What grade would you give Kevin Adams?

[TehDoak]

To be fair to Adams, this was intended to be a thread for the end of last season. Perhaps a different thread should be started to air grievances on this round of failure?

 

[ValJamesDuex]

 

[MarkusKetterer]

I originally voted with a C. It’s now a game or two from falling to a D-.

 

[Chainshot]

To be fair to Adams, this was intended to be a thread for the end of last season. Perhaps a different thread should be started to air grievances on this round of failure?

In fairness, he hasn’t been any better.

 

[Sabre the Win]

He's not going to be very popular with this blatant tank going on, Sabres fans are tired of seeing losing and just want wins now even if it costs us Wright or Bedard; I'm personally passed the bottom out for a savior. I like his trades and the returns he's gotten and how he played the Eichel situation but the whole goalie fiasco and the blatant tank has me giving him a D now.

 

[OkimLom]

To be fair to Adams, this was intended to be a thread for the end of last season. Perhaps a different thread should be started to air grievances on this round of failure?

to be fair to Adams, it was probably stupid to put a poll asking to grade a GM after one year for a job that requires long term decisions to be made, and having said overall decisions needing to be settled before seeing results.

With that said I’m keeping my grade of a D, because the flaws were there already, and I’m not seeing any changes yet.

 

[Matt Ress]

Not signing any stupid contracts is a positive so far, early signs point to a pretty good draft, not rushing guys into Buffalo is good.

Average grade for Eichelgate. Could have been handled better but a reasonable return when the smoke cleared.

This season will continue to be a dumpster fire. My idea of a successful season would be a change in culture, improved on ice play and growth from some players. The worry now is that any improvement will be washed away by painfully degrading losses. You can already see the boys getting down on themselves.

E: I like the long game but for it to be successful, the team needs to be able to overcome adversity and at least be fundamentally sound even if they get outskilled.

 

[Chainshot]

Not sure how a chunk of last season can't be put on him as the help he went out and got up front in Staal and Eakin while keeping Hutton around did more harm than good to that squad, as well as keeping the Ralph's horseshit generator plugged in behind the bench... which we have seen help f*** up another high-end pick. They pooched last year so hard that he had to make tear-down moves. He had a hand in that directly.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Not sure how a chunk of last season can't be put on him as the help he went out and got up front in Staal and Eakin while keeping Hutton around did more harm than good to that squad, as well as keeping the Ralph's horseshit generator plugged in behind the bench... which we have seen help f*** up another high-end pick. They pooched last year so hard that he had to make tear-down moves. He had a hand in that directly.

Other than Hutton still coming back, he at least tried to improve the team by getting a theoretical 2C and 3C in Staal and Eakin. I give him no credit for Zamboni Hall, because I’m sure that was all Terry.

 

[Chainshot]

Other than Hutton still coming back, he at least tried to improve the team by getting a theoretical 2C and 3C in Staal and Eakin. I give him no credit for Zamboni Hall, because I’m sure that was all Terry.

Tried and flopped.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Tried and flopped.

Better to try and flop than not try and flop.

 

[Old Navy Goat]

Other than Hutton still coming back, he at least tried to improve the team by getting a theoretical 2C and 3C in Staal and Eakin. I give him no credit for Zamboni Hall, because I’m sure that was all Terry.

Once they signed Hall there was zero cap to ditch Hutton so they were forced to hope his eyesight had improved.

 

[BuiltTagonTough]

D. He's made some decent moves, and made some moves that made sense at first before completely flopping, and has a ridiculous amount of draft capital coming up he hopefully won't Murray away. But the lack of a quality goalie, Krueger lasting as long as he did, there's plenty of moves dragging him down.

 

[UnleashRasmus]

C. I'll say overall they've identified that it wasn't working and moved in the new direction. Not great, not terrible.

 

[member 334057]

Unfortunately I think his grade right now is lower than it potentially could be. He seems like another yes man who is bending to Pegulas will in spending as little as possible and putting together yet another tank team. For now I have to give him an D as I feel like he's made some questionable moves with the goaltending situation and some of the players he has brought in. That doesn't mean he hasn't made good moves also or gotten solid returns for guys like Risto, but ultimately the product on the ice reflects failure currently. While I'm sure he was limited by the money he could spend as well as the players who were willing to come here I can't help but think there were also options available via trades that wouldn't have cost any premium draft capitol (1st or 2nd round picks).

 

[jc17]

I originally voted C and will stay there. We haven't been set back in a way that anything worse seems warranted.

The goaltending situation hasn't really changed from the start of the season. Anderson played better than anyone really expected and our current level is sort of what was expected.

The most predictable thing has been watching people go from fine with a bad team on paper to not fine with a bad team on ice

 

[sufferer]

Voted D initially and it's likely worse than that now. I'm sure it's been great for the guys' psyches to get blown out damn near every game for the last month.

 

[TehDoak]

In fairness, he hasn’t been any better.

I never said i was changing my F grade

 

[member 334057]

The most predictable thing has been watching people go from fine with a bad team on paper to not fine with a bad team on ice

I think a lot of that has to do with losing games 6-2, 7-4, 5-0 etc. Honestly I didn't expect them to win much but I expected or at least hoped for closer games 4-3 , 3-2 etc. Early in the season win or lose it felt like they were in every game albeit on unsustainable play by Anderson and Tokarski. Lately that has turned into complete blow-outs where they just don't even look like the same team most nights. Now obviously having your top 2 goaltenders out is a huge part of that, but the complete lack of team defense sure doesn't help.

 

[itwasaforwardpass]

Better to try and flop than not try and flop.

Trying is the first step toward flopping.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Trying is the first step toward flopping.

 

[DatDude44]

Let him actually continue to rebuild the team before giving him bad grades. The teams not supposed to be good this year. Hes literally had to undo 3 failed rebuilds and basically start from scratch with what he’s inherited.
Is he a yes man? Maybe but who cares, I haven’t disagreed with any moves he’s made as GM, even if they didn’t all workout (hall & Staal) they still spent nothing to acquire them and flipped for assets.

For the first time in a long time this organization has direction and an actual future they’re developing/building.

Dahlin, Power, Johnson, Samuelson, Bryson on the back end, Tuch, Krebs, Cozens, Tage, Mitts, Quinn, Peterka, asplund, Kisakov, etc… all look legit and ya got 3 lottery tickets in the very strong 22 draft as well.

it’s gonna take time, but this rebuild is different than the previous 3 in my Eyes

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

... this rebuild is different than the previous 3 in my Eyes

Accurate, but infuriating.

 

[Bendium]

I am sticking with the B. Unfortunately, the NHL is not like the NFL where you can turn over a roster in just a couple years. He had his work cut out from the start. I actually have to give any grade a half grade bump as a Pegula handicap. I think he is actually turning over the roster fairly quickly. Most of the driftwood vets are leaving after this year making room for more prospects, trade targets or better UFA's to take their place. There has been solid additions to the pipeline.

I rate the Eichel trade as solid.
I rate the Rhino trade as solid. (I believe Levi was a target of the new analytics dept)
I rate the Risto trade as solid. (Though it gets weaker if you look at it as Risto and Borgan for a mid first and Hagg.)

The big hit for me was misplaying the Ullmark negotiation. I think he intended to sign him, but boxed himself into a corner and overplayed it. When they lost, there was no real goalie talent available and they got stuck. They should have given Ullmark the money for 4 years to stablize the net.

As a minor hit, I think he should have found a way to keep Borgen.

 

[VaporTrail]

Too early to try and give him a grade imo