Mike Harrington: Eric Staal's hiring is a good step, but Sabres have lots more to do
Get as many people as you can who have won NHL games and know what it takes. Staal sure does. In those three months he played for the Sabres in
Kevyn Adams and Terry Pegula have been running the Buffalo Sabres their way for five years without success. Now it seems that they are finally going to see the light a little and do it the NHL way.
The Buffalo Sabres have needed more adults in the locker room, and Adams admittedly made steps in that area last summer when adding Jason Zucker, Ryan McLeod, Beck Malenstyn and James Reimer to the roster. What they also need is people with actual NHL front office experience around Adams in the executive suite. More adults in that room, too.
The club took a small but significant step in that area Wednesday with the announcement that longtime former NHL player Eric Staal has been hired as a special assistant to the GM. And while it’s a bit of a nebulous title, Staal is going to assist in areas like scouting and development and should be another set of eyes and a sounding board for the players, too.
Former Sabres forward Eric Staal will assist in areas like scouting and development and should be another set of eyes and a sounding board for the players. Harry Scull Jr., Buffalo News
By early Wednesday afternoon, I had heard from four longtime NHLers from the executive and broadcasting ranks and they all had the same reaction to Staal’s hiring: Great first move. Now do more.
Staal won’t be making trades. He won’t sign free agents or negotiate contract extensions. That’s Adams’ job. These are often entry-level positions for prominent ex-players to get their appetites whetted for front office work and you see them all over the league.
Just in the Eastern Conference, this is a pretty common model. Ex-players working in a similar special assistant role include Roberto Luongo (Florida), Shane Doan (Toronto), Vincent Lecavalier (Montreal), Justin Williams (Carolina), John LeClair and Patrick Sharp (Philadelphia) and Jason Spezza (Pittsburgh). Spezza, in particular, seems to be in line for a long front-office career as he’s worked with GM Kyle Dubas in both Toronto and Pittsburgh and has a growing profile in league circles.
Sabres fans are understandably skeptical about everything these days but here’s a piece of advice: Move on. We all think Adams should have been gone after this season but as I’ve said multiple times on various platforms, they weren’t making a change. Pegula is tired of paying people not to work and Adams has a year left on his contract.
They should have made a change during the winless streak in December, probably after the ghastly loss in Montreal that followed Pegula’s impromptu visit on practice day in Bell Centre. They didn’t move Adams along then and they weren’t doing it now. It’s their team. You don’t get a say in who they hire or fire.
So what are they doing? Staal is one hire. It seems like there’s going to be a senior adviser hired that can give Adams some added perspective.
Clearly, the first call should go to former Sabres player and coach Rick Dudley, the special adviser for the Florida Panthers and a longtime Lewiston resident. Dudley, who should have been offered the GM job here at some point under Pegula, is 76 now and might have a certain comfort zone in his current gig that would make a Buffalo role unattractive.
If not Dudley, then who? There’s no shortage of possibilities. I’m no Lou Lamoriello fan given the current NHL style of play, but the 82-year-old who was fired as Islanders GM last month would undoubtedly offer Pegula and Adams lots of wisdom. Of course, how much of the truth could they handle?
There’s plenty of other names out there who might want to have a say here. Former Detroit and Edmonton GM Ken Holland would be a giant to get but seems in line to be in the GM mix for Lamoriello’s old job with the New York Islanders. Off the top of my head, former Los Angeles GM Dean Lombardi (now a special adviser in Philadelphia) and ex-Kings assistant GM Michael Futa both have two Stanley Cup rings and that should matter greatly. Ex-Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen undoubtedly would love to offer his opinions on the team’s prospect corps and could offer plenty of perspective to the GM as well.
We had to wait for the NFL draft to end before Pegula could squeeze meetings about his hockey team into his schedule, a problematic issue in this organization that is never changing when you consider they are building a $2.2 billion football stadium. But now that the Sabres have talked things out, we should see things move.
The adviser will get named. Assistant coaches should be shuffled in and out. Adams likely will be looking for at least one new assistant GM, if working-remotely Jason Karmanos moves on after the Rochester Amerks’ season ends.
Get as many people as you can who have won NHL games and know what it takes. Staal sure does. In those three months he played for the Sabres in 2021, the former Carolina captain instantly became a mentor for Dylan Cozens and quickly earned the respect of Rasmus Dahlin.
I was with the team in Boston the day Staal was traded and still remember how crushed Kyle Okposo and Brandon Montour seemed on their media video calls when talking about Staal’s departure. Staal will have an impact on Dahlin in terms of handling captain items. He will help Adams, too. You need more winners around. This works.
