{"id":33817,"date":"2025-07-02T23:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T23:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33817\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T23:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T23:25:10","slug":"adams-said-he-wont-let-byram-leave-on-an-offer-sheet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/33817\/","title":{"rendered":"Adams said he won\u2019t let Byram leave on an offer sheet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) \u2013 <\/strong>On Wednesday Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams spoke about Bo Byram and free agency. Offer sheets are not used all that often in the NHL, but there have been reports out there that there\u2019s a possibility that Bo Byram could get an offer sheet. Depending on who you have on the Sabres roster, Buffalo has just under $12 million is salary cap room and Adams said they\u2019ve done that because of the threat of an offer sheet, which Adams is prepared to match,<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, and that\u2019s why the moves we\u2019ve made and the position we\u2019ve put ourselves in from a cap perspective has been strategic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you leave just enough room in your cap where you maybe see a projection on a one-year deal, and then someone comes over the top, you\u2019re potentially putting your organization in a really tough spot, so the moves and decisions we\u2019ve made for weeks now leading up to this point is with that in mind, so we\u2019ll be matching and have the opportunity to have the player under contract that we think helps us win.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as if they\u2019re any closer to resolving things with Byram, Adams said,<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of conversations with his agent right now and nothing has changed in the sense that we believe that Bo\u2019s an excellent hockey player that can help our team win. I\u2019ve maintained the same position that if there\u2019s a deal out there that makes sense for us, that we think is going to improve our roster, we\u2019re open to it, but if there\u2019s not, we\u2019re not in a situation where we\u2019re looking to move him out or we\u2019re looking to move him for futures, so for me we want to help our team win hockey games and he does that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Adams signed Alex Lyon to pair with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in goal. He said it\u2019s all about competition,<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a proven goaltender in this league. I think he\u2019s a really good veteran and checks the box of veteran presence, high character guy, he\u2019s proven in the league and played well in his time in the National Hockey League and he\u2019s going to challenge and push and we think he helps us win hockey games.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that the Sabres still have holes in their top six at forward, but they are also better in other areas that were needed. Adams said that was on purpose,<\/p>\n

\u201cBase on the decision we made on JJ (Peterka), you know you\u2019re moving a talented top six forward out, but you\u2019re improving your team in other ways and by getting 6-foot-5 right shot mobile defenseman, a guy that I\u2019ve been chasing for a couple of years, was critical to cleaning up our D-core and how we\u2019re going to play and then getting Josh Doan who is powerful and strong, plays both sides of the puck and we think he\u2019s going to keep getting better and better, so you\u2019re improving your team in a different way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like skill, of course you want that, but where we decided to focus our attention on and spend the dollars in different ways was to be more competitive, harder to play against, better defensively and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve made the decisions we\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of hand wringing on why the Sabres didn\u2019t qualify defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker. The Ottawa Senators wanted defenseman Dennis Gilbert as part of the Dylan Cozens\/Josh Norris trade, so the Sabres wanted a defenseman back and got Bernard-Docker. That part of the trade had nothing to do with the second-round pick Buffalo sent as part of the overall deal. On Tuesday Bernard-Docker signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings for $875,000. Adams explained why they let him walk,<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our perspective where his projected salary was going to come out and where we had him slotted in the eighth spot with the moves that we made, over the last few days before that, we just felt like that didn\u2019t make sense in terms of having Ryan Johnson and signing Jones (Zac) and Rathbone (Jack), that\u2019s not counting younger guys that you never know exactly where they\u2019ll be, so that\u2019s why we made the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams is well aware that to win the fans back it has to be more than talk. He said,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to win hockey games, I can stand up here and I can lay out our plan and I can tell you exactly why we\u2019ve made the decisions we\u2019ve made. I can tell you why I think we\u2019ve done a good job in terms of putting ourselves in a strategic position when it comes to the Byram situation, but ultimately we have to win games starting in October. If we win hockey games and we earn the respect around the league, people won\u2019t say things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sabres can talk contract extensions with Alex Tuch and Michael Kesselring since we\u2019re past July 1 and Adams said that has begun,<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a pressure point like there is in other situations, but I did sit down with his agent recently and just explained how we feel about Alex and that will be ongoing, but there\u2019s not the pressure point of other decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones was signed away from the New York Rangers. He only played 46 games and was scratched for most of the others. Jones will be 25 just after the season starts and Adams said,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just think he\u2019s a good hockey player and didn\u2019t expect a guy like that to be on the market, so he\u2019s a talented player so I think he could play different roles and I think he\u2019s going to come in and push so we\u2019ll have competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the Sabres traded away a top six forward and didn\u2019t bring one in meaning they only have four top six forwards, it sounds like Adams is pretty much finished with roster construction pending what he does with Byram,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like where our group\u2019s at in terms of where the roaster sits today, but we\u2019ll always look to get better if there\u2019s something that makes sense, so we\u2019ve done a good job in terms of reshaping the look of our D and I think that\u2019s something that\u2019s important. We\u2019ve brought veteran guys in that are going to help us defensively and are hard to play against. We\u2019ve brought in some character guys, so I think as it sits today, we like where our lineup is, but if there are areas anywhere, forward or D, to make a move that we think is good, we\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sabres signed a guy like the Rangers have in Matt Rempe. Mason Geertsen is nothing more than a big and strong fighter. He\u2019s 30-years-old and has only played 25 NHL games and they were with Lindy Ruff in New Jersey. In those 25 games he had no points and 77 minutes in penalties. Adams said,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed it. I just think that it\u2019s a unique skill set and he brings it and he\u2019s proven it and Lindy coached him in New Jersey, so that\u2019s helpful as well to know the type of guy you\u2019re getting into the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sabres wrap up Development Camp Thursday morning with their annual 3-on-3 tournament. Things get underway at Harborcenter starting at 9:30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) \u2013 On Wednesday Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams spoke about Bo Byram and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-33817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114786228930997230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}