When the Buffalo Sabres relieved Kevyn Adams of his duties on Monday, it felt like a long time coming. Adams had six seasons to turn around the Sabres, and he never built a team capable of earning a playoff berth.
This isn't to say he didn't come close. In 2023, the Sabres needed just one more win, and they would have had enough points to break what was then a 12-year playoff drought. Still, ending the year with 91 points, it looked like Adams was on the verge of finally building a unit that would finally break the spell.
It's also why the Sabres kept Adams for as long as they did. He gave fans hope that the drought was nearly over in 2023. Alex Tuch proved to be a top-liner from the Jack Eichel trade, and Peyton Krebs looked like a valuable defensive forward from that same trade.
Meanwhile, Devon Levi was the hero during the Sabres' late-season bid for a playoff spot. Levi, who spent most of the season at Northeastern, signed with the Sabres in March 2023 and immediately took over goaltending duties. He finished 5-2, with a 0.905 save percentage, a 2.94 GAA, and a 0.714 quality starts percentage. Levi came in the Sam Reinhart deal, and it looked like Adams landed a franchise goaltender.
During this time, Adams was signing key players to extensions. He inked Tage Thompson and Mattias Samuelsson to long-term deals before the 2022-23 season and made a deal with Dylan Cozens halfway through the campaign. In Oct. 2023, Adams also signed Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power to massive extensions. So on the surface, it looked like Adams was building a rock-solid core.
The Buffalo Sabres looked like they were becoming relevant under Kevyn Adams
In 2022-23, Adams was in his third season as Sabres general manager. He'd taken over a team that was sputtering under Jason Botterill's leadership and improved it to a 75-point group by the end of 2021-22. Following a 2022-23 season that also saw the Sabres finish third in goals scored, Adams was building a good hockey team.
Throw in Devon Levi, plus seemingly brewing stars in Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Owen Power, Dylan Cozens, Jack Quinn, and JJ Peterka, and there's little wonder why the Sabres were interested in keeping Adams, despite zero playoff berths in three seasons. For the first time in years, the Sabres were true contenders, and they had the playoffs in their sight for 2023-24.
When the 2023-24 season rolled around, the Sabres regressed to putting up just 84 points, seven fewer than the season before. But with young teams, a year of regression is normal, so there was no reason to panic.
Adams also seemed to have improved the team on paper, trading for Bowen Byram at the 2024 trade deadline and for Ryan McLeod during the summer of 2024. He also brought in Jason Zucker, who had been a respectable top-six scorer throughout his career.
It wasn't like Kevyn Adams was sitting around and doing nothing. He was making moves, and they had to have appeased team ownership. He didn't make a monster deal for a star winger or blueliner, and that was something he should have made more of an effort with. But the moves Adams made should have turned the Sabres into a deeper team.
Stars like Thompson, Tuch, Peterka, and Dahlin were becoming some of the better players at their positions, and when the 2024-25 season arrived, the Sabres started the year 11-9-1, with 69 goals scored, good for 3.3 per game. It looked like they were turning into the high-octane team they were two seasons ago, and one that was capable of contending for the playoffs.
Things started falling apart for Kevyn Adams and the Sabres
Then came the 13-game losing streak in Nov. 2024, and that set the Sabres back. Adams, then in his fifth season, also didn't see returns on a few players he signed to long-term extensions. Mattias Samuelsson couldn't stay healthy and was often out for long stretches, and Dylan Cozens had regressed since signing his extension.
He rushed players like Samuelsson, Cozens, and Power into long-term deals before they enjoyed multiple strong seasons, and it cost Adams. When it looked as though Cozens was never going to be the 68-point player he was in 2022-23, Adams sent him to the Ottawa Senators for the injury-prone Josh Norris in March 2025. Norris will play in his tenth game with the Sabres on Thursday, having struggled through multiple injuries since coming to Buffalo, and it's easy to say the Senators won that trade.
Adams then traded away JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth in the summer of 2025 for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan, two solid, but unspectacular, talents. Doan has been serviceable, Kesselring has barely played, and Peterka is on pace for a 30-goal season. The one youngster who did enjoy strong back-to-back seasons ended up somewhere else, and that hurt Adams' credbility.
Meanwhile, Jack Quinn has been a mediocre talent, Bowen Byram has never evolved into a true two-way defenseman, and Adams never managed to get a deal done with another player who has been consistent year over year in Alex Tuch, who has been eligible for an extension since July 2025.
Kevyn Adams held on to the wrong players
Kevyn Adams gave off the illusion that he was improving the Sabres. After the 2021-22 season, with the team improving, there were pieces in place. The problem was, Adams didn't make his younger talent prove that they could perform well year after year.
Samuelsson looked like he could be a hard-hitting, stay-at-home defenseman. But he was, and still is, injury-prone. Dylan Cozens had a good half-season before Adams thought he could be a long-term top-six center. Owen Power had above-average production, but never looked like a former number-one overall pick. Still, that didn't stop Adams from extending him.
Adams' actions implied he had the Sabres on the right track. And given their solid 2022-23 campaign, there was no reason to think otherwise. He was putting together a young core early in his tenure. But his execution was terrible.
So, it's hard to blame the Sabres for keeping Adams as long as they did. Calling up young talent, seeing them play good hockey, and finding a role on the team before inking them long-term after putting up some solid play looked like a good plan on the surface. And it showed ownership that with a strong core, especially one that had stability through long-term deals, it would attract outside talent.
The problem was, once most of those players, except Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin, were handed contracts, they regressed. It was slow enough of a regression to keep Adams in town so he could find a way to fix things, but once it became clear the team achieved nothing but mediocrity, there was no way they could hang onto Adams any longer.
It was never a bad plan, Adams just didn't know when it was the right time to hand his players long-term contracts. And when he hesitated or couldn't get a deal done with those who proved their worth, he traded them. The result was a sour ending to what looked like it was going to be a successful tenure.