That turnaround for the Buffalo Sabers came on December 15 when they fired general manager Kevyn Adams and replaced him with senior advisor Jarmo Kekäläinen. The Sabers are on a roll this month with a nine-game winning streak that started six days before Kekäläinen’s promotion.
For the Rochester Americans, Buffalo’s longtime AHL affiliate, those ripple effects reached them six days later. That’s when Kekäläinen fired associate general manager Jason Karmanos. Rochester had played a major role in the dossier that Karmanos had maintained for parts of six seasons with the Buffalo organization, including his position as Rochester’s general manager.
A day after Karmanos’ firing, the Sabers named Marc Bergevin their new associate general manager and Josh Flynn their assistant general manager. Bergevin, the longtime general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, had been with the Los Angeles Kings while Flynn came over from the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he had previously worked for Kekäläinen.
“I think it’s a good fit for us,” Kekäläinen told the Buffalo media last week.
Who leads the Amerks now?
“We will come back to that shortly,” Kekäläinen continued. “We have already spoken among the staff that everyone will play a role. Everyone will play an important role and the responsibilities will be spread [around]. We’re going to work on this together as a team, just like the guys on the ice, and sometimes you’re going to have to grind.”
As the Amerks approach the halfway point of this season, they are just three points behind the North Division lead with a record of 16-10-3-1.
2026 Rochester Americans vs. Toronto Marlies
But that kind of front office maneuvering can happen even if the AHL affiliate has been largely successful on both the developmental and winning fronts. Since joining Buffalo’s front office in April 2021, Karmanos had overseen the Amerks reaching the Calder Cup Playoffs for four straight seasons. The high mark came in 2023 when the team reached the Eastern Conference Finals.
That kind of success would have reinvigorated an AHL operation that had desperately needed it. When Karmanos arrived, the Amerks had not won a Calder Cup Playoff series since 2005. A tie as solid as any in the AHL dating back to 1979, the Amerks had won three Calder Cup championships as a Sabers affiliate. But that relationship began to falter. The Florida Panthers came on board in 2005 as a dual affiliate for the Amerks. Three years later, the Sabers and Amerks parted ways completely. Amerks legend and AHL Hall of Fame member Jody Gage was replaced as Rochester’s general manager. It wasn’t until 2011, when Sabers owner Terry Pegula purchased the Amerks, that one of the AHL’s most iconic ties was revived.
Of course, the return of the Buffalo-Rochester union came just as the Sabers were in a tailspin, missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs fourteen straight times. And soon the Amerks felt the effects of a struggling NHL parent team and changes in the front office. The Amerks went through four head coaches in the first six seasons of the revived association and missed the postseason three times.
Chris Taylor, another iconic Amerk, arrived as Rochester’s newest head coach in 2017 and brought some stability back to the operation. But Adams taking over as Buffalo general manager in June 2020 meant more change. Taylor was let go two months later.
Buffalo also went public with a mandate that player development would play a much more important role in Rochester early in the Adams era. That effort started with a change in Amerks’ head coach. Seth Appert’s first outing as a pro head coach after a long NCAA career went largely well, both developmentally and in the win-loss column. Michael Leone took over in 2024 when Appert was promoted to Buffalo’s coaching staff and quickly became a respected head coach in AHL circles. The Amerks pushed the regular season champion Laval Rocket to the deciding game of the North Division Finals last May before ultimately falling.
In terms of development, first-round selections Jiří Kulich, Noah Ostlund and Jack Quinn all went to Buffalo via Rochester and on. Peyton Krebs, a first-round pick of the Vegas Golden Knights who came to the Sabers in November 2021, had a stint in Rochester before moving on to the Sabres. Forward JJ Peterka also made the jump from Rochester to Buffalo before ultimately being traded to the Utah Mammoth last summer. Isak Rosén, a 2021 first-rounder, is still trying to become a regular in Buffalo after significant success in Rochester. Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson is in Buffalo after interning with Rochester. This also applies to goalkeeper Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. They’ve also had some unknown hits, like forward Tyson Kozak, a 2021 seventh-round pick who has found a full-time role in Buffalo. After four pro seasons in the Columbus organization, which yielded just fourteen NHL appearances for forward Josh Dunne, one season in Rochester kept him with the Sabers this season.
Development and winning went together in that model. Buffalo needs to put its top prospects through the demands of playoff hockey and some long runs.
That’s Buffalo’s vantage point. For Rochester fans, winning is important. Kekäläinen inherits a thriving program in Rochester and knows the ins and outs of overseeing an AHL affiliate. He took over as Columbus’ general manager during the 2012-13 season and remained in that role until February 2024. During that span, his AHL affiliates reached the Calder Cup Playoffs in four of a possible nine seasons (the AHL did not host a postseason twice during that span due to the pandemic). He brought the club closer to home in 2015 when the Blue Jackets prospects went to Cleveland and won the Calder Cup that first year.
He and his front office must also have the resources to help the Amerks develop prospects and win games. Konsta Helenius, Ryan Johnson, Topias Leinonen, Devon Levi and Anton Wahlberg are among the top prospects the Sabers need to successfully develop in Rochester.
“[Pegula has] I have been given full autonomy to run the hockey department,” Kekäläinen said during his introductory press conference on December 16. “We can spend as much as we can. We can have all the resources we need to make this team better, make it more attractive for the guys to stay or sign free agents.
“So that’s all I can ask for as general manager.”
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