The Buffalo Sabres, who owned last place in the Eastern Conference as recently as early December, have steamrolled up the NHL standings with an eye on their first playoff berth since 2011.
Buffalo is 17-3-1 over its past 21 games, a stretch that includes a 10-game winning streak, which began shortly before general manager Kevyn Adams was fired and replaced by Jarmo Kekalainen.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportnet raised an interesting question about the Sabres' surge on the newest episode of his 32 Thoughts podcast with Kyle Bukauskas.
"Can I just talk about Adams for a second? What if the Sabres make the playoffs, does he get GM of the Year votes?" Friedman asked.
The NHL insider pointed out how Buffalo's former general manager acquired Josh Doan, who just signed a seven-year contract extension, and Michael Kesselring from the Utah Mammoth in the blockbuster JJ Peterka trade over the summer.
"This to me is one of the — there's no logical explanation for this, Kyle," Friedman said. "One of the weirdest phenomena ever. Are you going to tell me the Sabres turned around their season because they changed the general manager?"
It's certainly one of the league's wildest reversals of fortune in recent memory.
Should Kevyn Adams win the NHL's Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award if the Buffalo Sabres make the playoffs?
No.
Listen, Adams deserves credit for bringing in Doan and, while he made no shortage of mistakes during his six-year tenure, he also had some nice hits. Another example was sending prospect Matthew Savoie to the Edmonton Oilers for Ryan McLeod, one of the NHL's best third-line centers.
His stint leading the front office had run its course, however, and Kekalainen immediately brought a much-needed change of tone to the organization.
Sabres cornerstone Tage Thompson recounted Kekalainen's first conversation with the locker room after being promoted to replace Adams on the Spittin' Chiclets podcast.
"You are all pretty much all expendable, and no one is safe," Jarmo said, according to Thompson. "We are going to start working, and if you don't want to work, you're not gonna be on the team."
That instantly raised the level of accountability throughout the franchise, and it's something that was sorely lacking during Adams' tenure.
Buffalo's former GM believed in the club's core to a fault. He was also paralyzed with fear of making a move, as best evidenced by the fact he stood idly by as a 13-game losing streak destroyed the Sabres' 2024-25 season. He refused to hold players accountable for poor play.
So, is the Sabres' rise up the standings due solely to changing their general manager? Of course not. The roster itself always looked solid on paper, but some key injuries and underwhelming stretches of play from major contributors held the team back early in the campaign.
Removing the comfort level provided by Adams to the roster and replacing him with a battle-tested executive like Kekalainen, who made it clear the lack of compete level was no longer going to fly, absolutely helped change the course of the season.
Adams had five full seasons to get the Blue and Gold back to the playoffs. He failed, and there's no guarantee things would have played out the same way for the Sabres if he didn't get fired last month.
It was time for a change in Buffalo, and the tone shift from Kekalainen was a breath of fresh air for long-suffering Sabres fans who grew tired of Adams' yearly excuses. (Palm trees and taxes, anyone?)
Make no mistake, head coach Lindy Ruff and his players still have a lot of work left if they're going to end the organization's 14-year playoff absence. The East standings are crowded, so any type of sizable losing skid could cause a rapid descent.
If the Sabres do make the postseason, however, the credit will belong to Kekalainen, Ruff and the players, not a former general manager.