Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - In a move that had been anticipated for the past few weeks, the Buffalo Sabres have relieved Kevyn Adams of his duties as general manager, replacing him with former Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen.
Adams has been under fire for the past few season as the Sabres' 14-year playoff drought continues and the team languishes near the bottom of the NHL standings.
"We are not where we need to be as an organization, and we are moving forward with new leadership within our hockey operations department," said Terry Pegula, in an emailed-statement. Pegula owns and is Sabres' president.
Pegula named Adams team general manager in June 2020, shortly after he let former general manager Jason Botterill go in a purge of much of the hockey department.
Adams, a Clarence native, was a member of the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes - a team that beat the Sabres in a tense, seven-game NHL Eastern Conference finals.
Adams had a 178-196-42 (.478) record as general manager.
"He has been a reliable presence and we are appreciative of his enduring care and commitment," Pegula added in his statement.
Kekalainen, this summer was named senior advisor to the Sabres and Pegula said as new general manager, he will oversee all aspects of Sabres' operations.
A Finland native, Kekalainen was general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2013 until 2024. Under his watch, the Blue Jackets made the NHL playoffs in five different seasons including the stunning 2019 sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Kekalainen was also an executive with the St. Louis Blues and Ottawa Senators.
Adams’ missteps also include second-guessing himself for failing to make a roster move to help spark the team during an 0-10-3 skid last season that essentially knocked the Sabres out of contention before Christmas.
Adams entered this season on the hottest of NHL seats and with reportedly two years left on his contract.
He long ago fell out of favor with Sabres fans, who began chanting “Fire Adams” so often the team elected to not introduce the GM as traditionally happens during Buffalo’s season opener in October. Last year, fans brought blow-up palm trees to games in response after Adams lamented the difficulty he had attracting talent to Buffalo because the city has high taxes and no palm trees.
Adams took over in June 2020 and following a last-place finish launched a major rebuilding plan that led to the team trading its top players — highlighted by the deals that sent Jack Eichel to Vegas and Sam Reinhart to Florida. After showing signs of development, and Adams proclaiming the Sabres competitive window opening, the Sabres have instead regressed over the past two seasons.
Buffalo went from finishing with 91 points and one win from ending its playoff drought in 2022-23 to 84 points the next season and 79 last year.
This season, the Sabres (14-14-4) are are once again struggling with consistency in the first half of their second season under coach Lindy Ruff, who is back for a second stint in Buffalo. The Sabres have spent much of the season hovering at .500, have been competitive at home (9-5-2) but have struggled on the road with two of their five wins coming in regulation.
This wasn’t the plan Adams laid out in closing last season by saying everything was on the table to turn the Sabres into competitors.
He opened this season with: “We need to win. And I’m fully aware of that.”
Adams, with input from Ruff, spent the summer adding grit at the expense of offense by trading two-time 20-goal-scorer JJ Peterka to Utah to acquire forward Josh Doan and hulking defenseman Michael Kesselring. The deal has had middling results. While Doan ranks second on the team with 10 goals and third with 23 points, Kesselring has been limited to playing just nine games due to injuries.
Another trade that has yet to pan out involved Buffalo and Ottawa swapping top-line centers, with the Sabres acquiring talented but injury prone Josh Norris for Dylan Cozens in March. Norris appeared in just three games before aggravating an oblique injury last year, and is limited to just six games this season.
Adams has mismanaged Buffalo’s goaltending position, starting with losing Linus Ullmark to free agency in the summer of 2021 after saying he was assured by the goalie he’d re-sign with the team in March. The Sabres have had 11 goalies start at least one game since.
The Sabres are now on their fifth GM since Darcy Regier was fired a month into the 2013-14 season.
Adams is from Buffalo, and a former NHL forward, who won a Stanley Cup title in 2006 with Carolina over his 10-season career.
He had no front-office experience and held a business role with the Sabres when replacing Jason Botterill in June 2020. Botterill’s firing was deemed a cost-cutting move, with Adams purging much of the team’s hockey infrastructure as the NHL dealt with the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic.