In the fall of 1969, he was assigned to the Bruins' leading farm team at the time, the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central Hockey League, for whom he played for the next two seasons, winning honors as a league first-team all-star in 1972.
During the 1970 playoffs, Adams was recalled to the Bruins as a reserve to back up regular goaltenders Gerry Cheevers and Ed Johnston.
He did not play a game, yet the Bruins decided to engrave his name on the Stanley Cup upon winning the championship, making him one of the few players to have his name on the Stanley Cup before playing an NHL game.
In 1972–73, with Cheevers gone to the World Hockey Association and disruption[clarification needed] in the Boston net, he played fourteen games for the defending champion Bruins while splitting his time with the new Bruins' affiliate Boston Braves of the American Hockey League.
Traded to the minor-league San Diego Gulls of the Western Hockey League the following year, Adams won second-team all-star honors before being sold to the Washington Capitals in 1974.