Welcome back to The Hockey News' NHL Hot Seat Radar, where we're looking at who's facing more or less pressure to perform in the past week.
To be clear, not every person on the hot seat is in danger of losing their job or being traded. But if their seat is warming up based on recent results, they're facing pressure to turn the results around and get back on a better track.
As we noted last week, Calgary Flames coach Ryan Huska and Nashville Predators coach Andrew Brunette were on the hot seat, and their seats haven't cooled off any. So we're focusing this week partly on a couple of Maple Leafs and a Blues GM whose job isn't at risk but does have increasingly important work ahead of him.
But first, we return our focus to the Buffalo Sabres.
Red-Hot Seat: Kevyn Adams, GM, And Lindy Ruff, Coach, Buffalo Sabres
Ruff and Adams were also on the Hot Seat Radar last week, the Sabres are 0-3-0 in the past week, so their seats warm up even more.
Buffalo simply doesn’t have the depth of difference-makers, and that’s on Adams. And the Sabres don’t outwork many opponents. That’s on Ruff.
The logjam ahead of them in the Eastern Conference makes Buffalo’s road ahead extremely difficult. Their current stretch of four games in six days could either keep Buffalo somewhat close to the playoff battle or far out of it. They lost the first game of this stretch 5-2 against the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday.
There’s just too much not going the Sabres’ way to imagine that they’re going to overcome much of it and salvage their season. And the status quo with Buffalo’s management team is not going to stand. Unless the Sabres start stacking wins, Ruff and/or Adams may soon find themselves in the unemployment line. It’s that straightforward in Western New York.
Will Kevyn Adams' Lack Of Trades Cost Him The Sabres' GM Job?In the NHL, sometimes it's the trades you don't make as a GM that get you fired. Could Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams be next in that regard?Warming Up: Craig Berube, Coach, Toronto Maple Leafs
Don’t look now, but the Maple Leafs have backslid into 15th place in the Eastern Conference and 27th in the NHL. This, from a top-five team in the league last season. They've been outscored 15-10 in the past week, with a 0-3-0 record.
Thus, everyone in Toronto is on a hot seat of sorts, but Berube has to take his share of the blame and quickly find out how to turn things around, or things will get ugly in Leafs Land.
This is not to say Berube is in danger of getting fired anytime soon. But after he’s experienced the highs of winning a division title in Toronto, he’s in the early stages of finding out how hard things can be when the Leafs slump.
He's turned a struggling team around 180 degrees before, when the Blues went from last in the league to the Stanley Cup championship in 2018-19. Now, he's under pressure to find answers for the Maple Leafs before a warm seat gets hot.
Warming Up: Doug Armstrong, GM, St. Louis Blues
Armstrong has earned his job security in St. Louis, and Alexander Steen is becoming the Blues' GM next year, anyway.
That said, Armstrong has his work cut out for him to allow Steen to hit the ground running next season, when Armstrong stays on as president of hockey operations. And the pressure's building on the Blues to pick a direction.
The Blues are 29th in the NHL with a 6-8-3 record, but they have gone 2-0-1 in the past week.
Armstrong won’t be changing coaches the way he did last year when he hired Jim Montgomery, so other things will have to change with the Blues if they cannot build on this points streak.
If the Blues stay this far down the standings, the pressure will be on Armstrong to get something of note in trades for players like Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou if their futures look bleak in St. Louis.
NHL Rumor Roundup: Are Brayden Schenn, Jordan Kyrou And Tage Thompson Trade Bait?Trade rumors continue to swirl around St. Louis Blues center Brayden Schenn and Jordan Kyrou, while teams are looking into the availability of Buffalo Sabres scorer Tage Thompson.The Blues made a stunning late-season run into a playoff spot last season, so the door shouldn’t be closed on them changing their status in the standings. But the longer the Blues languish at the bottom, the hotter Armstrong’s seat will get to either retool the way he did when he traded Ryan O'Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko in 2023 or make hockey trades that refresh St. Louis' window of contention.
St. Louis doesn’t have the type of generational talent true Western Conference teams possess, and that means Armstrong’s biggest job will be to convert his current group of talent into long-term puzzle pieces.
Warming Up: Anthony Stolarz, G, Toronto Maple Leafs
Stolarz was a feel-good story in his first year as a Maple Leaf, posting a 21-8-3 record, .926 save percentage and 2.14 goals-against average last season.
This year has been an entirely different story for the 31-year-old, who has a 6-5-1 record, an .884 SP and a 3.51 GAA. When you’re averaging a full goal per game more than you did last season, your seat is warming up.
Stolarz, who's unlikely to play Thursday due to an injury, has a new four-year contract extension that kicks in after this season, so he's sticking around. However, with tandem-mate Joseph Woll close to returning from a start-of-season absence, Stolarz may be in danger of losing the starter’s job if he doesn’t start to show he’s capable of being one.
The Leafs are in dire need of wins, and if Woll does come in and deliver wins, Stolarz may find his opportunities cut back. There’s no room for error in Toronto, and Stolarz’s struggles may wind up putting him into the No. 2 role until he improves.
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