Kevyn Adams, who played for the Buffalo Junior Sabres during its Niagara Scenics era, was introduced last week as the new Assistant Coach for the Buffalo Sabres. Adams first joined the NHL club as a Player Development Coach in 2009 after enjoying a 10-year career as a player n the NHL which included a Stanley Cup victory with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.
Adams, a native of Clarence, New York, played for the Scenics for two seasons (1990-91 & 1991-92), recording 42 goals and 53 assists in 95 games. He later went on to play four years of college hockey at Miami (Ohio) University. Drafted by the Boston Bruins in the first round of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, Adams never played for the Bruins but instead began his pro playing career with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1997. In addition to the Leafs and Hurricanes, Adams also played for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks in a total of 540 games between the years of 1997 and 2008.
Adams, who never played for the Buffalo Sabres, looks forward to coaching for the team he grew up watching and cheering for.
“The one thing that I have is there was a passion in me from the time I was four or five years old being a Sabres fan,” said Adams on Sabres.com. “Then you lose that when you playing because all you want to do is win, wherever you are.
“One of the fortunate parts of getting traded as many times as I did when I played was that I played for a lot of different coaches and assistant coaches. You pick little parts of that as you go along, you file it away, and it molds to where I am today. One of things I realized as a player was how important the communication is with a coaching staff. The ability to have someone to talk to that, where you’re not always going to like what you hear, but you know you’re going to get honesty from. I knew as a player how important that was, and that’s something I’ve tried to do here.”
Adams will remain focused on developing the team’s young players. According to the Sabres, Adams was selected over 30 other candidates who interviewed for the job.
