Curt

Jack played his best season of hockey under Krueger.

True, but Arizona will know that Eichel wants to win, so they can’t really trade away a bunch of their “now” assets (good players) and expect to accomplish that. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to go out and make a big trade for a star player if you know that he is immediately going to be unhappy to be on your team.

Lamprey? He was fine. He was pretty good as a Sabre. Buffalo signed him for 10 years and cut strings after 3. I think Ehroff got the short end of that deal.

Strongly disagree with the bolded. Eichel is a pass first player and a very good set up guy. Olofsson does not need a C who carries and handles the puck less, because he can’t do that well himself either. I don’t think the problem is that no one passes the puck to Olofsson when he gets open at ES. I think the problem is that he doesn’t get open at ES.

I think Clarke will go back to the OHL. He only went to Europe because it was his only place to play. He hasn’t truly dominated that level yet. It’s mostly 17-20 year olds, so it’s a little disingenuous to characterize it as playing against 16 yr olds.

As a 1 for 1, yes. Could be other pieces involved though.

Everything we built??? Nothing has been built.

I think there is no way they come out of this offseason having acquired a 1C. I’m assuming that you are using the term 1C the way most here do, which is something like a near ppg star player, one of the 15ish best C’s in the league. Even if you are using it to indicate one of the 32 best C’s in the league, I find that very unlikely.

I’m not saying anything positive about him, am I? Im just saying that’s probably unfair to label him as a liar, that’s all.

I have no affection for Hall and certainly wouldn’t consider him a hero. The thing is, maybe there were 4-5 teams he would have accepted a trade to, but in the end only Boston made a real offer. Hall wouldn’t be lying to say that he would have accepted offers to other teams. He didn’t say he would have accepted an offer to any other team in the league, just that Boston wasn’t the only place he would have said yes to. I don’t understand the need for this to reflect negatively on Hall. He did what anyone would have done in his situation.

Maybe he didn’t want to go to the West. I’m sure there is more than one team he would have accepted a trade to. There was never any previous indication that he had a special love for the Bruins. Now maybe none of the other teams he would have gone to put forth good offers for him, so there wasn’t much of a real market, but I don’t see why it would be Bruins or nothing for Hall. Toronto seemed interested in other types of players. I recall that Islanders were in on Hall but went with Palmari/Zajac instead. Based on Hall being from Ontario, he probably wanted a perennial playoff team somewhere in the east.

Probably not. Any evidence, or just a gut feeling?

Not the story I recall. Did someone of repute actually say that Hall refused to waive for a trade to Islanders?

Not surprised. It was rumored that NYI were interested, but ended up trading for Palmarie/Zajac instead.

Ok, I just misunderstood you the way you phrased it. I wasn’t even thinking about Buffalo having pick #33 (it will actually be #32 because Coyotes are getting skipped). I thought you had a rankings list and a separate ranking list of targets, and he was at numbers 21 and 33 on those lists. I was just confused.

Yeah, how does “your list” differ from “overall targets”? What are these two rankings?

Could you explain the difference?

It matters a little bit, just like all the other games. I don’t think it matters more just because it’s the most recent thing to happen. It needs to be evaluated for what it is.

Rangers are apparently the only non playoff team in history with 7 untouched players.

They are requiring proof of vaccination, which is good. I have seasonal allergies that flare up pretty bad at times. I’ve had days the past couple weeks that I’ve been pretty sneezy, coughy, and occasionally a little snorty even though I’ve not been sick. Not necessarily saying that’s the case with your guy though.

My workplace just started this week with the policy that if you have been fully vaccinated, you don’t need to wear a mask. So now most are not wearing masks. I don’t love it, but totally understand the need to return to normal. I’m fully vaccinated but I’m still wearing for now.

This is a good line.

Perhaps my wording was harsh, but I’m going to stand with my overall feeling. If Eichel was getting jerked around behind closed doors (I don’t even know what this would mean) then he and his agent can reciprocate harshly behind closed doors. But to put on a show for the media about really needing the surgery, but then changing his tune after changing organizations, that would reflect negatively on him in my eyes.

Definitely not Jack’s fault that the Sabres have been bad. I can completely understand why he might be unhappy. However, Jack made an 8 year commitment and to try to get out of it in an underhanded way would reflect negatively.

So basically some teams/GMs are wondering if Eichel is genuinely insistent on having this surgery or if he is just using this as a way to try to get himself off the Sabres. If Eichel gets traded, then “changes his mind” about the surgery, that’s enough for me to say that he is a phony, self serving liar.