Curt

So, the bolded is definitely spoken like someone who isn’t on the hook for $50M. If he has to go on LTIR, that’s not washing your hands of the situation. You still need to pay him.

I think maybe players can waive their NMCs for certain time periods. They can for specific events, such as expansion draft. Skinner waived his NMC for the expansion draft only. It’s still intact.

Mediocre seems like the right description. And for the Risto trade, I might go with stunningly good. Lol

Correct. I never said differently. But how is head on head blunt force trauma from football different than fist/kick/knee on head blunt force trauma from MMA? That’s what I was saying.

Friedman’s motivation is eyes and ears. It’s a good story for him. He was smart to do it. It’s a lot more interesting and informative than doing a story on “tOp 3 ConTenDerS foR EicHel toDaY”

I totally agree with the bolded. He even kind of contradicted himself by saying that he doesn’t recommend it for football players because they experience head to head blunt force hits, but then he talks about how great it is for UFC fighters. Guys who get punched/elbowed/kicked/kneed in the head and potentially dropped on their head/neck. So is it safe for people who will experience blunt force impacts to the head or not? He also said one line about the nature of the game of hockey, that “the ice allows the physics in order for the head to move more freely, you know, take less impact.” I was like WTF is he talking about? Hockey is played on a hard ice surface, surrounded by hard board and glass walls. If your head gets slammed against any of those, I don’t think the physics are going be in your favor.

To be honest, this is a lot. More than most GMs have to go through. If Adams is able to get through this and make a decent Eichel trade, I’ll have a pretty high opinion of him.

Yes, this is exactly correct. It was pretty obviously a coordinated thing. Honestly though, I doubt it was Friedman purposely doing Eichel’s bidding. It was probably just that Friedman wanted to do an episode like this (because it’s a huge story, and fairly complicated) and Eichel’s people knew when it was coming out, so they coordinated the press release to be on the same night. That seems the most likely scenario to me.

Something very interesting here. Elliot Friedman and Jeff Marek’s 31 Thoughts Podcast just released an episode which is a 30+ min conversation with Jack Eichel’s doctor who is recommended disk replacement and would perform the surgery. Everyone should give it a listen. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/31-thoughts-the-podcast/id1332150124#episodeGuid=https%3A%2F%2Fpodcast.sportsnet.ca%2F%3Fp%3D32886

Thought the same thing. Are there really Jack Eichel fans who are not Sabres fans first and foremost and also not fans of any other NHL team? I think you got to the correct conclusion.

Thanks everyone. I hate it. Please don’t start using that here.

I want a Connor McGregor/Muhammad Ali style press conference with Adams and Eichel just hurling insults and taunting each other. EDIT - oh yeah, and that word is not nice

Why would it need to be a public statement if it’s not meant to target the public?

They definitely could get that information to other teams. In fact this isn’t even new information. Was it not reported by Friedman (I think?) weeks ago that John Eichel’s camp was saying he should be ready to go 3 months after surgery?

I don’t know what a LAMP is. Is that some weird new acronym?

This is correct. Dahlin has to play 4 more seasons before he qualifies for UFA.

They certainly could have done that without a public statement. This wasn’t for other teams. This statement is for the fans and media.

Yeah, it’s interesting because Adams and Eichel are not really in the same battle here. For Adams, it’s himself vs the league’s other GMs. For Eichel’s camp, it’s themselves vs Adams. This is really a pointless statement. I don’t see it helping to facilitate a trade, and I don’t see it winning any public sympathy.

This is the same thing that almost every coach, good or bad, does. Bring in a couple players they know well, who fit what they want to do.

Well that’s a pretty serious statement. The PR battle continues.

LD - RD Dahlin-Jokiharju Hagg-Pysyk Butcher-Miller Bryson- Samuelsson-

Those ranking are based purely on a statistical computer model, and are highly debatable.

Yeah, I can certainly understand the frustration. I was hoping they would sign a couple decent vets to 1-3 year deals and especially create solid goaltending to keep this young team in games. I’m doubtful that’s going to happen now. It’s looking kind of tanky.

Half way there baby!

Sometimes sports are all about the stories we tell ourselves.