dudacek

Because they have identified him as part of the problem?

I don't think the Sabres make those trades without a significant add, which I think is kinda @Curt's point. It's about the hole ripped in your team in order to add a player of Jack's quality. Real contenders already have core players and probably don't need a building block as massive as Eichel to put themselves over the top.

I think I would be happy if Bill Hajt was recalled to skate for Irwin, but this makes me happy. Been wanting to see how Mattias looks at this level.

Why are you so sure?

I think the discussion of adding a 2C through has gotten a lot more interesting over the past few weeks. Are you going hurt Mitts/Cozens or waste UFA dollars/trade capital by investing in a 2C? Don't get me wrong, adding a Danault makes us a better team, but cap remote is finite. Would we be better investing our $ in other areas? Particularly with the idea that Reinhart can cover the 2C position if Dylan or Casey is overmatched. One of the many tough questions Adams will be faced with this summer.

You're correct. But in order to be useful he needs to do those things with or without Eichel — which he did with the Canes.

Two years ago when Skinner did these things with regularity, he might have fit. That said, we are starting to see them more often in his recent game.

Nearly half the roster we dressed for yesterday’s game were not NHL regulars last year: Thompson, Asplund, Mittelstadt, Cozens, R2, Fogarty, Bryson, Tokarski and Housser. Four more - Dahlin, Bjork, Jokiharju and Olofsson - have yet play 200 NHL games. The latter three have yet to play 150. Have the Sabres ever dressed a more inexperienced lineup?

This team put together an historic 18-game losing streak featuring some of the most soul-sucking hockey I’ve ever witnessed. But our recent play has me questioning how bad we really are? I don’t want to use Covid as an excuse, but it is hard to ignore the timing of the streak coincided exactly with the outbreak. We have been about .500 since the streak ended, and we were about .500 prior to Covid shutting us down. Losing Eichel, McCabe and Ullmark at roughly the same time Covid hit was a perfect storm. I don’t want to dismiss the jump we are seeing now, but it is hard to ignore the fact that loose and relaxed non-playoff teams have a history of providing road bumps in the stretch for teams in the hunt who overlook them, or are wound too tight. Are we seeing the kids make a real jump? Can they maintain this -which is still only .500 hockey - or is a fallback inevitable? How much of a difference will having not-Ralph Krueger as our leader over a full season make? Most of us can agree that we need to fix the goaltending situation and get more physicality, but how much more of a makeover do we really need? Do we need to move some veterans to change the identity in the locker room? By bringing in too many new veterans will we just be throwing unwanted obstacles in the way of the kids? How much of a role did Covid play in the terrible March? How much of a role did Krueger? Is Don Granato the man, or is he just benefitting from “right place, right time, low expectations?” Is it foolish to expect a last-place team to progress without real change, or is that change already happening? I can’t think of a time where the Sabres seemed this hard to get handle on. Adams and Karmanos and whoever else is brought in have some difficult decisions ahead of them.

Rasmus Ristolainen to start the season: 10 GP 2/4/6/+2 Rasmus Ristolainen recovering from Covid: 17 GP 1/1/2/-12 Rasmus Ristolainen since: 10 GP 1/5/6/+9 Sabres record when Risto was recovering from Covid: 0/15/2 Sabres record in the 20 games bracketing Covid: 9/7/4 Correlation/causation? I don’t have a clue. But damned interesting nonetheless.

There is no way you aren’t going to be very disappointed if Jack is actually traded.

The kids are going to miss him. He was the anti-Staal

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2019e.html

Looks like the top 3 picks all made the NHL immediately, none of them are studs yet. Then you've got Cozens and 40th pick Nils Hoglander making it this year, neither is a stud yet. And Bjornfoot (22), Byrum (4) and Zegras (9) have all seen action this year as well. And how about Tyce Thompson, a 4th rounder already seeing NHL action.

I just can't see us winning many games with Tokarski in goal. The wheels coming off his game is inevitable. But they proved me wrong in Washington.

I felt they were preparing to take Zegras over Caufield, but they were hoping Turcotte would slide. The fact Cozens slid instead caught them a bit of guard, but to their credit they pounced on LA's mistake.

Have you watched any? He sorta does. His answers aren't overly technical, but they aren't cliche either. He sounds like a hockey coach (Ralph didn't) but a pretty articulate and thoughtful one.

First off, those trades were posted to stir the pot, didn't put serious thought into any of them, not advocating any of them, not advocating trading Jack. But there was a theme: each one targets some of the other team's best players; and a point: if we are trading Jack, I want real quality coming back, not baskets full of lottery tickets. Which leads me to a serious question: If trades where the return includes players the calibre of Elias Petterson and Sasha Barkov are "terrible" what constitutes a "reasonable" return?

That is a potential upside to an Eichel for futures deal — the space it may create for other adds

I think I’m running out of gas now 🤪 But my point is, if we are going to trade Eichel can it be a hockey trade?

Eichel for Larkin, Raymond and Seider Eichel for Coutourier and Provorov

Eichel for Landeskog, Byrum and Newhook Eichel for Seth Jones and Boone Jenner

Eichel for Dach and Kane

Eichel for Barkov (signed) and Spencer Knight.

Eichel for Heiskanen and a first.