- Boston is adding former Sabres GM Kevyn Adams to its front office, per Elliotte Friedman
- The hire lands the same week the Bruins acquired JJ Peterka, a player Adams traded out of Buffalo
- Read below for how the team Adams built knocked the Bruins out of the playoffs
The Bruins are bringing in a familiar hockey mind to help run the show.
Boston is adding former Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams to its front office, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported during the network’s draft coverage.
Friday was a loud day in Boston. The Bruins landed winger JJ Peterka from Utah for a pair of first-round picks, and Adams is the executive who dealt Peterka out of Buffalo in the first place.
Peterka talked about joining the Bruins after the move:
Buffalo fired Adams on December 15 after a 14-14-4 start and handed the job to Jarmo Kekalainen.
The team he built didn’t sink without him. The Sabres won the Atlantic Division at 50-23-9 and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
Then they knocked out the Bruins in the first round. That made the December decision look even rougher in hindsight.
Adams ran Buffalo for more than four seasons and made plenty of noise on the trade market. He shipped Jack Eichel to Vegas in the deal that brought back Alex Tuch, sent Sam Reinhart to Florida for a package that included Devon Levi, and added pieces like Bowen Byram and Ryan McLeod.
There’s some history between Adams and Boston, too. The Bruins drafted him in the first round, 25th overall, back in 1993.
Thirty-three years later, he’s back with the team that started his pro career, this time helping Don Sweeney’s group chase a bounce-back from that first-round exit.
