Jack Eichel and 2023 3rd Traded to Vegas for F Alex Tuch, C Peyton Krebs, 2022 1st Top Ten Protected and 2023 2nd

[Taro T]

Watching Eichel play was worth the price of admission.

That's in the past now.

It's chicken & egg as to who wanted Eichel & Reinhart out of here 1st, management or the players.  The players wanted to be here if not reloading; management saw a need for a reload but wanted to keep them if they WANTED to be here though they weren't seen as the right guys to be leaders.  It didn't have to be a divorce, but that was the cleanest way forward for all involved.

Adams has a lot of good not quite ready talent, draft capital & cap space at his disposal.  If he does this right, he can have this team at least to an NHL 0.500 & maybe even to a DeLuca 0.500 as soon as next year.  They could be legit playoff worthy as soon as the following year.  

If he does it wrong, we watch them continue to tread water at the bottom of the pool.

They have to find a good stop gap goaltending fix at a minimum to move in the right direction.  While one or more of the goaltending prospects may be ready in the near future, it'd be foolhardy to expect any WILL be ready in the next 3 years & a piece needs to be brought in the fill that role until then.  If one is ready sooner, great, they've got a tandem & if 2 are ready sooner, great, there's trade capital.

Have no faith Adams can get that part right.  He hasn't in 2 attempts yet.  But am hoping he can get it right.

 

[Thorny]

4 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Watching Eichel play was worth the price of admission.

That's in the past now.

It's chicken & egg as to who wanted Eichel & Reinhart out of here 1st, management or the players.  The players wanted to be here if not reloading; management saw a need for a reload but wanted to keep them if they WANTED to be here though they weren't seen as the right guys to be leaders.  It didn't have to be a divorce, but that was the cleanest way forward for all involved.

Adams has a lot of good not quite ready talent, draft capital & cap space at his disposal.  If he does this right, he can have this team at least to an NHL 0.500 & maybe even to a DeLuca 0.500 as soon as next year.  They could be legit playoff worthy as soon as the following year.  

If he does it wrong, we watch them continue to tread water at the bottom of the pool.

They have to find a good stop gap goaltending fix at a minimum to move in the right direction.  While one or more of the goaltending prospects may be ready in the near future, it'd be foolhardy to expect any WILL be ready in the next 3 years & a piece needs to be brought in the fill that role until then.  If one is ready sooner, great, they've got a tandem & if 2 are ready sooner, great, there's trade capital.

Have no faith Adams can get that part right.  He hasn't in 2 attempts yet.  But am hoping he can get it right.

 

The bolded is really interesting and it feeds into the bit about finding a goalie and how long we'd want to wait for that to happen. 

I'm curious as to what the expectations will be considered to be from the fan base for Adams' 3rd year. Will it be another "development" year where it looks like a pick is the target, or will it align more with what you said, with some sort of bar of expectation they are aspiring to? Like being a team that stays in the playoff hunt into the last week of the season, or the deluca .500 number, etc etc

[Brawndo]

50 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I’ll say it again, hoping the Knights might give us a high pick is so 2018 Blues and 2014 Islanders.

Jack is going lead Vegas to its 1st cup and the pick will be 32.

I’m going to watch the Amerks. Seriously.

I’m not going to find a ton of entertainment in the game day threads this year.

And Vegas will beat Florida in the Cup Final so the Firsts will be 31st and 32nd 

[darksabre]

38 minutes ago, dudacek said:

It seems I have no emotional attachment to Eichel whatsoever.

Hell of a talent. Liked watching him play. 

Surprises me, actually.

The whole thing feels like a weird dream. 

[Gatorman0519]

21 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Watching Eichel play was worth the price of admission.

That's in the past now.

It's chicken & egg as to who wanted Eichel & Reinhart out of here 1st, management or the players.  The players wanted to be here if not reloading; management saw a need for a reload but wanted to keep them if they WANTED to be here though they weren't seen as the right guys to be leaders.  It didn't have to be a divorce, but that was the cleanest way forward for all involved.

Adams has a lot of good not quite ready talent, draft capital & cap space at his disposal.  If he does this right, he can have this team at least to an NHL 0.500 & maybe even to a DeLuca 0.500 as soon as next year.  They could be legit playoff worthy as soon as the following year.  

If he does it wrong, we watch them continue to tread water at the bottom of the pool.

They have to find a good stop gap goaltending fix at a minimum to move in the right direction.  While one or more of the goaltending prospects may be ready in the near future, it'd be foolhardy to expect any WILL be ready in the next 3 years & a piece needs to be brought in the fill that role until then.  If one is ready sooner, great, they've got a tandem & if 2 are ready sooner, great, there's trade capital.

Have no faith Adams can get that part right.  He hasn't in 2 attempts yet.  But am hoping he can get it right.

 

Agreed. Which on a large scale will be the reason why their won’t be more than 8000-10000 fans at any of the games. People pay to see stars or an exciting team (05-06 for example).

[Thorny]

14 minutes ago, darksabre said:

The whole thing feels like a weird dream. 

"And YOU were there, and YOU were there!"

I highly suggest everyone check out this video I recorded off of my screen years and years ago, you may get a kick out of it

https://streamable.com/ous35w

[Thorny]

I also saved this screenshot, to remember the context:

[pi2000]

I find it comical that anybody would think Eichel is the missing piece to led Vegas to a Cup.   He's a good talent, that's it.   

He's been in the league 6 years has put up only one 80pt season, scored 30g only once, has been out with injury 15% of the time.   No awards, no playoffs, no nothing. 

[bob_sauve28]

35 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

And Vegas will beat Florida in the Cup Final so the Firsts will be 31st and 32nd 

Which is fine. If one of the three first rounders turns out to be above average, good. 

[Thorny]

18 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

I find it comical that anybody would think Eichel is the missing piece to led Vegas to a Cup.   He's a good talent, that's it.   

He's been in the league 6 years has put up only one 80pt season, scored 30g only once, has been out with injury 15% of the time.   No awards, no playoffs, no nothing. 

Because Vegas already has a ton of other pieces. See: STL and ROR. The key to being the "missing piece" is to have most of the pieces of that puzzle filled in, too/first - something the Sabres never seemed to acknowledge while he was here. 

I also like the "6 years" thing as if 80 would be expected from a rookie/sophomore. Yes, to your point, he only had 64 points in 67 games in his third year (finished 11th in the league in points per game at 19 the year before). A very good pace hampered by injury. But his 4th year he had 82 and was above point-a-game. Saying he failed to hit 80/not giving him credit for it the following year doesn't make much sense - he had 78 points in 68 games and the reason he didn't hit 80 (and 90) was literally beyond his control - the season was shut down. 

Since coming off his ELC, and developing as a young player in this league, Jack for all intents-and-purposes hit 80 both following seasons, then the neck stopped last year before it started. 

Jack *is* at least an 80 point player when healthy. Health, to your point, is obviously a very key factor. 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Thorny

[Hoss]

17 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

I find it comical that anybody would think Eichel is the missing piece to led Vegas to a Cup.   He's a good talent, that's it.   

He's been in the league 6 years has put up only one 80pt season, scored 30g only once, has been out with injury 15% of the time.   No awards, no playoffs, no nothing. 

He’s not just a “good player” and he’s never had anywhere near the talent he has around him now. I don’t know how you can even try to compare it.

18 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

Which is fine. If one of the three first rounders turns out to be above average, good. 

If the Eichel first turns out to be a bust that contributes nothing that certainly doesn’t help this deal.

[Marvin]

26 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

I find it comical that anybody would think Eichel is the missing piece to led Vegas to a Cup.   He's a good talent, that's it.   

He's been in the league 6 years has put up only one 80pt season, scored 30g only once, has been out with injury 15% of the time.   No awards, no playoffs, no nothing. 

I think that the lack of NHL players on the NHL roster for his entire tenure here has far more to do with the Sabres' problems than Eichel or anyone else did.  Murray gave us a lack of depth and bad defences.  Botterill gave us improving defences and awful forwards.  Adams have him lousy goaltending.  Not once in his entire tenure here did Eichel ever have a line-up even as good as the one which just went 1-3 on this last West Coast trip.  That is a damning indictment of the GMs for Eichel's entire tenure here.  Whatever his problems were, management never gave him the supporting cast he needed to succeed.  In fact, almost no one could have elevated the team to a playoff spot in his stead.

[Thorny]

5 minutes ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

I think that the lack of NHL players on the NHL roster for his entire tenure here has far more to do with the Sabres' problems than Eichel or anyone else did.  Murray gave us a lack of depth and bad defences.  Botterill gave us improving defences and awful forwards.  Adams have him lousy goaltending.  Not once in his entire tenure here did Eichel ever have a line-up even as good as the one which just went 1-3 on this last West Coast trip.  That is a damning indictment of the GMs for Eichel's entire tenure here.  Whatever his problems were, management never gave him the supporting cast he needed to succeed.  In fact, almost no one could have elevated the team to a playoff spot in his stead.

"We like our forward group" is, forevermore, Botterill's defining quote as far as his Sabres' tenure

Edited November 5, 2021 by Thorny

[calti]

40 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

I find it comical that anybody would think Eichel is the missing piece to led Vegas to a Cup.   He's a good talent, that's it.   

He's been in the league 6 years has put up only one 80pt season, scored 30g only once, has been out with injury 15% of the time.   No awards, no playoffs, no nothing. 

a point a game isnt bad in todays nhl.

[SwampD]

46 minutes ago, pi2000 said:

I find it comical that anybody would think Eichel is the missing piece to led Vegas to a Cup.   He's a good talent, that's it.   

He's been in the league 6 years has put up only one 80pt season, scored 30g only once, has been out with injury 15% of the time.   No awards, no playoffs, no nothing. 

I think he could be the exact piece they need. No C. Surrounded by talent.

I wonder if they talked to Lehner about him.

[Thorny]

Well, the story (Wawrow’s) made the front of the sports page here. Pictured here below an article that I can only assume is a meaningless story about an irrelevant local sports team

[Marvin]

2 minutes ago, SwampD said:

I think he could be the exact piece they need. No C. Surrounded by talent.

I wonder if they talked to Lehner about him.

If he becomes healthy, he can be their ROR.

[Randall Flagg]

2 hours ago, Pimlach said:

Interesting.  The last paragraph- are you saying we will make the same mistakes again?  ROR (Lindholm).  Lehner (Georgiev). Kane (Tuch).   You might be reaching a bit here. 
 

My nephew is 28.  His favorite Sabres player ever is Eichel.  He is upset about this situation.  He has seen mostly very bad hockey in Buffalo.  He goes to games but there is a generation of fans there that have no good feelings for this team.  

Having the benefit of 40 years prior to Pegula, Eichel does not even make my favorite Sabres list.  Not his fault either.  

The last part was a lame attempt at a joke. I definitely don't think the Sabres will do that.

 

I just liked Jack and view a lot of the reactionary & emotional "***** that guy" sabres fan takes as understandable but fairly debased from reality. 

He was just a fun player to watch for me

[Randall Flagg]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

I was one of the few who actually kind of liked the "YEICHEL!" selection from RJ

oh well 

 

It wasn't so much the Yeichel as what he tried to string together after the Yeichel. He wasn't doing too well back then, and it's great that he's bounced back to the degree that he has

Edited November 5, 2021 by Randall Flagg
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[Randall Flagg]

I know the first is protected, but very happy that we got Krebs and Tuch and that. By August or so I was convinced we wouldn't see both Krebs and tuch in the same deal.

[Taro T]

1 minute ago, Randall Flagg said:

I know the first is protected, but very happy that we got Krebs and Tuch and that. By August or so I was convinced we wouldn't see both Krebs and tuch in the same deal.

You & the Vegas GM both.

Amazing the effect a slow start can have on one's resolve.

[Weave]

2 hours ago, dudacek said:

It seems I have no emotional attachment to Eichel whatsoever.

Hell of a talent. Liked watching him play. 

Surprises me, actually.

I have found the near entirety of the the 7-10yrs of Sabres rosters quite unlikeable. 
 

Cozens might get me.  Mule was on his way to getting me.  We’ll see.

[Hoss]

18 minutes ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

If he becomes healthy, he can be their ROR.

He’s more than that on the ice but also doesn’t appear to be a comparable player in the room so this is a weird comment.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Hoss

[Marvin]

3 minutes ago, Hoss said:

He’s more than that on the ice but also doesn’t appear to be a comparable player in the room so this is a weird comment.

Clarification: he could be the missing piece they need to win the Cup as O'Reilly was to St. Louis.

[MODO Hockey]

19 hours ago, K-9 said:

Per the bold, do you feel this was for lack of trying? Because three coaches, three GMs, and a boatload of additions and subtractions to the roster while he was here certainly suggests they tried like hell to get him the tools. 
 

They turned out to be the wrong tools, but nobody could know that except with the luxury of retrospect. 

Lack of trying no, lack of experiance yes, lack of common sense yes.

I agree 100% that they gave him 3 coaches, 2 of them absolute trash, to be precise. Who knows, i sure as hell dont, but i would figure that if we had a coach that could actually coach then this would never been a problem, but im just a spectator in this mess with my own experiance and media as knowledge book.

Jack is a sensational player, one of the very best i've ever seen playing on this level with everything against him. This org doesnt know how to hire a coach, that is obvious. We win some games and people think don is a great coach, he might actually be the best coach so far but im not convinced and will probably never be. There is no chance that this team reaches playoff and people that believe that is bloody stupid, that is my firm belief. I've said it so many times, until this org hires a real coach things will never ever change.