Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams and assistant general manager Jerry Forton met the media on Tuesday to talk about the state of the team ahead of this weekend’s NHL Draft in Los Angeles.
There was a lot to talk about, starting with the future of winger JJ Peterka.
It seems like there’s something different thrown out there every hour about Peterka wanting to be traded, and my guess is a lot of it is coming from his agent Allan Walsh.
When Peterka spoke on locker cleanout day back in April, there was no indication at all that he was unhappy.
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Adams says his exit meeting with the winger was positive, productive and honest. Adams adds that Peterka analyzed his own game, knowing he needed to be better defensively.
When Adams was asked if Peterka had asked to be traded, he remained mum on the subject.
"I don’t think it’s productive or beneficial for me to get into specifics about our players, because this is the time of year where there’s so much going on, and there’s probably a lot of misinformation out there. I’ll leave it at that," said Adams at the start of his Tuesday press conference.
"I don’t want to say yes or no, because I don’t think it’s the right time. I can probably after the draft get into more specifics, but I just don’t think it’s fair to the player to even respond to that. I get memos on my desk from PR on things, and I feel bad for our fans, the stuff that’s out there. There’s so much misinformation and so much of it is nonsense. I mean, someone who has no idea what they’re talking about reporting that we were going to buy 'Sammy' [Mattias Samuelsson] out when we’ve never had that conversation once. It’s ridiculous. I don’t think it’s worth me getting into it."
"We have a plan, and after the exit meetings, after the coaches meetings, you start to forecast, 'What are we looking for,' and meetings with ownership. You come out with a to-do list of where do we go from here?"
Adams also laid out how the plan in Buffalo has been set in motion.
"It’s hiring Jarmo [Kekalainen], hiring Eric Staal, Brian Galivan (Director of Performance), and completely retooling the strength and conditioning department. And now we’re in the process of draft week, and we can continue," he said.
Ever since Adams got the job as general manager of the Sabres, he’s talked about having players that want to play in Buffalo. He has never wavered from that.
"It’s important to have people in your organization in players, coaches, staff that believe in what you’re doing, and want to be here for the right reason," he said. "Paying someone more money hoping that will make them happy isn’t usually a recipe for success. You have to have players that buy into and believe in what you’re doing, and wake up every day in Buffalo excited to be a Sabre.
"At the same time, are there hard conversations and are players sometimes frustrated with things? Absolutely. That’s part of the relationship building that I believe in through my job. And the coaches having those conversations, but that doesn’t mean that you wake up and a player said it that day and then trade him. So getting players to believe in what we’re doing is critically important, and for me to be transparent with them and explain why we’re doing things, and have them part of the equation to have the right answers to perform."
One player that has performed in his time in Buffalo is winger Alex Tuch. He has one year left on his contract, and the Sabres can start talks of a contract extension on July 1.
"He’s an important player for us. He loves Buffalo, wants to be here, and was very clear," Adams said of the Syracuse native. "We believe in him, and realize what he brings every night. He understands that he’s a priority."
Back on May 30, Kekalainen was hired as a senior advisor for the team, and will be based out of Columbus. Sabres owner Terry Pegula created this position to bring some veteran front office experience into the fold.
"This is a role that I’ve been personally thinking about to add someone for a long time," Adams said. "I wanted to be very selective in who that person was, because there were some really specific criteria that I was looking for, It was No. 1, someone that sat in the chair before who knows exactly what it feels like in certain moments that has perspective to be able to help, and No. 2, I was looking for someone that wanted to work. Not, 'I’ve done that role and I’ll be there once in a while on a phone call.'
"In our discussions before hiring him, he said he was all-in, and said he was going to be every part of this organization and will add experience and perspective. So he has been, in a very short time, a really big asset for me personally. And my style is a collaborative, flat organization where everybody’s got a voice, talk to each other, get in the room and debate, sometimes fight and come out with what we think is the right answer for the Buffalo Sabres."
Adams says Kekalainen had a lot of offers and opportunities, but he chose the Sabres.
When it comes to the coaching staff, Adams says everybody is set to be back in the fold, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be changes.
"We have an excellent coaching staff, which is how I look at it," he said. "Lindy is clearly someone that has done this a long time, and has a lot of experience and knows exactly what he’s looking for. What we’ve talked about is if there’s someone to add to the coaching staff that he thinks would be beneficial, then let’s do it. He’s had a lot of conversations with a lot of people, so I’ve asked Lindy to evaluate the coaching staff and give me his thoughts. And whether it’s changes, we would make changes. If it’s adding, we would do that as well. But he has to trust the people he’s in the trenches with every day, and he clearly does."
Many people feel the Sabres should have fired some of the assistant coaches after this past season, but Adams says he doesn’t worry about what people think. He says he’ll do whatever he thinks is right to help the organization.
With the first round of the NHL Draft coming up Friday, I'll have more on that coming up from Adams and Forton this week.