Getting a 2C: B-. Even if Staal scored at a 20-22 goal pace, this woulda been an A move. It failed and the return was very meh.
Getting a 3C: C. Hate Eakin all you want to, but he was miscast as the Larsson replacement. He should mostly be a NZ guy, or someone who wins the faceoff in the DZ and then gets off the ice. I preferred Wennberg, Pius Suter, or Soderberg. So that is my issue with the Eakin signing, but in Adams defense, those players may not have wanted to sign here.
Getting a backup G: F. Nothing more to say about Crater Hutton being the #2.
Getting more scoring help: A. The Hall signing should have been a coup. It became an absolute F.
Getting depth: B. The low cost signings were meh. Unfortunately none of them were people that could (or should) play up in the lineup in a pinch. At least this was sort of rectified getting Bjork back in the Hall trade.
Trades: D-. Only getting a 2nd for Hall was a failure. It should have been conditional 1st, or get a prospect thrown in. Adding Lazar was stupid. A 3rd + 5th for Staal was infuriating. Get a 2nd for him instead of two picks when you have no damn scouts. The Montour trade was meh. JJ for a 6th was meh.
Keeping Ralph: F.
Waiver claims: F. Even the blind Crater Hutton could see that the Sabres were stupid to not claim a G, when the organization only had 5 guys signed. Instead you end up signing Houser and Lekkas just to have a goalie to play.
Getting help: A, I think. I know nothing of Karmanos.
Results of all the above: F. I’d be fine missing the playoffs again. But not with dead f***ing last.
2021 Entry Draft: C (tentatively). Can be higher if they draft at least 2 of the players I like outside of the 1st round, will be lower if they draft nobody I like.
Overall: C-. How the season went really did damage, but the ratings of some of his moves, in isolation, at least showed he tried to address some issues. They just failed.