Hey Terry, Do Us A Favor and SELL

[sabremike]

A "real GM" is the person in the organization that other GMs call to get the final word on a trade or an agent works through for final decisions on signings.

We saw in the Embedded episode that Danny Briere (the "real GM" of the Flyers) was talking only with Adams when making the EJ trade. I would expect that if Adams were a POHO and Karmanos were the "real GM", then Briere would have communicated with Karmanos. If POHO's make trades, then it would have been Adams talking to Keith Jones to get the trade done in your scenario.

But, it was Briere, who has Keith Jones as a POHO in Philly, talking to Adams.

And we will just have to agree to disagree that Terry Pegula's level of involvement is not on the upper end of the spectrum across the league.

If you did a poll of people in hockey on what owner they would never work for under any circumstance Pegula would win in an epic landslide. I don't think some people understand just how poorly thought of Pegula is among people in the sport

 

[joshjull]

A "real GM" is the person in the organization that other GMs call to get the final word on a trade or an agent works through for final decisions on signings.

We saw in the Embedded episode that Danny Briere (the "real GM" of the Flyers) was talking only with Adams when making the EJ trade. I would expect that if Adams were a POHO and Karmanos were the "real GM", then Briere would have communicated with Karmanos. If POHO's make trades, then it would have been Adams talking to Keith Jones to get the trade done in your scenario.

But, it was Briere, who has Keith Jones as a POHO in Philly, talking to Adams.

Fair enough. Although in my mind, a GM is responsible for a lot more than just that. Like building the hockey department. Reviewing it from the bottom up when they get full control and developing plans to fix/build it up. It was Karmanos that did that, not Adams.

It’s pretty unusual for an Associate GM to have that level of influence over things. I suppose a better way to describe our set up is effectively splitting the GM job into two parts, as opposed to POHO/GM in all but name as I said previously.

But I am curious why you’re working so hard to dismiss Karmanos’ role as nothing more than Adams “listening to input from others”. As opposed to him being someone who’s done much of the heavy lifting.

And we will just have to agree to disagree that Terry Pegula's level of involvement is not on the upper end of the spectrum across the league.

We can debate how much Pegula influences things. So agreeing to disagree on that makes sense. But now you’re gonna pretend you know the level of interference/influence of every owner in the NHL. Then assert Pegula is at the top of that group. Thats pretty ridiculous. This obsession some of you have to make him Jerry Jones 2.0 is bizarre to me.

 

[Jim Bob]

Fair enough. Although in my mind, a GM is responsible for a lot more than just that. Like building the hockey department. Reviewing it from the bottom up when they get full control and developing plans to fix/build it up. It was Karmanos that did that, not Adams.

It’s pretty unusual for an Associate GM to have that level of influence over things. I suppose a better way to describe our set up is effectively splitting the GM job into two parts, as opposed to POHO/GM in all but name as I said previously.

But I am curious why you’re working so hard to dismiss Karmanos’ role as nothing more than Adams “listening to input from others”. As opposed to him being someone who’s done much of the heavy lifting.

I am not dismissing Karmanos's role at all. He is an assistant GM (and the GM of the AHL team) and has most of the responsibilities that are traditionally given to an assistant GM.

He was given more of a role early on in Adams' tenure as GM because Karmanos had much more NHL FO experience to that point than Adams had. So, it made perfect sense that Adams relied on Karmanos for that type of thing. Especially given the respect that Adams has for the Canes and their organization and Karmanos coming from Carolina.

But, the way the Sabres front office operates, Adams handles the duties that are in-line with what other GMs around the league handle. And Karmanos handles the duties that other Asst GMs handle from everything that I have read, watched, and heard people discuss in the media and the team's Embedded stuff, and Adams' interviews.

If Karmanos is the "real GM", then why isn't he doing interviews like most GMs around the NHL?

We can debate how much Pegula influences things. So agreeing to disagree on that makes sense. But now you’re gonna pretend you know the level of interference/influence of every owner in the NHL. Then assert Pegula is at the top of that group. Thats pretty ridiculous. This obsession some of you have to make him Jerry Jones 2.0 is bizarre to me.

It is not an obsession. It is an opinion that I have formed as a fan of the team for the entirety of his ownership of the Sabres and all the ways he has talked about things throughout his ownership. And how Kevyn Adams has spoken about Terry's involvement since he became the GM.

How Terry talked about wanting to be heard when talking about the decision to fire Botts and hire Adams sounded very different than most owners I have heard discuss the reasoning behind a GM change.

 

[BloFan4Life]

How much of this is because Kevyn Adams is mostly obeying orders. The guy has no business as a GM with his experience. Maybe he will get an AGM job in another city. Pegula gives him the chance of a lifetime and Adams is playing ball most days. But you have to wonder if the opportunity in Buffalo is toxic to long-term careers for executives. Everybody who leaves is lucky to find a job, and most have to take a huge step down in salary and position.



,

Not sure if you have seen the GMs throughout the league, but prior experience has nothing to do with being qualified to be a GM. Daniel Briere is a GM in this league.

 

[BuffaloMango]

Not sure if you have seen the GMs throughout the league, but prior experience has nothing to do with being qualified to be a GM. Daniel Briere is a GM in this league.

This is something I have noticed. Compared to other sports there is a lot of ex-players in high level NHL roles or fan sentiment that somebody like "Ellis cannot possibly coach the PP because he was never any good at it himself." He can't coach the PP, but his NHL career has absolutely nothing to do with it.

I spent some time in a different sport on the US Team; and across dozens of Olympic sports the amount of Olympic coaches who were World Championship or Olympic athletes is really really small.

 

[joshjull]

I am not dismissing Karmanos's role at all. He is an assistant GM (and the GM of the AHL team) and has most of the responsibilities that are traditionally given to an assistant GM.

He was given more of a role early on in Adams' tenure as GM because Karmanos had much more NHL FO experience to that point than Adams had. So, it made perfect sense that Adams relied on Karmanos for that type of thing. Especially given the respect that Adams has for the Canes and their organization and Karmanos coming from Carolina.

But, the way the Sabres front office operates, Adams handles the duties that are in-line with what other GMs around the league handle. And Karmanos handles the duties that other Asst GMs handle from everything that I have read, watched, and heard people discuss in the media and the team's Embedded stuff, and Adams' interviews.

If Karmanos is the "real GM", then why isn't he doing interviews like most GMs around the NHL?

Bolded addressed in previous post.

It is not an obsession. It is an opinion that I have formed as a fan of the team for the entirety of his ownership of the Sabres and all the ways he has talked about things throughout his ownership. And how Kevyn Adams has spoken about Terry's involvement since he became the GM.

How Terry talked about wanting to be heard when talking about the decision to fire Botts and hire Adams sounded very different than most owners I have heard discuss the reasoning behind a GM change.

I’m amazed when posters bring this up in these debates. It doesn't support your argument, it’s an example of the exact opposite of it. If you’re asserting Pegula is constantly interfering with the team. Then there is no way he would ever let a GM box him out for three straight years.

But if you had an owner who wasn’t interfering/dictating what should happen. Whose idea of involvement was wanting to be kept in the loop and be in the room when decisions were made. Who liked asking questions about things, being a giddy fanboy of his team and throwing out the occasional idea. Then that comment about firing Botts/hiring Adams makes sense.

 

[BuffaloMango]

Bolded addressed in previous post.

I’m amazed when posters bring this up in these debates. It doesn't support your argument, it’s an example of the exact opposite of it. If you’re asserting Pegula is constantly interfering with the team. Then there is no way he would ever let a GM box him out for three straight years.

But if you had an owner who wasn’t interfering/dictating what should happen. Whose idea of involvement was wanting to be kept in the loop and be in the room when decisions were made. Who liked asking questions about things, being a giddy fanboy of his team and throwing out the occasional idea. Then that comment about firing Botts/hiring Adams makes sense.

I assume the bolded about "wanting to be heard" was about the effort not about action. As in Terry had to fight regularly with Botterill. He likely views disagreement as "not hearing him".

For example:

Terry: Jason, do the thing!
Botterill: That sounds silly.
Terry: You aren't hearing me.
Botterill: I can you hear you. You are just an idiot.
Terry: I am your boss, do it!
Botterill: Fine. But it is under protest.

vs.

Terry: Jump
Adams: How high?
Terry: Thanks for listening!

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

My impression, based on as little as any of us here have, is that Pegula got burned with terrible people both in working relationships and in job capacity during the first couple years after he bought the team. Now he wants to be in on the loop because of awful things happening before when he wasn't. He wants good people around him that he can trust and will work together and make the organization a relatively nice place to work. He now values that above results on the ice. He'd rather roll the dice that his good people aren't that good at winning, than risk going back to rolling the dice with bad people that made terrible decisions without him being aware.

 

[Jim Bob]

I’m amazed when posters bring this up in these debates. It doesn't support your argument, it’s an example of the exact opposite of it. If you’re asserting Pegula is constantly interfering with the team. Then there is no way he would ever let a GM box him out for three straight years.

But if you had an owner who wasn’t interfering/dictating what should happen. Whose idea of involvement was wanting to be kept in the loop and be in the room when decisions were made. Who liked asking questions about things, being a giddy fanboy of his team and throwing out the occasional idea. Then that comment about firing Botts/hiring Adams makes sense.

I am not asserting that Pegula is constantly interfering with the team.

I am saying that he is more involved with hockey department decision-making than most NHL owners. And given that this team has been an utter failure on the ice over the vast majority of his ownership and he is the one constant all this time, that maybe, just maybe, he might be a sizable part of the problem here.

You can feel free to give Pegula less of the blame for the failure of his team to make the playoffs in over a decade. But, I will continue to feel that he is a big part of the problem with how he handles things as the owner of the team.

There are plenty of questions about why do they have the smallest pro scouting department in the NHL? Why do they have one of the smallest front offices in the league? Why have they spent so little on player salary recently? Why has he never hired a GM with prior experience?

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

My impression, based on as little as any of us here have, is that Pegula got burned with terrible people both in working relationships and in job capacity during the first couple years after he bought the team. Now he wants to be in on the loop because of awful things happening before when he wasn't. He wants good people around him that he can trust and will work together and make the organization a relatively nice place to work. He now values that above results on the ice. He'd rather roll the dice that his good people aren't that good at winning, than risk going back to rolling the dice with bad people that made terrible decisions without him being aware.

This is kinda where I'm at, except focused on what appears to have a been a fairly systemic issue with substance abuse. Those sort of things do happen, but then when they're handled very poorly it also makes the Owner look bad too.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

This is kinda where I'm at, except focused on what appears to have a been a fairly systemic issue with substance abuse. Those sort of things do happen, but then when they're handled very poorly it also makes the Owner look bad too.

I think Pegula is a fairly righteous minded conservative person, which probably is a good thing and probably makes him a fairly nice man. So I think the Murray era with substance abuse issues and Kane-type sex/assault drama that went unchecked was probably a fairly humiliating experience for him. That's the background for why I think he will prefer to live or die with good and trustworthy people working for him...even if they turn out to be bad at their job. He'd rather be embarrassed by having a bad team than having bad people making bad headlines.

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

Not sure if you have seen the GMs throughout the league, but prior experience has nothing to do with being qualified to be a GM. Daniel Briere is a GM in this league.

"Briere spent served as the Flyers Interim General Manager from March 10-May 10, 2023 and as the team’s Special Assistant to the GM from Feb. 8, 2022-March 9, 2023. He spent five seasons as Team President and Director of Operations for the Maine Mariners (ECHL) from June 2017-Feb. 2022. He also spent two years with the Flyers business operations before overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Mariners."

Kevyn had a brief and bad stint as an assistant coach and ran the Habourcentre business side.

You can take a chance on someone with limited experience but why keep doing it.

Keep apologizing for Pegula. His record shows he is an absolute loser owner.

I think Pegula is a fairly righteous minded conservative person, which probably is a good thing and probably makes him a fairly nice man. So I think the Murray era with substance abuse issues and Kane-type sex/assault drama that went unchecked was probably a fairly humiliating experience for him. That's the background for why I think he will prefer to live or die with good and trustworthy people working for him...even if they turn out to be bad at their job. He'd rather be embarrassed by having a bad team than having bad people making bad headlines.

Bills owner Terry Pegula made racist comment, lawsuit alleges

abcnews.go.com

 

[slip]

I think Pegula is a fairly righteous minded conservative person, which probably is a good thing and probably makes him a fairly nice man. So I think the Murray era with substance abuse issues and Kane-type sex/assault drama that went unchecked was probably a fairly humiliating experience for him. That's the background for why I think he will prefer to live or die with good and trustworthy people working for him...even if they turn out to be bad at their job. He'd rather be embarrassed by having a bad team than having bad people making bad headlines.

Yet oddly he hires a waitress who served him lunch one day to work at this company, proceeds to have a relationship with said waitress turned employee, then marries her.

Which in an of itself is unremarkable, until we get to the point where employees of the Pegulas begin to get fired over -- office relationships.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

Bills owner Terry Pegula made racist comment, lawsuit alleges

abcnews.go.com

We all know this story was already debunked. Why post this?

Yet oddly he hires a waitress who served him lunch one day to work at this company, proceeds to have a relationship with said waitress turned employee, then marries her.

Which in an of itself is unremarkable, until we get to the point where employees of the Pegulas begin to get fired over -- office relationships.

Those people hid their relationship when they were supposed to disclose it.

People can debate the morality of the Pegulas until the end of times, it doesn't mean he/they weren't embarrassed by the issues happening during Tim Murray and that they shouldn't have reacted to them.

That reaction, as justified as it may be, doesn't also justify sticking with incompetent replacements just because they are easier to work with. It's only an explanation to why Pegula will stick with KA and Granato, even at the expense of the on-ice product. I choose to respond, after another do-nothing summer, by canceling ESPN+ and to not pay attention anymore. It won't make a difference, and I won't care.

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

We all know this story was already debunked. Why post this?

Those people hid their relationship when they were supposed to disclose it.

People can debate the morality of the Pegulas until the end of times, it doesn't mean he/they weren't embarrassed by the issues happening during Tim Murray and that they shouldn't have reacted to them.

That reaction, as justified as it may be, doesn't also justify sticking with incompetent replacements just because they are easier to work with. It's only an explanation to why Pegula will stick with KA and Granato, even at the expense of the on-ice product. I choose to respond, after another do-nothing summer, by canceling ESPN+ and to not pay attention anymore. It won't make a difference, and I won't care.

Debunked or Pegula denied it? is the lawsuit settled?

Anyway, the reality of Pegula is he is probably here to stay for a bit and may even pass the team to his kids; some have a keen interest.

I think for fans, the question is whether that makes you bolt. After 50 years, I doubt I'm leaving, so you have to accept a certain reality with this guy at the helm. I do find the apologists for him frustrating. If we get another year 10% or so below the cap, people will realize he has a new spending philosophy.

The team is handicapped by ownership but it doesn't mean the Sabres cannot be successful. He's making the road harder, but it can happen. The talent is there.

Kevyn Adams almost for sure got rewarded with a GM job he would not have had with any other NHL team. And congrats to him. Who wouldn't take it. You can call GMKA a yes man or you can realize his value goes beyond his hockey knowledge (contracts/drafting/coaching decisions) and realize a major plus for him is his ability to manage Terry. That matters, in the context we are in now.

The bottom line for me is Terry is staying, and that's the reality. My faith is mostly in GMKA to manage Pegula, which means getting him to spend and also getting him not to spend when he has dumb ideas. I don't think Granato is the man but Adams will navigate that and we probably won't know Pegula's influence on that.

 

[chi777]

We all know this story was already debunked. Why post this?

Those people hid their relationship when they were supposed to disclose it.

People can debate the morality of the Pegulas until the end of times, it doesn't mean he/they weren't embarrassed by the issues happening during Tim Murray and that they shouldn't have reacted to them.

That reaction, as justified as it may be, doesn't also justify sticking with incompetent replacements just because they are easier to work with. It's only an explanation to why Pegula will stick with KA and Granato, even at the expense of the on-ice product. I choose to respond, after another do-nothing summer, by canceling ESPN+ and to not pay attention anymore. It won't make a difference, and I won't care.

This is all nonsense. Where are you getting this "Terry is just a nice old man who wants nice people around" garbage? He's not a nice person at all. He's a paranoid greedy asshole who also happens to be profoundly terrible at running a hockey team. He is the genesis of all the Sabres most glaring problems.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

This is all nonsense. Where are you getting this "Terry is just a nice old man who wants nice people around" garbage? He's not a nice person at all. He's a paranoid greedy asshole who also happens to be profoundly terrible at running a hockey team. He is the genesis of all the Sabres most glaring problems.

There is a difference between being a mostly moral person that would be frustrated with sexual abuse, physical abuse, substance abuse, and generally unpleasant behavior by the people working and playing for your club, and then also being greedy or cheap or whatever the negatives are about Pegula that causes him to (currently, imo) be on an internal budget that is hamstringing the on-ice product.

If I gave the impression that I thought Pegula was OVERALL a perfectly upright person that wasn't my intent. There's a wide array of personality traits that make up people. I think some facet of him was justifiably embarrassed by the above Murray-era drama, while another facet of him makes him a bad owner. I just feel for me the "bad" part is more guesswork about exactly why, not that he doesn't have that negative aspect.

But like @HogtownSabresfan posted, if we want to stick around as Sabres fans we have to accept him as the owner. I'm at the end of my rope, but not just because of a tight budget by Pegula, but inept management and coaching as well.

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

This is all nonsense. Where are you getting this "Terry is just a nice old man who wants nice people around" garbage? He's not a nice person at all. He's a paranoid greedy asshole who also happens to be profoundly terrible at running a hockey team. He is the genesis of all the Sabres most glaring problems.

Looks true. Didn't a bunch of low level staff get stiffed for vacation pay? During Pandemic

 

[Ace]

Looks true. Didn't a bunch of low level staff get stiffed for vacation pay? During Pandemic

People really hate when you bring up his unabashed cheapness during the pandemic. Money that, btw, was always going to be repaid to him by way of artificially deflating the cap. He acted like it was going to put him in the f***ing poor house…and the league fixed the cap number until owners recouped every cent. The low wage people he threw out in the middle of a pandemic? The staff he fired to be more “economical”? They couldn’t recoup shit.

The kindly grandpa billionaire who cares about people. Watching his failure quintuple in value and waiting to collect those sweet, unshared, expansion fees. He’s a grifter.

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

People really hate when you bring up his unabashed cheapness during the pandemic. Money that, btw, was always going to be repaid to him by way of artificially deflating the cap. He acted like it was going to put him in the f***ing poor house…and the league fixed the cap number until owners recouped every cent. The low wage people he threw out in the middle of a pandemic? The staff he fired to be more “economical”? They couldn’t recoup shit.

The kindly grandpa billionaire who cares about people. Watching his failure quintuple in value and waiting to collect those sweet, unshared, expansion fees. He’s a grifter.

I would love to know what he would do if he got a monster offer for the team right now. Would he slap conditions on moving it like Golisano? Golisano saved this team. Yeah, he screwed by Drury/Briere but he kept the team in Buffalo. Anybody who trusts Pegula is nuts.

 

[joshjull]

I am not asserting that Pegula is constantly interfering with the team.

I am saying that he is more involved with hockey department decision-making than most NHL owners. And given that this team has been an utter failure on the ice over the vast majority of his ownership and he is the one constant all this time, that maybe, just maybe, he might be a sizable part of the problem here.

I know you believe that. You just haven’t made much of an argument to support it. You just keep saying you believe it.

The thing is we had owners (Golisano/Quinn) whose influence/policy clearly destroyed one of the best teams in hockey at the time. We know what this type of interference looks like. It’s also not a rumored about or “smoke” as you put it. It’s blatantly obvious when an owner does stuff like this. Quinn thought their approach was so smart he publicly bragged about it

You can feel free to give Pegula less of the blame for the failure of his team to make the playoffs in over a decade. But, I will continue to feel that he is a big part of the problem with how he handles things as the owner of the team.

I already posted earlier that Pegula is 100% to blame for the situation. It’s due to his macro decisions of who he’s hired to run hockey ops and the dubious manner in which he’s hired some of them. All the suck stems from that.

There are plenty of questions about why do they have the smallest pro scouting department in the NHL? Why do they have one of the smallest front offices in the league? Why have they spent so little on player salary recently?

How fun, accusations in the form of a question.

This front office has been pretty successful in implementing its plans in all areas since its inception in 2021. This NHL season was its first failure. We both know the failure was due to our top players shitting the bed. Which has f*** all to do with the size of the front office. So not really an argument for your pet theory.

Even lamer is pretending you don’t know why salary is where it is. As if they didn’t tell us about 1000x they were building from within/going with youth. But as each of the young stars have come up for deals, they've been paid. I know you know this but are pretending you don’t.

 

[joshjull]

Why has he never hired a GM with prior experience?

I wanted to address this one separately.

I’m going assume this question is implying he hasn’t hired an experienced GM so he can control who he brings in. But lets look at the facts, the history of his hires and how things played out.

1) LaFontaine/Murray -> We started the 13-14 season with Regier as GM. Then in November, Pegula impulsively hires Patty as POHO based on a single dinner they had together. Essentially fanboying over him. Patty gets full control of hockey ops and hires Murray to be his GM.

They very quickly start butting heads on the direction of the rebuild/tank approach. Pegula has to step back in and pick a side. He goes with Murray’s vision which leads to Patty’s resignation. We don’t really hear much from Pegula again after that until he fires Murray.

2) Botts -> this is the only GM hire that came from a “normal” search process, with the NHL front office giving him (Pegula )guidance. But as you posted, Pegula was boxed out from being involved during his tenure. We may disgree on what he means by “involved” but we both know this was a thing.

3) Krueger/Adams/“flat management” structure -> somehow Krueger had Pegula convinced he found his McDermott for the Sabres. He was given a lot of front office power but had no relevant GM experience (plus he sucked as a coach). He gets paired up with Adams, who the owner trusts but also has no relevant GM experience.

It was supposed to mimic the Bills set up. It would be funny if it wasn't so disastrous. Yet another macro decision that blew up in Pegula’s face like the LaFontaine hire did.

4) Adams becomes sole GM -> Adams flies down one weekend to meet with the Pegulas in Florida. This was in the middle of the 18gm losing streak. He goes down there to sell them on; (a) firing Krueger, (b) go back to her traditional management structure and (c) on his plan o rebuild the team. He clearly sold them on all 3 things and we’re in year 3 of his plan.

———————————————————————————-

I don’t know how anyone can look at the above and see an owner who is manipulating and controlling things. As opposed to someone who has made a few impulsive and/or stupid decisions because he’s easily talked into things. That’s why I’ve always felt the idea that he is some sort of Machiavellian operator in the shadows to be so ridiculous. He’s an about as slick as tar and is easily led, especially if he is a fanboy of or trusts someone.

 

[MOGlLNY]

I would love to know what he would do if he got a monster offer for the team right now. Would he slap conditions on moving it like Golisano? Golisano saved this team. Yeah, he screwed by Drury/Briere but he kept the team in Buffalo. Anybody who trusts Pegula is nuts.

Yes he would and if he didn’t want to, Gary Bettman would make him.

 

[TehDoak]

I wanted to address this one separately.

I’m going assume this question is implying he hasn’t hired an experienced GM so he can control who he brings in. But lets look at the facts, the history of his hires and how things played out.

1) LaFontaine/Murray -> We started the 13-14 season with Regier as GM. Then in November, Pegula impulsively hires Patty as POHO based on a single dinner they had together. Essentially fanboying over him. Patty gets full control of hockey ops and hires Murray to be his GM.

They very quickly start butting heads on the direction of the rebuild/tank approach. Pegula has to step back in and pick a side. He goes with Murray’s vision which leads to Patty’s resignation. We don’t really hear much from Pegula again after that until he fires Murray.

Murray mentioned in several interviews that he spoke to Terry daily. he recalled joking with him after the Evander Kane trade that they just traded a 1st round pick at the deadline and they are a last place team. Terry was, at the very least, knowledgable of the day to day of the team. It should also be mentioned that in Murray's firing press conference, he said he regretting 'giving up control' and that he'd 'never do that again'. Literally from the horses mouth.

2) Botts -> this is the only GM hire that came from a “normal” search process, with the NHL front office giving him (Pegula )guidance. But as you posted, Pegula was boxed out from being involved during his tenure. We may disgree on what he means by “involved” but we both know this was a thing.

The GMJB era has the two most blantant examples of the owner overriding the GM we've seen.

1. The RoR trade. It being rushed through at the last minute to avoid paying his bonus is obvious the owner over riding the plan of the GM trying to get more value, and the owner overriding him at the last minute.
2. The Skinner signing. We've heard from at least one credible source that JB didn't want to make that signing but the owner overrided him (The Peters/Rivet podcast)

3) Krueger/Adams/“flat management” structure -> somehow Krueger had Pegula convinced he found his McDermott for the Sabres. He was given a lot of front office power but had no relevant GM experience (plus he sucked as a coach). He gets paired up with Adams, who the owner trusts but also has no relevant GM experience.

It was supposed to mimic the Bills set up. It would be funny if it wasn't so disastrous. Yet another macro decision that blew up in Pegula’s face like the LaFontaine hire did.

Him putting Adams in as a GM wasn't implementing a flat structure, it was creating a space where no one could tell him no. He even mentioned in the Botterill firing press conference something of the "between the three of us we can handle management" (I can't remember the exact quote) He trusted Krueger as a hockey advisor and Adams to not tell him no. That structure was to increase his involvement, not decrease it.

4) Adams becomes sole GM -> Adams flies down one weekend to meet with the Pegulas in Florida. This was in the middle of the 18gm losing streak. He goes down there to sell them on; (a) firing Krueger, (b) go back to her traditional management structure and (c) on his plan o rebuild the team. He clearly sold them on all 3 things and we’re in year 3 of his plan.

———————————————————————————-

I don’t know how anyone can look at the above and see an owner who is manipulating and controlling things. As opposed to someone who has made a few impulsive and/or stupid decisions because he’s easily talked into things. That’s why I’ve always felt the idea that he is some sort of Machiavellian operator in the shadows to be so ridiculous. He’s an about as slick as tar and is easily led, especially if he is a fanboy of or trusts someone.

Again, Adams was hired as his yes man. You don't hire a yes man for LESS control, you hire them for more. I do believe Adams has some autonomy, but only as much as Adams sticks to the budget. Adams control of the team is only as much as the Pegulas are simply disinterested. The Sabres have become the upper middle class version of a boat they used to take out every weekend to one that maybe gets taken out once a year, if that.

I'm just not sure you can look at the Pegulas history as owners and think he hasn't been intimately involved in the day to day operations. From multiple GMs telling us they talk daily, to the out of character moves (Leino/Ehrhoff signings, the RoR botch, the bizarre/spiteful handling of the Eichel situation, and the awfulness of the Skinner deal), there are fingerprints everywhere of someone inserting themselves.

 

[slip]

Pegula is a meddling moron who hires awful GMs.. Sometimes he gets involved in direct personnel decisions, other times he forces staffing cuts in key areas like scouting to improve cash flow for his lifestyle pursuits, and every time he seeks out not the most qualified GM, but the most pliant one. There is no conspiracy here. There's no behind the scenes power play. Just a bored billionaire ruining a perfectly good franchise with practically every decision he's ever made, while alienating millions of fans in the process. That's not Machiavelli. That's Shakespeare.