Terry and Kim Pegula held a press conference Tuesday, and that in itself is news. We don't get many chances to ask them questions, generally only when somebody is getting fired.
As it turned out, the Pegulas raised more questions than they answered.
They were speaking about the firing of General Manager Jason Botterill before things turned into one of the darkest days in franchise history. It was a bloodletting, a clean sweep of virtually every corner of hockey operations, except head coach Ralph Krueger and his assistants.
The Pegulas spoke in all the usual cliches, raised some antennas but mostly stayed to corporate-speak. They departed the call, and the firings continued into the evening. It was an unenviable assignment for new General Manager Kevyn Adams to have to give the news to staffers on his first day.
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We already knew assistant GMs Randy Sexton and Steve Greeley were gone. Then came Rochester coach Chris Taylor and assistants Gord Dineen and Toby Peterson. Director of Scouting Ryan Jankowski. His assistant, Jeff Crisp. And several of the team's scouts and development coaches.
Pretty cowardly from this view to take a few questions and then wander back into the sunshine while key staffers keep getting fired and not have to further explain things.
At this point, you have to wonder if DJ Milk or Sabretooth are going to run the draft. Or maybe they're gone too in the name of the organization getting "leaner," clearly Terry Pegula's new buzzword.
So many questions. Not nearly enough answers.
What happened here?
Three weeks ago, Kim Pegula insisted in an interview with the Associated Press that she had information on "some inner workings that we see some positives in," and that's why Botterill was staying.
It was an embarrassing quote, utterly demeaning to the fan base. And it became preposterous when the Pegulas turned around and fired the GM on Tuesday.
With the NHL's decision to probably push the NHL Draft until October, the Pegulas rethought that comment. Hey, it's their team. It's not that unusual for scouts to be fired when the GM is fired, but the depth of dismissals was shocking.
With no draft, the Pegulas had plenty of time to do a deep dive on their mess of a hockey team. Terry Pegula uttered their new mantra: "Effective, Efficient and Economic." Maybe the Sabres can hang that banner next to their advertisers' signs foolishly placed in the rafters because they never get any banners for winning hockey games.
The Pegulas told Botterill that's how they wanted things done going forward. The GM balked. He has a big staff. They love to head overseas to check out players in places such as Sweden and Finland. Sounds as if the Pegulas would just as soon find players across the Peace Bridge. Clearly those were among the "philosophical differences" the team cited in its press release.
"We felt there were too many differences of opinion going into the future," Terry Pegula said. "We just thought, since we had more time, that it would be best for us to make the change."
What happened to "Starting today, there will be no financial mandates on the Buffalo Sabres hockey department"?
Remember that famous line from Terry Pegula's first presser in 2011? Times are obviously different in the world. The oil business is in tough shape, and Pegula can't just drill another well like he said that day. Their hotel and restaurant business is shot, too (it's notable there has been no movement to reopen [716] Food & Sport or the Draft Room downtown), and the Pegulas are clearly spooked about possibly having few fans or none at all for Bills and Sabres games. And remember, their hockey team isn't likely to play until January.
They're bleeding money on hockey and cutting back in all areas. Maybe they're not going all video scouting, Tom Golisano-style, but Terry Pegula wouldn't even commit to a single assistant GM under Adams to replace Sexton and Greeley. And he said they have no interest in hiring a real team president. Shocking.
What happened to front office communication?
Terry Pegula conceded it simply broke down when he starkly said, "We felt like we weren't being heard." Yikes. Pegula said he had a vision of the plan going forward and said he wasn't going to "sit here and dish on Jason Botterill." Clearly, the visions of the owner and the GM did not match.
This was a classic Pegula blindside, just like was done with Darcy Regier in 2013 and Tim Murray in 2017. Botterill was told at a meeting Tuesday morning -- which sources said he expected to be a continuation of talks on the team's future and not the end of his term. Wow.
Do the Pegulas have any idea what they're doing?
They're giving Ottawa's Eugene Melnyk a run for his money as the worst owners in the NHL. Nine consecutive years out of the playoffs and a .450 points percentage that's the lowest in the league since they took over. A text from one longtime Western Conference observer said flatly, "They're turning into the Charlie Finley of hockey" in reference to the former Oakland A's boss who ran the California Golden Seals into the ground in the early '70s with his meddling.
Kim Pegula has long been over her head as a team president; the success with the Bills is because they got lucky finding first-timers Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane. No one should have any faith in her. Many fired coaches, general managers or front office executives privately rip her once out the door as the No. 1 problem in the organization. She declined to comment on that assertion when it was presented to her Tuesday.
Her flip-flop on Botterill's status is the latest example that you can't trust a word she says. And she even doubled down on the famous "inner workings" line Tuesday when she said, "As Terry said, there has been some progress made that maybe the fan base or you guys don't see, but we don't think that this is a rebuild."
Memo to the team president: Stop talking down to your fan base.
Who's going to develop the prospects?
You might wonder what's going through Jack Eichel's head, and you wouldn't be alone. But I'm wondering about Casey Mittelstadt, Dylan Cozens, Will Borgen, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Casey Fitzgerald. Some of them have been nurtured in Rochester by Taylor, whose firing is just a terrible decision, and his staff. The kids all have regular communication with Botterill, Sexton and/or Greeley. Now, they have no one. They're starting over, too. That's a tough ask.
A rookie GM with no search?
Seriously? Who gets to be an NHL general manager with no hockey operations experience? Kevyn Adams is a nice guy, a Clarence native who won a Stanley Cup. He has been around the Pegulas for nine years, but his main hockey job in that time was directing the youth academy at Harborcenter. He's going to have to quickly ward off the perception he's just a yes-man for ownership.
