The Jarmo Era

The Sabres did it, they finally did it. The senior advisor role that seemed as if it was never going to be filled is now occupied by their new hire: Jarmo Kekäläinen.

Kekäläinen is most known for his recent stint in Columbus where he was the Blue Jackets general manager from 2013 to 2024. 

He spent 2002 to 2010 in the St. Louis Blues front office where he held Director of Amateur Scouting and then an Assistant General Manager role. Prior to that, he was a scout with the Ottawa Senators from 1995 to 1999 and then their Director of Player Personnel from 1999 to 2002.

It’s safe to say that Jarmo Kekäläinen knows his way around the National Hockey League. There are only a handful of candidates under the age of 60 with the amount of front office experience that Kekäläinen has.

So let’s break down the Jarmo Kekäläinen hire:

The Role

So what exactly does ‘senior advisor’ mean? The short answer: we do not know. Nobody knows. Maybe the Sabres don’t even fully know. I guess we do know that he will report to Kevyn Adams which is…interesting at this stage of the game.

If you look at the rolodex of NHL front offices, you will likely stumble across many roles across the NHL with a similar name. They all entail different day-to-day duties and have varying degrees of power in teams’ decision-making structures.

The fact that Jarmo Kekäläinen is the Sabres sole senior advisor makes it seem like he will have some weight in their decision making. He is coming off an over decade long stint as an NHL general manager, so there had to be something enticing about this role to lure him to Buffalo.

Kekäläinen also started following Sabres-related accounts on X back in March, so there was seemingly some interest between the parties for a few months now. He likely got to watch a few regular season games and read Sabres fans’ tweets complaining about their mediocre hockey club in real time. Despite all of that he still decided to join the organization, truly a brave man.

I still expect Jarmo Kekäläinen to be in on a lot of key decisions even though he will be reporting to Kevyn Adams. I mean the Sabres are having their current assistant coach and former AHL head coach, Seth Appert, take on an increased hockey operations role. The bar to have a voice in that Sabres room is not very high, so I imagine Kekäläinen’s voice will be heard loud and clear.

The Trades

The Sabres have not been the greatest at closing deals in the Kevyn Adams era. Sure, they have gotten some larger deals done, but it never seems to be enough. Whether it be the meddling and cheap ownership or a GM that lacks assertiveness, there’s a clear problem here.

Kekäläinen provides an experienced voice in the Sabres front office as a former GM who completed a few large trades during his time in Columbus. Including acquiring Artemi Panarin, Tyler Motte, and a late pick for Brandon Saad, Anton Forsberg, and a late pick in 2017. 

During the 2021 NHL Draft, he dealt Seth Jones, the 32nd overall pick, and a late pick to Chicago for Adam Boqvist, the 12th overall pick, the 44th overall pick, and a 2022 1st round pick (that later became the 6th overall pick).

Kekäläinen also made a bunch of aggressive trade deadline moves in 2019. He dealt two 2nd round picks, a 1st round pick, and a conditional 1st round pick.

He may have been a tad too aggressive with the Blue Jackets firmly on the playoff bubble that season, but he knew their window was closing with their upcoming free agents. They did also manage to go on to upset the Lightning with a 4-0 series win in the 1st Round.

If Jarmo Kekäläinen is fire and Kevyn Adams is ice, we may be left with a nice balance between the two.

The Drafting

When Jarmo Kekäläinen was hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets, the St. Louis Blues were emerging as a yearly 100-point hockey club. Kekäläinen spent the three seasons prior to being hired by Columbus as the GM of Jokerit in Finland, but he was in the draft room when those good Blues teams were being built.

They made some great value picks during his tenure in St. Louis: David Backes (64th overall in ‘03), T.J. Oshie (24th overall in ‘05), Ben Bishop (85th overall in ‘05), David Perron (26th overall in ‘07), and Vladimir Tarasenko (16th overall in ‘10).

Go back even further during his time with the Ottawa Senators as a European scout. They selected Sami Salo (239th overall in ‘96), Marian Hossa (12th overall in ‘97), and Martin Havlat (26th overall in ‘99).

Now I am certainly not crediting one man with all of the good picks these franchises made over the years. I am just pointing that he has been in the room and likely helped with making some great value picks that helped turn these franchises into contenders in the long term. He knows the process, he has seen what works and what doesn’t work.

We are nearing the conclusion of the 2025 NHL Draft process this month, but Kekäläinen will still be a nice voice to have in the room as the Sabres front office puts the final touches on their draft board after the combine in Buffalo this week.

The Ownership

There are two things I need to see from Sabres ownership this offseason to give me any hope in their chances for the 2025/26 season:

1. Spend to the cap

2. Stay out of hockey decisions

I have been asking nicely for these two things during the entire Kevyn Adams era. But you know what? This Jarmo Kekäläinen hire gives me some hope that things may be just a little different at 1 Seymour H. Knox III Plaza this summer.

I doubt Kekäläinen was the cheapest senior advisor hire they could have made. He has nearly 3 decades of NHL experience, 11 of them were as a general manager of a National Hockey League club.

And this is not a former star player who takes on a cushiony remote advisory role where they only show face on a few times per season. This is a legitimate hockey guy who has been around the league and has actual relationships with the insular NHL general manager community.

Now I am not saying this hire means that the Sabres will fulfill my two wishes from them this offseason, but it certainly means they may be closer to fulfilling them than if they simply balked at hiring a bona fide senior advisor this offseason.

Who knows? Maybe he can even push Terry Pegula to open up the pocket book an go all in. Kekäläinen has the experience. He has taken a small market team with little success to a first round victory. He has the authority to be somewhat convincing to owner who has not been convinced since roughly 2020.

A willingness to have a more serious offseason with Jarmo Kekäläinen in the mix would truly be fantastic for the future of this hockey club. We just have to wait and see how serious they truly intend to be.