Reading Between the Lines: Kevyn Adams and Goaltending

The end of season availability fires up the offseason hot stove, but what's real and what's not is often obfuscated.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen skates during practice at KeyBank Center late in the season. (Photo: Joe Yerdon)

It hasn’t been a common occurrence to have the Buffalo Sabres end-of-season press conference with the coach and general manager be an upbeat, glass-half-full kind of occasion. These days are different though, what with the very young and very talented group of players on the roster just starting to find their footing in the league and having success early in their careers. Hopes are high all over the place within the organization, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be 100 percent up front about everything.

Anytime a team official speaks, there are shades of gray involved and GM Kevyn Adams is no different. He’ll be frank and tell us the truth about a lot of things, but sometimes it’s a carefully worded truth. And that’s OK, it’s part of the game and teams are going to keep their opinions of players and situations to themselves more often than not (unless things go really sideways, then look the hell out).

So, when Adams faced up to us this morning, his outlook was cheery and upbeat and why wouldn’t it be? The Sabres had their best season since 2010-2011 and multiple players had huge seasons and would appear to be on the upward swing. But what’s said can obscure what’s not being said as well, and there is a lot to look into. Rather than have you all read thousands and thousands of words, I’ll break these topics up into subjects for future releases.

Today, we’ll focus on the position that will be the most scrutinized and most watched this offseason: goaltending.