Who would you want as GM?

[TageGod]

I think the poll 75ish percent Adams seems accurate. The people who need the splash moves are sitting on Yzerman because he makes a lot of moves.

 

[ZemgusWho]

As much as I love memory lane and some of my favorite mid 00s Sabres — it’s hard to pick them based on anything I’ve seen from them yet.

I would go as so far as saying that it’s a blessing in disguise because had we hired them, Terry would have been eviscerated for wearing his fan hat. I’m not sure Drury, Grier or Briere would have been in a patient environment that would have supported them succeeding. The best thing for Adams’ growth is that he was not an ex Sabre.

So love that they all GMs and all are unproven mostly. I don’t love the total of Yzermans body of work, but he’s made some good moves along the way so I can’t place him anywhere than 2. Probably some home bias there…

1 Adams
1b Yzerman
4a Drury
4b Grier
5 Briere

But I think in five years there’s a good chance of Drury + Grier being good enough that Sabres fans wish we scooped them.

 

[Matt Ress]

I'm not a fan of what Yzerman is doing in Detroit. He does have some really nice pieces on the backend and a bunch of money coming off the books next summer but the forward group is very blah with no real forward depth and not much top end talent there either and Cossa was a bad pick.

I don't think he's particularly good at drafting and have big doubts that he can score again in mid rounds like he did in Tampa. He also completely hosed a few teams which I don't see happening again.

Briere seems savvy at least is getting good value for his send offs. I love the Michkov pick and by the time he comes over the Flyers will have amassed several high picks and can fill out.

The Rangers are super talented but always have a hard time putting it together. Drury just strikes me as a guy that makes a mistake, then overcompensates and makes several more, all while being spoon fed talent into the organization. The opposite of a winner imo.

 

[dortt]

That's a fiction. 2 playoff births in 7 years. The Pegula's opened up the check books to make them a contender. He failed. He let him fire Ruff, he didn't do a real coaching search and promoted a guy who was ill suited.

I've criticized the pegula's for quite a bit over the years, especially in the last 4 or 5. But firing Regier was absolutely justified.




Huh? Post Hasek the team was abysmal. Part of that wasn't his fault (team in bankruptcy), but even the 05-07 teams were more a bit of catching lightning in a bottle than anything skillful. The failure of letting both co captains leave, the failing to ever replace center depth after losing top two centers, etc.

Regier had burned his bridges with most other teams by trying to win every single trade and over valued his own players. Regier was a great asset manager, but a poor team architect.

It's not fiction at all. His turnaround from the Hasek to the co captains was the best GMing we ever had. Once we had reliable goaltending in 2005, we were one of the best teams (2003-2004, like this past year, had issues in net)

The Royal family team was a miss, but he saw it needed to be torn down and rebuilt. He likely would have had us in the playoffs by 2016-2017

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Not Grier.

Steve Yzerman is odd choice here.

 

[buffalowing88]

I misread the premise and thought this was if we were working from a clean slate. Obviously, I'd otherwise take Adams first since I like what he's done but I can't say I was nearly as confident a year ago.

I like Grier because he's very well-connected and respected in hockey circles dating back to his days growing up in New England. He's always been a team-first player and seems to avoid the drama that appears to follow Drury around.

Briere always struck me as more of a coach than a GM. I feel like he's more "ra-ra" than behind-the-scenes. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, though...

Yzerman is too much of a risk. Who's to say how long he'll even stick around. He's pushing 60 and doesn't seem to be having a great time atm.

 

[Fjordy]

Adams

 

[TehDoak]

I like what Drury has done, but he didn't start with an empty slate, was taking over an established team.

Grier and Briere are still in tear down stages.

Adams hasn't shown he can do much beside acquire draft picks and use draft picks. Most of his core pieces were here when he started.

Yzerman's job in detroit hasn't been great, but he also started well below zero with an empty prospect cupboard and cap chains. He also built the foundations for a 2 time cup champ in Tampa.

Of that list, Yzerman is the clear answer. Best track record, most experience.

 

[Chainshot]

That's a fiction. 2 playoff births in 7 years. The Pegula's opened up the check books to make them a contender. He failed. He let him fire Ruff, he didn't do a real coaching search and promoted a guy who was ill suited.

I've criticized the pegula's for quite a bit over the years, especially in the last 4 or 5. But firing Regier was absolutely justified.

Huh? Post Hasek the team was abysmal. Part of that wasn't his fault (team in bankruptcy), but even the 05-07 teams were more a bit of catching lightning in a bottle than anything skillful. The failure of letting both co captains leave, the failing to ever replace center depth after losing top two centers, etc.

Regier had burned his bridges with most other teams by trying to win every single trade and over valued his own players. Regier was a great asset manager, but a poor team architect.

Not only that, but he also blew up his tried-and-true slow cooking on prospects to rush Girgensons, Grigorenko, Ristolainen, and Zadorov into the lineup before they were fully ready. He had tried and failed in the face of video scouting - the lack of NHL players his staff turned out for the later half of the 2000's is also a big hit on his reputation. They had to tear it down because they'd messed up often enough beyond just the economic constraints of BTG/Quinn. He needed to go and probably needed to go when they arrived as owners.

 

[debaser66]

Adams

 

[Deep Blue Metallic]

We have the GM we need. The entire hockey operation, not just the roster, was a shitshow before Adams was hired.

I swear some of you gobble amnesia pills.

 

[jc17]

Adams and Yzerman close for me.

Adams has done better lately, but I do think Steve Y is pretty bright. If you swap Steve and Kevyn at the time they took over their respective teams, are we much worse, or detroit much better?

The other 3 are way too unproven to prefer.

 

[Ace]

We have the GM we need. The entire hockey operation, not just the roster, was a shitshow before Adams was hired.

I swear some of you gobble amnesia pills.

when he shows to be capable of handling any part of building a winner we’ll have the GM we need. as of today he’s the GM we needed to sell pieces and draft. As far as roster building? We’re one and a half off-season’s past him needing to become the GM we need now.

Unless your entire goal ends at having a giant prospect pool that can’t possibly all play for you and a constantly moving finish line of when playoffs are the point instead of trying to get better and fearmongering over future cap

The two teams I’ve seen with the most “cap problems” were Tampa and Vegas and they’ve won 3 of the last 4 f***ing cups.

But we can’t get a goalie or a proven D because in 2028 you might need to sign one of two dozen forward prospects to a deal you can’t afford.

We’re ending into his fourth season as GM running back forwards who all had career years (minus Quinn for half a year), no proven answer at top 4 D and a goalie situation that is flat out laughable.

GM we need? I don’t believe so. I’ll take any of the other 31 who would have done what should have been done a year ago by now.