? He’s a great player but after winning the Conn Smythe Trophy a year ago, again, he’s probably not jumping at the chance to join a team in Buffalo’s particular position.
They could gun for someone like Matt Duchene, Adam Henrique, or Jack Roslovic but all three of them were on excellent playoff teams and would probably want to do it again.
Ideally, Buffalo’s summer shopping list consists of finding a ‘tweener center who can excel in a third-line role and play up occasionally to second line quality. They really should be aiming for a guy who’s a hound on the penalty kill and faceoffs but can chip in a little offensively, but guys that can do all of that are probably locked up where they’re at already and trying to trade for them gets Adams’ number blocked by their GM.
Making trades can be hard, we all know that by now. Last year’s NHL Draft in Nashville saw no player-for-player deals go down during it which watered down the drama considerably. Depending on who you believe, things will be different in Las Vegas this weekend. For the Sabres’ sake, they’d better hope so.
Trades require time and finesse as well as the gusto to be bold enough to risk something you’ve got to get something you don’t have. The Sabres aren’t in a position to panic, so to speak, but they’re certainly in a place where taking a swing to better put themselves into the postseason is needed. For as inept as the playoff race was for the wild card spots in the Eastern Conference were, it highlighted how close everyone can be. How things played out two seasons ago should’ve been lesson enough for that.
Buffalo also needs to add a grit and grind type for lower in the lineup as well. This is where guys like Dakota Joshua, old friend William Carrier, Jordan Martinook, David Perron, and Teddy Blueger get tossed into the mix. Those guys don’t necessarily move the needle for attention-sake, but we all know Ruff will want to have guys that can go 100 miles per hour every shift.
The key thing, however, is those guys can be found plentifully in free agency, but some of them (Joshua, Carrier) may command a bit more in salary than some would be comfortable with for a player in that role and playing a high-impact game. It’s important to get the right guys there, obviously, however it’s not nearly as important as it is to make sure they get the top-six forward or middle-six center acquisition done right.
It’s the biggest offseason of Kevyn Adams’ tenure and kicking it off by buying out Jeff Skinner shows, for now, that he’s not all bluster about anything being on the table to make the team better. But the next week, hell, the next few days will show how much he will do to correct the path the franchise is on.