BUFFALO, N.Y. — There are similarities between what Joe Sakic has built for the Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche and what Kevyn Adams is trying to build for the Buffalo Sabres.
Before Colorado got good, they drafted Gabe Landeskog second overall and Nate MacKinnon first overall. Even though they had the worst record by far in 2016, the Avalanche lost all the lotteries and fell to fourth overall. It turned out OK as Sakic drafted this year’s Norris Trophy winner and Conn Smythe Trophy winner in Cale Makar.
Buffalo wound up with the first overall pick in 2018 and 2021 and now has two top-flight defensemen to anchor their young blue line in Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power.
Jason Botterill had trouble picking a coach and didn’t make great trades, although some trades like Ryan O’Reilly were forced on him, but he was good at evaluating talent and drafting. After getting Dahlin in 2018, Botterill took Mattias Samuelsson in the second round, 32nd overall. That gives Adams what appears to be three studs on defense that are 19, 22, and 22.
Sakic drafted Mikko Rantanen in 2015 and that gave them three quality forwards to build around. Adams is building the same way and is counting on Tage Thompson, Peyton Krebs, Dylan Cozens, Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, and Isak Rosen up front.
Colorado never got a good goalie, but Adams is hoping at least one of his three youngsters will turn into a top-flight goaltender. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is a second-round pick while Erik Portillo at Michigan was taken in the third. Devon Levi came over from the Florida Panthers in the Sam Reinhart trade and he won the Mike Richter Award as college hockey’s best goalie while playing for Northeastern.
The biggest similarity is at head coach.
In August of 2016, Patrick Roy pulled the chute on the Avalanche leaving Sakic in a bad spot. Sakic turned to career coach Jared Bednar who had never played or coached in the NHL. Bednar was coming off a Calder Cup championship with the Lake Erie Monsters and had also won a championship in the ECHL back in 2008-09 with the South Carolina Stingrays.
Don Granato was called on by Adams after Ralph Krueger was fired during the 2020-21 season. Granato also won a championship in the ECHL with the Peoria Rivermen and had never played in the NHL. The only difference is that Granato has spent 4.5 years as an assistant in the NHL with the Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, and St. Louis Blues.
Both coaches play to their player’s strengths and are able to exploit the other team by doing so.
Now don’t get too carried away quite yet. For Bednar, it took one horrendous season followed by four seasons of playoff failures before winning the Cup. The first season in the playoffs Colorado lost to the Nashville Predators in the first round. For the next three seasons, they lost in the second round to the San Jose Sharks, Dallas Stars, and Vegas Golden Knights.
Adams is not going to accelerate the process that he believes will set the team up for long-term success. That means Buffalo is not going to be bidding on high-priced free agents. Adams has told me many times he’s not in this to break the playoff drought for just one year. He’s in it to make sure the playoff drought never happens again. So with that in mind, Adams will likely use his first-round picks at the draft in July and not use them as trade bait to bring in players.
