Curt

This is an abomination. Risto and Reino.

The Sabres probably should not formally announce that the captaincy was removed from Eichel. Just say, that he isn’t on the active roster and go with an extra A, and no C, on the ice. Anything more just invites unnecessary negativity. Unfortunately, by bringing it up, Friedman has probably ensured that Adams will get multiple direct questions about the captaincy next time he is in front of a microphone.

I swear, Dreger is useless.

I agree with you. And thanks for the quotes from Gionta. Like every other person, I’m sure Eichel is a complicated combination of positive and negative qualities. If I point out an instance of a teammate publicly criticizing Eichel, that doesn’t mean that I am trying to run down Eichel or anything, it’s just pointing out something real that happened.

He was a teammate of Eichel’s. His impression of Eichel is negative. He said so publicly. These are facts. It doesn’t mean that Eichel is a garbage person, but I have no reason to doubt that Dea is telling the truth about how he feels. Yeah, Gionta hasn’t said anything negative about Eichel specifically, that I know of. It was more of a criticism of the locker room dynamics as a whole. Although, I don’t recall him going out of his way to say that Eichel is a great guy in the room or anything. It’s one small piece of information that can be fit into a larger puzzle to form a picture. So what!?!?!? This is our conversation: You: “What you haven't heard during this extended interlude is any of his teammates anonymously criticizing him. That is telling.” Me: Well actually JS Dea did do exactly that. You: “So what? One ex-teammate criticized him.” Do you not see how that’s kind of ridiculous? This, in the super cautious and polite NHL where you hardly hear anyone say a bad word about anyone else. It was an extremely unusual thing to hear one player say about another. Anyway, you say that maybe Eichel is not beloved by his teammates, maybe there are different factions in the dressing room. I think maybe you are right. I think that’s a negative thing. That’s all I’m saying. No more, no less.

None of his teammates have anonymously criticized him, but hasn’t one of his (ex)teammates openly criticized him? JS Dea was not complimentary.

See the rest of that same post. I think this is an overly simplistic way of looking at it. Just the fact of everyone knowing that Eichel wants to leave would hinder team development. How can young guys go to the rink everyday and think “we are all in this together, we’re a team”, when the look across the locker room at their captain and best player, and they know that guy wants off the team.

It’s fine to be sad Modo left, but I just thought it was funny that you mixed it in the middle of several reasons that Sabres could/should have resigned Ullmark. I just don’t think that retaining the SabreSpace poster Modo was on Adams’ radar when making the decisions on Ullmark, rightly or wrongly.

Oh no, we lost Modo!? What was KA thinking?!

I believe that this view is not realistic, is overly simplistic, and maybe even a little naive. I believe that a star player (and team captain no less) who wants to be traded, and openly asks to be traded, will be traded. In that scenario, there is no productive path forward for player and team. The team can not experience growth and forward progress with such a thing hanging in the air. The two must separate. And I don’t believe that Eichel will want to be a Sabre through a 3 year rebuild. I think he will want out, and I think the Sabres already know that he wants out. This whole thread is a hypothetical situation.

He is gone, healthy or not, I think. KA decided as much before he was even injured. I feel very confident that if he is a Sabre through next July, he would be demanding a trade after his NMC kicks in and the Sabres would be forced into a bad trade with almost no leverage. That’s why I would me interested in trading him now. What do you mean by the bolded? What is it that everyone here would also do if in his shoes?

I wasn’t on this board back then, but I didn’t want to trade picks. Only trade I was excited about was the ROR trade.

That tweet is from 2014.

This might sound weird, but I’m ok with this. I prefer a front office that has an organized plan to sell the fans a well crafted propaganda story of the vision moving forward, rather than a front office that appears to be bumbling from one thing to the next. I think it displays something resembling competence.

Reading what? The tweet I was responding to said that day 1 of the draft would be on a Thursday, not that it would be a 1 day draft on that Thursday. Having it all in one day, on a Thursday, would be even stranger. The draft takes many hours to complete. Having it all in one day would probably mean that the 1st round would need to begin pretty early, during work day hours on a Thursday. Wouldn’t make much sense to me.

That’s more normal. 1st round Friday night, the rest on Saturday.

Just to expand on this idea: To your knowledge, do you think that this relationship between NHL organization and NCAA teams differs from the relationship between NHL and CHL teams? I’ve heard that NHL organizations have quite a bit of influence over how their players are handled (and even what team they play for) in the CHL.

Even the worst teams in this league win 25% of their games and luck plays a big role in any one game. No individual game is unwinnable.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/learned-fools-freshman-sophomore-and-the-rest

This guy gets it. I had to wear sunglasses just to read this comment. #blindinglight

Yeah. I don’t think the Sabres would at all think of that pick as passing on a C to draft a W. They drafted Jack Quinn not because he is a W or a C, but because they really liked Jack Quinn.

!!!!!! Appears to be a case of smart organization doing smart things.

Well, people have differing opinions, and that’s ok, but telling someone they need to “stick to hockey” while posting in the other sports thread is objectively hilariously ironic.

Oh no! What I frightfully plausible idea.

I’m not saying it’s a great idea, but it doesn’t feel like a whim to me. Did the team not say at the 2020 draft that they thought Quinn could even play center? Didn’t they play him at center a few times in the AHL last season? To me it feels like the front office has had a consistent view that Jack Quinn might be able to play center NHL.