dudacek

So Raty probably falls in between Kulich and Rosen, the 1sts are virtually identical and Beauvillier is Olofsson.

Islanders continue to trade tomorrow for today in a mad dash to stay relevant before Lou signs off. They should be making trades the opposite direction.

Shayna Goldman was on with Marty and Duffer talking about the deadline and floated the name of Brock Boeser as someone who could be acquired cheaply and boost the 2nd line. Im not into a move like that at all. Would much rather let JJ and Jack keep getting better in those roles than bring in a slight upgrade short-term.

IMO, the Sabres have players on the roster who look like they can fill these important roles for a long time: 1-3C Thompson, Cozens, Krebs 1-3D Dahlin, Power, Samuelsson Top-6W Tuch (and Skinner, but he's aging) We are 2 wingers and a goalie away from confirming our core. I am reasonably confident those three missing pieces are Peterka, Quinn and Levi, so I would be very reluctant to trade any of those without a core piece coming back, but would do it for the right return. I don't want to trade Savoie, Östlund or Kulich simply because I am high on all three. But logic dictates if you want to play, you've got to pay. They are available for the right return. Johnson is the only prospect in the system that we "need" meaning there is spot waiting and open for him if he earns it. He's available too. The rest are absolutely on the table.

Linus Weissbach and Casey Fitzgerald are the 2 Sabres prospects who stayed 4 years in college recently. Each signed with Buffalo instead of going UFA.

That was UPL’s 3rd shootout. He saved 4 of 6 in his other 2, a win over Minnesota and a loss to the Capitals last year. I’ve seen Quinn take a lot of shootouts outside regular season NHL games. I have no doubt he earned that slot in practice. He’s scored some of the nicest shootout goals I’ve seen. I think the wily vet threw him off a bit with the fake poke check, just like he intended. Quinn usually dekes.

I took your bolded as a handwaving of the past three years, like “the comparison still holds because Jack has been hurt.” And my bolded was trying to say “but that’s a big reason why the comparison doesn’t hold up.” No gear-grinding intended. Logging off to watch game.

Getzlaf might work for what Jack should have been, but not for who he is. Years 6-8 he stayed at the table and cemented himself as 1st-line centre. And that was after he had won a Stanley Cup. To the best of my recollection he never clashed with his coaches or management, forced a trade, suffered serious injury or put up the kind of numbers Jack has the last 3 seasons. These are all parts of Jack’s story. You’ve put a lot of emphasis on Jack’s first 5 seasons during this discussion, but you can’t ignore the past three.

Who is Jack tracking as a comparable now? Assuming the majority of the next 5 or 6 years fall within the highs and lows we’ve already seen. Best guy I could find is Tyler Seguin, who settled in as #1 centre but not your first choice as one, or a guy you really want to build around?

And he’s taken down moose with his bare hands. Tied behind his back.

And faster And more physical

4th game in 6 days on the road, 6th game in 9 nights overall, the above is probably going to come back to bite me. But it’s what we’ve watched this year.

I know this is kinda generally accepted as the way, but it certainly isn’t the case with Donnie. He talks all the time about defence being the easy part to learn: pick a structure, stay disciplined and work hard within it. He is so focused on finding ways to break down structure, his practices are designed to have the team making plays at a high tempo so those plays come more naturally in games, he pushes his players to be creative, to try things, to be fearless. And you can see it: our players are constantly moving to open up spaces, then dropping pucks into those spaces, confident a teammate is darting hard into those holes. The puck carrier always has multiple options in the attacking zone. He runs into traffic, he has 2 guys nearby ready to bail him out. The team is always coming in layers. That is how they are being coached to play. Victor Olofsson has hit a career high in goals a little over halfway through the season. Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner are well on their way to career years. Tyson Jost might get there too. Cozens, Mittelstadt, Tuch and Dahlin have already topped their career-best totals. It’s January! That is all happening because of the way this team is being coached.

Not good enough? Only so many slots and we have a lot of youngsters? Why does any pick not get signed? With 22 picks over the past 2 years Adams may have to do some juggling in terms of finding them all places to play.

Does Viljami Marjala get a contract? Leads the Finnish junior league in scoring with 48 points in 30 games. Has 2 points in 4 games in the men’s league. 2021 5th-rounder who was drafted out of the Q, so I think he has to be signed this year or he goes back into the draft.

Since Nov. 21 (the end of the 8-game losing streak), the Sabres are 19/8/3. That is behind only Boston, Carolina, Toronto and (barely) Tampa. That’s 30 games - not a small sample size.

It's not incorrect, it's just outside the point I was trying to make and the discussion I was trying to have. My point was "I expected Jack Eichel to have assembled a body of work by now that puts him solidly in the discussion of the top 10 players in the game. I am disappointed because I don't think he's done that." Whether or not he would have had 2 80-point seasons if not for COVID doesn't sway that opinion. I wasn't trying to suggest "he's not even usually a point/game player." I was trying to suggest that he has never really put up remarkable full-season totals. A better way of expressing the point I was trying to reinforce with that example would be by rephrasing what I said in the earlier post: "He has only once cracked the top 20 in scoring." (Or twice the top 50)

If they miss the playoffs or even don't go on a run, it absolutely did not, at least not the way it was immediately intended. Jack was acquired to put a contender who had been to the final 3 of the prior 4 years over the top.

I think the key distinction here is "this is why Jack Eichel's career has been disappointing TO ME." 😄 I had expectations for what he would be or have accomplished by now that have not been met. They are generalities for the purpose of illustration, not a hard-and-fast checklist. And they are absolutely arbitrary. Of course there are reasons and extenuating circumstances. Choosing not to enumerate them all is not 'willfully skewing'. Are you disappointed in Jack Eichel's career to date? Has he met your expectations?

I'm not arguing against your point. He very much 'tracked' over the first half of his career. But after 8 years, I expected Jack Eichel to have a body of work that cemented him in the conversation of "top 10 players in the NHL". That hasn't happened. To be a Perreault or Lafontaine, he should have had that "peak year" as top 5 scorer by now. It hasn't happened. He should have had multiple top-20 finishes in scoring. That hasn't happened. Multiple 80-point seasons. That hasn't happened. Even if he had stayed on for a healthy 80 points this year, that would still be disappointing to me. With him in his prime years and scoring way up the way it is, he should be gunning for 100 right now. He climbed to the edge of the table of "best in the game" and instead of staying there for 8 or 9 of the next 10 years, he's fallen off it altogether. He's less than I thought he would be and think he should be, given his talent. And yes, he still has plenty of time to change the narrative.

Yeah, I'm not trying to bash Eichel or ignore the context, more taking a look at the big picture. I think it's safe to say we all thought he would be a perennial top-20 point-scorer, with multiple incursions into the top 5 like a Perreault or a Lafontaine. His career is half over and his year-by-year rankings are: 58, 53, 52, 23, 10, 287, 334, 103 So much unrealized promise.

It's actually the skill level of Tuch that has surprised me. I knew he was a missile through the neutral zone, but he is better at entries than I thought, and smart, looked-off passes in full flight like the one to Thompson last night are something that he can do at an elite level. I didn't know he could bait guys the way he does to make plays. But the one thing that has been a revelation is his "checking" – not defence, or physical punishment, but the actual act of taking a puck away from another player through a combination of speed, strength, hands and anticipation. I can't remember seeing a forward as talented in that area. Again, he baits guys.

I'm glad you did. The "bash Eichel to make us feel better" pile-on is something I've tried to avoid, but the idea that Tuch objectively might be a better player right now is interesting to me. it's not piling on Eichel to admit that he is 8 years into his career and for one reason or another has never fully realized what he could be save for that glorious 60-game run in 2019-20. To your question, Eichel has 34 points in 36 games, Tuch 54 in 48.

Better talent: Eichel Better player right now: I've seen Eichel hit higher highs, but I think Tuch is pretty clearly having a better season and consistency matters. Better asset: Tuch rather easily, considering Eichel's run of health issues and the intangibles of each, but most importantly Tuch's cap hit of less than half Eichel's Better player for the Buffalo Sabres organization? Tuch in a landslide Not posting this because of any ill will toward Eichel. I always expected to lose any Eichel trade. The gains would be fresh air and cap space, with the hope one of the 'futures' might surprise and make up for the talent gap. But Eichel continues to fall short of what he could be and Tuch has been an on-ice revelation.

Who do you think is the better player right now, Tuch or Eichel? The better asset moving forward?