Eakin over Larsson: a big blunder by Kevyn Adams

[LGR4GM]

We could say Adams had a lot of blunders in his first season but none was so easily avoidable as this other than goaltending perhaps. I think Krueger had influence here and I think it is another reason Nightengale should be fired (again he either is incompetent or no one listens to him). This is the perfect example of the Buffalo Sabres being one of the dumbest if not the dumbest run NHL team. Everyone on this board knew Larsson's value and even if he wanted to leave, replacing him with Eakin was tantamount to replacing Eichel with Steve Ott. 

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The front office made the decision to let Johan Larsson, one of the top shutdown defensive centres in the league, walk in free agency where he would sign a two-year, $2.8-million deal with the Arizona Coyotes.

As a replacement for one of the bottom-six center roles, the Buffalo Sabres decided to sign Eakin to a two-year, $4.5-million deal. At the time of that deal, that decision looked... not great:

Edited June 2, 2021 by LGR4GM

[LGR4GM]

Eakin is so bad and Krueger was so dumb that his line of Eakin - Rieder - Okposo is the WORSE line to ever play more than 130 minutes together since 2007 when updated tracking occurred 

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This line managed to put up the worst 5v5 xGF% of any line with 130 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time since the NHL upgraded their tracking system in 2007-08. They bled chances to the tune of a horrid 29.6 percent xGF% https://eprinkside.com/2021/05/28/a-review-of-the-buffalo-sabres-2020-21-season-and-where-they-go-from-here

 

[Drag0nDan]

16 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Eakin is so bad and Krueger was so dumb that his line of Eakin - Rieder - Okposo is the WORSE line to ever play more than 130 minutes together since 2007 when updated tracking occurred 

 

Rieder was also... not great.  He had a few goals early when no one could score.  But Moving Okposo off of that line and he immediately started putting up points.  

Addition by subtraction as far as eakin and rieder.  Whoever they put there will probably be better.

[Brawndo]

Adams basically retained and acquired the players that Krueger wanted. Ralph had way too much say in roster construction. 
In a training camp interview Krueger even said We retained all the Free Agents we wanted too. 
 

That Man sucked 

[LGR4GM]

3 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Adams basically retained and acquired the players that Krueger wanted. Ralph had way too much say in roster construction. 
In a training camp interview Krueger even said We retained all the Free Agents we wanted too. 
 

That Man sucked 

I agree. Krueger sucked and was in over his head from the beginning. 

[Marvin]

1 minute ago, Brawndo said:

Adams basically retained and acquired the players that Krueger wanted. Ralph had way too much say in roster construction. 
In a training camp interview Krueger even said We retained all the Free Agents we wanted too. 
 

That Man sucked 

What blows my mind is that Krueger had incontrovertible evidence that the LOG line was his only reliable defencive line.  What the hell was he thinking?  It's like he was more driven by fantasy than the cartoon character Ralph Phillips.

[Brawndo]

I’m hoping that Adams is moving towards being the Face of the Front Office and the go between the Team and The Pegulas with Karmanos being the de facto GM 

[LGR4GM]

Just now, Brawndo said:

I’m hoping that Adams is moving towards being the Face of the Front Office and the go between the Team and The Pegulas with Karmanos being the de facto GM 

Same. I just hope Karmanos and Adams get serious about analytics because the mickey mouse approach to it is just putting a bad team further behind. 

[WildCard]

The good news is, at least nobody saw this coming.

/s

And by nobody I mean literally everybody on this website didn't want this trade off.

[Flashsabre]

Let’s call a spade a spade.  This Collective FO with the Pegulas, Adams and Krueger was all about Ralph and the Pegulas getting their say and Adams following out the plan.  Everyone brought in and let go was handpicked by Ralph.

 

Lets see what Adams and Karmanos do this off-season. There needs to be a huge move to more analytics based decision making.

This will be the craziest off-season the Sabres have ever had,

[PromoTheRobot]

55 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

We could say Adams had a lot of blunders in his first season but none was so easily avoidable as this. I think Krueger had influence here and I think it is another reason Nightengale should be fired (again he either is incompetent or no one listens to him). This is the perfect example of the Buffalo Sabres being one of the dumbest if not the dumbest run NHL team. Everyone on this board knew Larsson's value and even if he wanted to leave, replacing him with Eakin was tantamount to replacing Eichel with Steve Ott. 

We don't know how many personnel decisions came from Adams or Krueger? I mean a new GM has to back up his coach, right? 

Edited May 28, 2021 by PromoTheRobot

[GASabresIUFAN]

They did re-sign Girgensons and his injury changed the dynamics as well.  The rationale of improving offensive depth by bringing in Eakin as a replacement over Larsson made sense on paper.  However I think it easily argued that nothing KA did as a rookie GM worked and RK is responsible for a significant part of that issue.

Hall was terrible and KA got fleeced when he traded him because of the high cap figure and the NMC that KA gave him.  Hall was a RK acolyte.

Staal was worse.  Reider was bad, Sheahan a nothing, He dumped Kahun, Larsson and Lazar none of which were good decisions, but signing Eakin was simply awful in the end.  

Honestly it wouldn't have mattered what KA did.  RK as the coach would have sunk any team.

I'm curious if there is a Lazar vs Larsson comparison.

[Brawndo]

8 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

Same. I just hope Karmanos and Adams get serious about analytics because the mickey mouse approach to it is just putting a bad team further behind. 

Their pitch should be, Do you really want the Sabres to be Effective Efficient, Economic spend 1.5 Million per year on a Top Flight Analytics Department. 

[LTS]

I'm at the point where I don't find myself blaming Adams.  He was the GM that was brought in because they needed someone to help the coach enable his plan and nothing more. I truly wonder how much Adams had his own say in what was happening.

Frankly I think Adams made his power play during the losing streak and especially when he was asked if he had full authority and indicated he did.  At that point I am sure he went to the Pegulas and said Krueger's plan is crap. You can back me or back them but right now we're look like crap and every move he made has not panned out.

Cue where we are today.  I just cannot blame Adams except that he took the job in the first place.  but everyone has to start somewhere... he might have already known Krueger was going to be a huge miss.

[Buffalonill]

arguing about 4th line players i wonder what contenders argue about. 

[Brawndo]

24 minutes ago, Buffalonill said:

arguing about 4th line players i wonder what contenders argue about. 

The Contenders Front Offices are intelligent enough not to ice a Fourth Line of Reider-Eakin-Okposo so Their Fans are absolved from these discussions 

[Eleven]

This is a blunder, but it isn't his biggest.

[Doohicksie]

3 minutes ago, Eleven said:

This is a blunder, but it isn't his biggest.

Or it is the biggest, but only if you add "so far."

But yeah, not getting goalie help is probably the biggest.

[Cascade Youth]

13 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Or it is the biggest, but only if you add "so far."

But yeah, not getting goalie help is probably the biggest.

Yeah exactly.  How is this even a debate?  The fourth line center is not his biggest blunder, at all.  The goalie situation was a two-ton semi speeding straight at them in the offseason and KA literally did NOTHING about it.

[LGR4GM]

Lol calling them the 4th is ***** hilarious. Calling Larson a 4th line center even more so. 

They weren't used that way

[Buffalonill]

Larsson is doing the same thing hes been doing for the last 9 years.

 

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

 Everyone on this board knew Larsson's value and even if he wanted to leave, replacing him with Eakin was tantamount to replacing Eichel with Steve Ott. 

LOL. That might be the most over stated ridiculous comparison I've ever seen on this board so I had to quote it. Funny though. Did make me smile. 

Eakin sucked, that's not a point of contention. Not sure what anyone else would have done though. Seemed like a reasonable 4th line (some felt 3rd) pick up at the time. One has to assume Larsson was NOT going to re sign and his value is kind of over stated. Didn't do much for the Coyotes. 

They wanted to improve face offs and PK. Those were a bit better were they not? I think the Girgensens injury was the thing that really cocked up the bottom end plan. 

but ya, Adams hasn't actually done anything good yet. Absolutely nothing imo.  

[LGR4GM]

16 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

LOL. That might be the most over stated ridiculous comparison I've ever seen on this board so I had to quote it. Funny though. Did make me smile. 

Eakin sucked, that's not a point of contention. Not sure what anyone else would have done though. Seemed like a reasonable 4th line (some felt 3rd) pick up at the time. One has to assume Larsson was NOT going to re sign and his value is kind of over stated. Didn't do much for the Coyotes. 

They wanted to improve face offs and PK. Those were a bit better were they not? I think the Girgensens injury was the thing that really cocked up the bottom end plan. 

but ya, Adams hasn't actually done anything good yet. Absolutely nothing imo.  

Cool story broseph

[DarthEbriate]

3 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I'm curious if there is a Lazar vs Larsson comparison.

Unfortunately, neither coach this season put Okposo together with Lazar. Lazar got paired with Skinner and 4th line minutes early, and then injuries/trades prevented any opportunity later. Eakin should've been benched when the losing streak was at 10, if not earlier. Meanwhile, Asplund was on the bench and Mitts was still on the wing. Because veteran leadership I guess. Oh, and face offs.

2 hours ago, Brawndo said:

The Contenders Front Offices are intelligent enough not to ice a Fourth Line of Reider-Eakin-Okposo so Their Fans are absolved from these discussions 

Alas... that was not our 4 line by ES minutes. When at our most healthy and that trio was together, they were our third line. Skinner-Lazar-Sheahen played fewer minutes. (Skinner got his average up by the end of the season, but also got top 6 minutes toward the end.)

[Thorner]

5 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Adams basically retained and acquired the players that Krueger wanted. Ralph had way too much say in roster construction. 
In a training camp interview Krueger even said We retained all the Free Agents we wanted too. 
 

That Man sucked 

Should we be happy that Krueger is gone, or worried because the people who decided to operatively, and financially give all that say to Krueger are still running things? Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their judgment. I know Adams inherited Krueger, but supposedly he was tasked with evaluating the org top to bottom before he took over, and regardless of inheriting Kruger, he made the choice to attribute all that value to his decisions. 

I suppose some of that worry could be lessened if your thoughts about Karmanos being the de facto GM are true...and he ends up good. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Thorny