{"id":71458,"date":"2025-12-15T20:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T20:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71458\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T20:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T20:36:12","slug":"sabres-fire-gm-kevyn-adams-as-playoff-drought-hangs-over-franchise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71458\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres fire GM Kevyn Adams as playoff drought hangs over franchise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kevyn Adams will not be the man who leads the Sabres back to the promised land.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo, tied for last in the Eastern Conference at 14-14-4 entering Monday\u2019s slate, fired its general manager as the franchise hurtles toward extending its NHL-long active playoff drought to 15 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not where we need to be as an organization, and we are moving forward with new leadership within our hockey operations department,\u201d Sabres owner Terry Pegula <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/news\/jarmo-kekalainen-hired-as-buffalo-sabres-gm-kevyn-adams-fired\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cWe are dedicated to building an organization that is competitive year after year, and we have fallen short of that expectation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.36533333;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37935513\" width=\"806\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1407416644.jpg\" alt=\"General manager Kevyn Adams of the Buffalo Sabres (L) introduces Matthew Savoie to team personnel at their draft table \" class=\"wp-image-37935513\"  \/>General manager Kevyn Adams of the Buffalo Sabres (L) introduces Matthew Savoie to team personnel at their draft table. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Jarmo Kekalainen, the former Blue Jackets GM who was brought on as an advisor in May, was promoted to the role held for five years by Adams. He becomes <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/06\/16\/sabres-fans-rejoice-in-firing-of-gm-jason-botterill\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the fifth person to hold the GM position<\/a> since the Pegula family bought the NHL franchise in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>The move comes as <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/13\/sports\/sabres-fan-tossed-jersey-to-the-ice-after-third-loss-to-open-season\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fan unrest around the team<\/a> has grown over the past two seasons, with chants of \u201cFire Adams\u201d a common refrain at the Key Bank Center,<\/p>\n<p>The Buffalo native and 10-year NHL journeyman center, 51, drew the ire of fans last year when he bemoaned Buffalo\u2019s inability to draw stars to the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to earn it,\u201d Adams said. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s really simple. You become a perennial playoff team, you make the playoffs, you have a chance to win the Stanley Cup year after year, you\u2019re on (fewer) no-trade lists. We don\u2019t have palm trees. We have taxes in New York. Those are real, and those are things you deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fans trolled him by bringing inflatable palm trees into the arena.<\/p>\n<p>Adams finishes his time in Buffalo with a 178-196-42 mark.<\/p>\n<p>Now, fans pin their hopes to the stewardship of Kekalainen, the first European-born GM in NHL history who was able to bring the likes of Artemi Panarin and Johnny Gaudreau to Columbus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a great honor to be named general manager of the Buffalo Sabres,\u201d Kekalainen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/news\/jarmo-kekalainen-hired-as-buffalo-sabres-gm-kevyn-adams-fired\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cI would like to extend my thanks to Terry and Kim Pegula for this opportunity. I am humbled to be the steward of this team and look forward to experiencing the passion that Sabres fans bring to every game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevyn Adams will not be the man who leads the Sabres back to the promised land. Buffalo, tied&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3297,9,11,10,539,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-71458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-buffalo-sabres","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}