On Monday, the Buffalo Sabres fired Kevyn Adams as the team’s general manager (GM), replacing him with former Columbus Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen, whom the Sabres brought in over the offseason as an advisor to Adams.
Kekalainen, who served as the Blue Jackets’ GM from 2013 to 2024, had a good tenure in Columbus and is their longest tenured in team history. Considering he was GM for their best seasons in franchise history, that comes as no surprise.
Given Kekalainen’s history, I would expect him to be aggressive regarding the roster and coaching staff as a whole. In his introductory press conference, he stated: “Everybody is under evaluation at this point, but there are a lot of good people here that are great at their jobs,” while also stating he firmly believes his team can make the playoffs this season (Matthew Fairburn, What we Learned from Jarmo Kekalainen’s first news conference as Buffalo Sabres GM, The Athletic, Dec. 16, 2025)
Kekalainen Will Be Aggressive in Helping the Sabres Get Into the Playoffs
Kekalainen believes the Sabres can make the playoffs this season. Currently, they sit last in the Eastern Conference, but only seven points out of a playoff spot. What does this mean for Kekalainen, and how will he be aggressive?
The Sabres’ roster could use a few tweaks, and they have a plethora of young prospects/players with minimal NHL experience that teams at the bottom or middle of the standings could use to improve their futures. Some of them include Konsta Helenius, Devon Levi, Isak Rosen, Noah Ostlund, Anton Wahlberg, Brodie Zeimer, and Radim Mrtka.
If I had to guess, the only two players who have a 100 per cent chance to be part of the Sabres’ long-term plans are Ostlund and Rosen; everyone else could be traded for help for the NHL roster. I’m not saying they’re all going to be traded this season or at all, but having a logjam in the pipeline gives Kekalainen some trade chips to use to improve scoring, defense, or goaltending and help the team break their playoff drought.
Expect him to deal some of the young players to upgrade parts of the lineup. The Sabres have talent on the roster; they just have not been able to put it all together for more than a three to four-game stretch this season.
Kekalainen Has Shown He Is Not Afraid to Be Aggressive
Kekalainen has shown he is not afraid to be aggressive in acquiring talent. He made numerous high-risk, high-reward trades and signings, during his 11 seasons in Columbus.
Related: Kevyn Adams’ Tenure as Sabres GM Wasn’t Bad At All
Some of the more notable players he acquired during his tenure were Johnny Gaudreau in free agency and Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky, Matt Duchene, Brandon Saad, and Seth Jones via trades. He is not afraid to go and acquire the big fish.
Even though he was not able to retain Bobrovsky and Panarin, who were key components of the Blue Jackets’ sweep of the powerful Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2019 playoffs, he still gave the Blue Jackets a glimmer of hope with those acquisitions.
Duchene left in free agency in 2019 and eventually, Jones asked for a trade; Kekalainen traded Saad back to the Blackhawks in the deal that brought in Panarin. His aggressive moves did not earn them a Stanley Cup, but did help the Blue Jackets have their best seasons in franchise history.
Ultimately, if there’s one thing about Kekalainen, it’s that he will go down swinging. The Sabres are not too far off from being a competitive playoff team, and as Sabres’ captain Rasmus Dahlin said, “I think Jarmo’s going to be the one who turns this around.” The Sabres players have complete confidence in him, and you should, too.
