Jack Eichel Presser on Monday 5-10-21

[Thorner]

Just now, inkman said:

What I don’t get is all the “team execs” think the money is a problem.  Am I living in fantasy land thinking the teams trading for Jack aren’t going to make the money work, somehow, someway.  
 

Rangers - include Zibanejad and or Brendon Smith

LA Kings - Dustin Brown and or Oli Matta

Minnesota Wild - they have about a dozen guys they could throw in to make the money work 

Maybe I’m missing something but almost any team has a contest or 7 they want to unload.  They may need to add draft picks to make is feasible but let’s not act like it’s impossible. 

Totally agree. The money issue is well overrated. 7 mil and it’d be “no big deal”. When you have the opportunity to acquire JE, the extra 3 million is nothing - a reasonable team has a single veteran they can jettison and replace with an ELC to make up the difference

Good teams can always work around the cap 

[inkman]

Just now, Brawndo said:

The Kings could add Quick to make money work 

Word. Forgot to look at goalies.  This isn’t the NFL where cap hits are a concern.  You can make any deal work unless you have an internal budget👀.  

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, inkman said:

Word. Forgot to look at goalies.  This isn’t the NFL where cap hits are a concern.  You can make any deal work unless you have an internal budget👀.  

It’s a non issue. If it’s an issue for a team, the real issue is they aren’t sold on the player. It’s just code 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Thorny

[Taro T]

10 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Also from Lebrun:

The timing is not ideal for the organization. You hate trading any player when his value is at his lowest, but a franchise player after an injury-riddled, nightmare season? In a flat cap world?

Not good.

They should have traded him last offseason, one rival team executive said to me Tuesday. Hindsight.

Why in the #### would they have traded him heading INTO this last season?  It seems years ago, but they were viewed as a team that needed a 2C (brought in Staal) & a goalie to pair with Ullmark (huge fail*) from being a borderline playoff contender.

Though they didn't get the goalie (again, a huge fail), they got a top line W (Hall) to play w/ Eichel.  So, they still should've been close.  

Eichel was NEVER healthy this season.  Were he healthy, would the Hall move have blown up in their faces?  We won't know, but my guess is it wouldn't have.  They still would've missed th e playoffs with no legit backup to backfill for Ullmark missing 1/2 the year, but with a healthy Eichel to start, they don't end up dead last.

Serious revisional view of the past off season for LeBrun to suggest having traded him last year.

 

* Maybe if the Sabres had somebody inside the organization tied in to the league better they find out that the league is leaning towards taxi squads sooner & Adams ups his offer for a goalie & they actually get the goalie they desperately needed.

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, Taro T said:

Why in the #### would they have traded him heading INTO this last season?  It seems years ago, but they were viewed as a team that needed a 2C (brought in Staal) & a goalie to pair with Ullmark (huge fail*) from being a borderline playoff contender.

Though they didn't get the goalie (again, a huge fail), they got a top line W (Hall) to play w/ Eichel.  So, they still should've been close.  

Eichel was NEVER healthy this season.  Were he healthy, would the Hall move have blown up in their faces?  We won't know, but my guess is it wouldn't have.  They still would've missed th e playoffs with no legit backup to backfill for Ullmark missing 1/2 the year, but with a healthy Eichel to start, they don't end up dead last.

Serious revisional view of the past off season for LeBrun to suggest having traded him last year.

 

* Maybe if the Sabres had somebody inside the organization tied in to the league better they find out that the league is leaning towards taxi squads sooner & Adams ups his offer for a goalie & they actually get the goalie they desperately needed.

I think it was an exec/scout not LeBrun but agree 

[darksabre]

The last thing I care about is what a bunch of "team execs" want to float to the media.

[Stoner]

35 minutes ago, Radar said:

I'm 78 years old! Who else would have me?

Same age as my grandson.

[Taro T]

At the end of the day, Eichel is an injury prone MacKinnon.  Should he actually get traded, the return needs to reflect that.

[dudacek]

17 minutes ago, inkman said:

What I don’t get is all the “team execs” think the money is a problem.  Am I living in fantasy land thinking the teams trading for Jack aren’t going to make the money work, somehow, someway.  
 

Rangers - include Zibanejad and or Brendon Smith

LA Kings - Dustin Brown and or Oli Matta

Minnesota Wild - they have about a dozen guys they could throw in to make the money work 

Maybe I’m missing something but almost any team has a contest or 7 they want to unload.  They may need to add draft picks to make is feasible but let’s not act like it’s impossible. 

It's like Thorny has been saying: what team wouldn't trade their slightly cheaper, lesser version Jack with a lottery ticket for Jack?

patrick kane, Tyler Seguin, Ryan Johanssen, Matt Duchene, Logan Couture, Evgeni Kuztnetsov, Matt Tkachuk, Vlad Tarasenko, Mika Zibanejad, Clayton Keller, Mark Schiefele, Patrice Bergeron, Johnny Gaudreau, Brayden Schenn, John Gibson, Sean Monahan, Dylan Larkin...

In what world are GMs not putting these guys not on the table in discussing a trade for Jack Eichel?

Maybe the deals fall apart with the adds, but the $10 million contract can be made $2-4 million very easily with the "player" part in a hockey trade.

Edited May 11, 2021 by dudacek

[Curt]

2 hours ago, Thorny said:

Why?

Can someone tell me why we can’t trade Eichel to Winnipeg for Scheifele? 

Schiefele specifically?  He has a 10 team NTC.  Sabres are definitely one of those 10.

[dudacek]

10 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Serious revisional view of the past off season for LeBrun to suggest having traded him last year.

It was a team exec, and I think the point was simply that the return would have been better last year before neck injury and two goals.

[Thorner]

3 minutes ago, Taro T said:

At the end of the day, Eichel is an injury prone MacKinnon.  Should he actually get traded, the return needs to reflect that.

I also expect some teams to assume Jack to have suffered performance wise for having been here. I see them looking at ROR and Hall

Just now, dudacek said:

It was a team exec, and I think the point was simply that the return would have been better last year before neck injury and two goals.

I really, I really hope the optics of Hall also having, coincidentally, 2 goals works in our favour 

[jad1]

1 minute ago, Thorny said:

Like I said, not gonna yet my hopes up. I’ve detailed deals I think we could see. Though I don’t buy his value has taken that much of a hit - he already had an injury history prior to this. He himself for what it’s worth exudes plenty of confidence he’ll be fine. 

Hall playing well after leaving actually helps us. It’s not like his top 10 mvp finish was eons ago - it was the last season that started normally. 

I dunno how you could have dealt him last offseason unless you were forced to. Trading a player coming off that season would have caused riots 

The Sabres have followed the mantra that the future is three years away, every season for the last decade.  

The league knows that they are no longer a team that competes for the playoffs or the cup, they compete for prospects.

So why wouldn't the Sabres trade away Eichel last season?  They're incapable of or unwilling to build a team around him, so why wouldn't they trade him for future considerations.

Successful teams stock and stack talent.  How many times have we discussed how Tampa will need to shed players due to the cap, and yet they manage the contracts to keep their roster loaded.

Meanwhile, the Sabres look for creative ways to justify shipping their talent out for the pick and prospect return.

They did it with Kane and O'Reilly.  They're doing it with Eichel and Reinhart.  In a couple of seasons, they'll do it with Dahlin and Mittelstadt.  

That's their game now.  They don't hire GMs who have experience building playoff teams.  They don't hire coaches who have lead previous teams on long playoffs runs.

They hire guys who have experience in developmental leagues. 

And the league has caught on and treats them like the triple A team they've become.

So should the Sabres have traded Eichel last season? Why not, it's not like the Sabres were really challenging for the cup this season, with a first time GM, a soccer-executive coach and no scouting staff.

 

 

[Drag0nDan]

12 minutes ago, inkman said:

What I don’t get is all the “team execs” think the money is a problem.  Am I living in fantasy land thinking the teams trading for Jack aren’t going to make the money work, somehow, someway.  
 

Rangers - include Zibanejad and or Brendon Smith

LA Kings - Dustin Brown and or Oli Matta

Minnesota Wild - they have about a dozen guys they could throw in to make the money work 

Maybe I’m missing something but almost any team has a contest or 7 they want to unload.  They may need to add draft picks to make is feasible but let’s not act like it’s impossible. 

Wild could send Dumba (probably can't protect him), hartman (wouldn't be able to protect him and Jack), Rossi or Boldy, and picks.  

[Taro T]

9 minutes ago, dudacek said:

It was a team exec, and I think the point was simply that the return would have been better last year before neck injury and two goals.

Well, ####, the Eulers should trade McDavid this off-season then.  HIS value will never be higher because he'll never get to play an entire season in a division where defense appears to be banned again.

Heck, EVERY team with an upper echelon in his prime / approaching his prime player should trade him right ####### now using that "logic."

Edited May 11, 2021 by Taro T

[Drag0nDan]

Just now, jad1 said:

The Sabres have followed the mantra that the future is three years away, every season for the last decade.  

The league knows that they are no longer a team that competes for the playoffs or the cup, they compete for prospects.

So why wouldn't the Sabres trade away Eichel last season?  They're incapable of or unwilling to build a team around him, so why wouldn't they trade him for future considerations.

Successful teams stock and stack talent.  How many times have we discussed how Tampa will need to shed players due to the cap, and yet they manage the contracts to keep their roster loaded.

Meanwhile, the Sabres look for creative ways to justify shipping their talent out for the pick and prospect return.

They did it with Kane and O'Reilly.  They're doing it with Eichel and Reinhart.  In a couple of seasons, they'll do it with Dahlin and Mittelstadt.  

That's their game now.  They don't hire GMs who have experience building playoff teams.  They don't hire coaches who have lead previous teams on long playoffs runs.

They hire guys who have experience in developmental leagues. 

And the league has caught on and treats them like the triple A team they've become.

So should the Sabres have traded Eichel last season? Why not, it's not like the Sabres were really challenging for the cup this season, with a first time GM, a soccer-executive coach and no scouting staff.

 

 

I think the thing that bothers me the most - is bringing in all these vets (eakin, sheahan, rieder, irwin) - just to keep asplund, ruots, mitts, borgen and tage's buried in some capacity.  It's like they don't know who they want to be.  You don't sign a bunch of vets, you keep the valuable ones around. 

The team needs to put a big priority on goaltending this year.  UPL is either the starter (not wise), or he's in the minors.  He's not going to get better starting once a week so either you roll with him or you sign 2 new ones.

[Thorner]

19 minutes ago, dudacek said:

It's like Thorny has been saying: what team wouldn't trade their slightly cheaper, lesser version Jack with a lottery ticket for Jack?

patrick kane, Tyler Seguin, Ryan Johanssen, Matt Duchene, Logan Couture, Evgeni Kuztnetsov, Matt Tkachuk, Vlad Tarasenko, Mika Zibanejad, Clayton Keller, Mark Schiefele, Patrice Bergeron, Johnny Gaudreau, Brayden Schenn, John Gibson, Sean Monahan, Dylan Larkin...

In what world are GMs not putting these guys not on the table in discussing a trade for Jack Eichel?

Maybe the deals fall apart with the adds, but the $10 million contract can be made $2-4 million very easily with the "player" part in a hockey trade.

Teams won’t give up their top prospect because those players are their ceiling in perception, such is the case when risk is as much of a factor as it is, for any GM looking to make a trade. 

Eichel is a fully developed player with flaws - just like the guys you mentioned. That’s why I think we can get one, and I think the general fact teams overrate their own prospects is why this type of hockey trade represents our best avenue to a sufficient return. These players’ flaws are already being necessarily linked to why their respective teams haven’t won a cup - just like with Jack, here, in the eyes of many. 

[rickshaw]

I think he’s gone and yesterday was him saying “this injury debate is my way out “ without saying he’s sick of losing and gives up. It’s today’s athlete. There are very few that have the will to stick it out through the bad. They know they have the power and it’s easier to cry and move on. (ROR)

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, rickshaw said:

I think he’s gone and yesterday was him saying “this injury debate is my way out “ without saying he’s sick of losing and gives up. It’s today’s athlete. There are very few that have the will to stick it out through the bad. They know they have the power and it’s easier to cry and move on. (ROR)

Do we not agree they’ve done a terrible job building around him? It’s hard for me not to understand the POV of an athlete who has like, a few years of prime athletically to maximize. You’ve got a few years. He wants to play in the playoffs. 

It would be hard for him to see himself in the top 10 in league scoring last year, his team finish near the bottom, not even close enough to make a 24 team playoffs, and think - “if I bump that up to top 5, I’m sure that’ll bridge the gap”

Edited May 11, 2021 by Thorny

[inkman]

27 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I also expect some teams to assume Jack to have suffered performance wise for having been here. I see them looking at ROR and Hall

I really, I really hope the optics of Hall also having, coincidentally, 2 goals works in our favour 

Exactly.  Jack Eichel is really Mario Lemieux reincarnate, Buffalo just sucked the skill outta him.  

[rickshaw]

4 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Do we not agree they’ve done a terrible job building around him? It’s hard for me not to understand the POV of an athlete who has like, a few years of prime athletically to maximize. You’ve got a few years. He wants to play in the playoffs. 

It would be hard for him to see himself in the top 10 in league scoring last year, his team finish near the bottom, not even close enough to make a 24 team playoffs, and think - “if I bump that up to top 5, I’m sure that’ll bridge the gap”

Had they not gone on a ***** last 5-7 games before lockdown they were in the 24 team playoff. They lost out by mere percentage points to Montreal. Reinhart went scoreless I believe in those last games. Jack et all weren’t much better. Sure they had no idea they’d miss out cuz of lockdown but that shows that you need to get out there and perform cuz you never know.

 

And Jack personally has had lots of talent around him at least for line mates. Hell, McDavid had Kassian as a line mate on a regular basis.

[Thorner]

7 minutes ago, rickshaw said:

Had they not gone on a ***** last 5-7 games before lockdown they were in the 24 team playoff. They lost out by mere percentage points to Montreal. Reinhart went scoreless I believe in those last games. Jack et all weren’t much better. Sure they had no idea they’d miss out cuz of lockdown but that shows that you need to get out there and perform cuz you never know.

 

And Jack personally has had lots of talent around him at least for line mates. Hell, McDavid had Kassian as a line mate on a regular basis.

McDavid also plays a ton with Draisaitl. MacKinnon Rantanen. Bergeron Marchand Pastrnak. Matthews Marner 

[Sabre fan]

Here is a big surprise...Hall is all for Jack of course...what really irritates me is how they are so quick to try and put all their struggles and poor play on the team and culture surrounding it. It has been stated that Edmonton hasn't exactly surrounded CM with huge talent (playing with Kassien is hardly awe-inspiring for Connor) yet he goes out every game and plays his a** off and never complains. The Sabres got Hall to play with Jack and even after Jack disappeared exCRK still played Hall on the top line and gave him huge ice time when he clearly did not deserve it. Everyone ***** about the Pegulas but they spend a ton of money on these cry babies and I think the  Pegulas deserve better then the lousy crap these players are passing off as "their best". The team was clearly a much better and far more interesting and fun team to watch after getting rid of Staal, Hall, and losing Jack. Clearly coach DG is the first in some time to coach to a players best attributes   and not to try and get them to be something they are not. You down there in Buffalo should be careful what you wish for...if they sell it is very likely the team would be moved (Quebec is really hot-to-trot for a team).

https://www.audacy.com/wgr550/sports/sabres/taylor-hall-supports-jack-eichel-those-were-some-dark-days-in-buffalo?fbclid=IwAR3hNvklMgFkSvneg-efKHeqCwwyW4Rjs_S4D_kjIuClrqAcvPAAlDCM-Mg

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by Sabre fan

[I-90 W]

2 minutes ago, Sabre fan said:

Here is a big surprise...Hall is all for Jack of course...

https://www.audacy.com/wgr550/sports/sabres/taylor-hall-supports-jack-eichel-those-were-some-dark-days-in-buffalo?fbclid=IwAR3hNvklMgFkSvneg-efKHeqCwwyW4Rjs_S4D_kjIuClrqAcvPAAlDCM-Mg

 

 

 

 

“There were really dark days this year in Buffalo." - Taylor Hall

Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!

- Sabres Fans

[kas23]

14 hours ago, SabresSeattle said:

Or you can be like me with a “severe” case of c6/c7 disc degeneration that has seen the best neurosurgeons at Mayo, in Dallas and Vegas. Surgeons who are current on the newest technologies to use from surgical standpoint and who also undo operation mishaps from sub-standard surgeons.
 

All exceptional surgeons communicate one important theme; MRI’s are all well and good (I have had Head, Neck, Neck Soft Tissue), but the key is how the patient presents himself symptomatically. Period. You can have a terrible looking MRI, but if you are not presenting symptoms then any reputable surgeon would not advise surgery. Conversely, if you do present symptoms in a situation such as this, even a knowledgeable surgeon would strongly consider micro disc strategy.

Oh, and I am pretty sure I was googling as I was going through the process but let the standout surgeons make the call. 
 

Those thinking Eichel is merely googling are either idiots or hardly understand the stakes for him personally. Jack has always been hard core about taking care of his body. With his career on the line, I am sure he is only googling for the advice 👀

Question, why did you have to go and get opinions from 3 different neurosurgeons in 3 different cities? Did they all have the same medical opinions?