Eakin over Larsson: a big blunder by Kevyn Adams

[Thwomp!]

On 5/29/2021 at 10:03 AM, Archie Lee said:

I think the Eakin/Larsson issue highlights how out of his league Krueger was as an NHL head coach and as a pseudo - flat mgmt - GM.  I assumed the intent was to let Lazar take over for Larsson as a 4th line C and let Eakin play 3C with offensively skilled players. Lazar has clearly shown he was up for the role.  Say a bottom 6 of:

 

Skinner/Eakin/Cozens

Girgs/Lazar/Okposo

 

Setting aside that Eakin is just not very good right now, if one believed that Eakin had more offensive upside than Larsson and wanted to strengthen the offensive prowess of the top 9, then adding Staal and Eakin down the middle could have been considered logical.  I was, therefore, quite dismayed  when I saw the lines for camp and Eakin was inserted between Girgs and Okposo.  That was just bizarre and put Eakin in a spot that he just is not suited for.

 

I'm hoping we give Seattle something to take Eakin.

 

I understand the sentiment, but if I'm giving Seattle something to take someone, Eakin's salary is a pittance compared to some others that need to be moved.

[bob_sauve28]

Bigger blunder than not getting a decent goaltender? 

 

No 

[Rasmus_]

Watching Eakin play here next season is horrifying.

[Weave]

I gotta ask.  Was Larsson's game that good this season that we are going to claim walking away from him as our biggest blunder?  I mean, regardless of whether we played him more than a 4th liner, he's still a frickin 4th liner on every team that hasn't sucked for a decade.  And one with hands of stone at that.

FFS if we are lamenting Larsson that hard we should have been in the playoffs, no?  Because downgrading Larry just ain't that big in the grand scheme of suckitude we've got going on here.

[Marvin]

56 minutes ago, Weave said:

I gotta ask.  Was Larsson's game that good this season that we are going to claim walking away from him as our biggest blunder?  I mean, regardless of whether we played him more than a 4th liner, he's still a frickin 4th liner on every team that hasn't sucked for a decade.  And one with hands of stone at that.

FFS if we are lamenting Larsson that hard we should have been in the playoffs, no?  Because downgrading Larry just ain't that big in the grand scheme of suckitude we've got going on here.

There were many games last year where I missed him and Zemgus because the LOG line did what good checking lines do -- keep the opposition's top line in check and getting the puck into the offencive zone.  I would argue that they were the best 4th line in the game and helped shelter a multitude of defencive shortcomings from the rest of the forwards.

IMHO, had that line been here, Hall, Staal, Skinner, et al. would not have so grossly underperformed -- even with XHCRK's system.  The Sabres would still not have been good, but at least Reider and Eakin would have been replaced by competent players.  We probably still would not have a playoff line-up and XHCRK still would have sucked the life out of them, but at least they would not have been crushed for games on end against even mediocre competition.

[dudacek]

1 hour ago, Weave said:

I gotta ask.  Was Larsson's game that good this season that we are going to claim walking away from him as our biggest blunder?  I mean, regardless of whether we played him more than a 4th liner, he's still a frickin 4th liner on every team that hasn't sucked for a decade.  And one with hands of stone at that.

FFS if we are lamenting Larsson that hard we should have been in the playoffs, no?  Because downgrading Larry just ain't that big in the grand scheme of suckitude we've got going on here.

https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/l/larssjo02.html

 

[Eleven]

Omigosh people are arguing over Johann freaking Larsson.

 

[Crusader1969]

Im probably really late to this but wasn’t not fixing the goaltending his biggest blunder? 
Hutton was one of the worst (if not the worst) goalie in the league and he didn’t upgrade.  

[#freejame]

3 hours ago, Eleven said:

Omigosh people are arguing over Johann freaking Larsson.

 

I know for a fact this isn't your first time on the board in the last three years. It is never ending. 

[LTS]

3 hours ago, Eleven said:

Omigosh people are arguing over Johann freaking Larsson.

 

People are arguing over many other things AND Johann freaking Larsson.  I think the real takeaway here is that they are arguing.

 

[Derrico]

13 hours ago, Weave said:

 

FFS if we are lamenting Larsson that hard we should have been in the playoffs, no? 

Jack freaking Eichel was hurt basically the entire season no?

[Derrico]

10 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

Im probably really late to this but wasn’t not fixing the goaltending his biggest blunder? 
Hutton was one of the worst (if not the worst) goalie in the league and he didn’t upgrade.  

To be fair I also agree that not doing anything in the off-season with goaltending was his worst blunder and I’ve shouted that from the rooftops.  
 

What was concerning with this decision was that Eakin vs Larry looked like a bad decision from an analytics perspective from the very moment he signed and that’s exactly how it played out.  So it begs the question: is Nightengale terrible at his job as head of analytics or does KA not give a ***** about analytics altogether.  Both situations are very concerning in their own right. 

[inkman]

13 hours ago, Weave said:

I gotta ask.  Was Larsson's game that good this season that we are going to claim walking away from him as our biggest blunder?  I mean, regardless of whether we played him more than a 4th liner, he's still a frickin 4th liner on every team that hasn't sucked for a decade.  And one with hands of stone at that.

FFS if we are lamenting Larsson that hard we should have been in the playoffs, no?  Because downgrading Larry just ain't that big in the grand scheme of suckitude we've got going on here.

For me personally, letting Larry walk was fine.  Replacing him with the worst forward in the NHL was unacceptable.  They had 3 guys on the roster that could have done it.  The front office needs to listen to analytics people.  Eakin’s name would have been dismissed immediately if they did a 5 minute google search.  Random buttholes on Twitter shouldn’t be better at evaluating talent than our actual NHL team but here we are.  

[Thorner]

14 hours ago, Eleven said:

Omigosh people are arguing over Johann freaking Larsson.

 

Do you understand how bad his replacement was? Even if Larsson was a net neutral, the gap between him and Eakin would be staggering. And he's not a net neutral. He's, at worst, one of the best 4th line players in the league.

"The Sabres just don't have any room for good bottom 6 players". 

Good grief. This franchise will look to "culture" at the expense of talent any chance it can get, yet exploiting any and all avenues for net talent improvement just doesn't matter? Maybe just "Eakin to Larsson" doesn't move the needle, but if we upgraded several players on this roster by that margin, it assuredly would. To me, that's the point. 

The franchise doesn't get the benefit of a scoff "we arguing about Larsson? Larsson?!" - yes, we are arguing about Larsson. A team that misses the playoffs for TEN. STRAIGHT. YEARS. is *obligated* to exploit every avenue possible in the pursuit of winning. 

That's what prioritizing winning looks like, as foreign as it's been around here

14 hours ago, Crusader1969 said:

Im probably really late to this but wasn’t not fixing the goaltending his biggest blunder? 
Hutton was one of the worst (if not the worst) goalie in the league and he didn’t upgrade.  

Not according to KA. That's just bad injury luck 

What can you do? 

[LGR4GM]

holy ***** I will change the title so we can have an actual conversation instead of bitching about how we define biggest blunder. 

[LGR4GM]

17 hours ago, Weave said:

I gotta ask.  Was Larsson's game that good this season that we are going to claim walking away from him as our biggest blunder?  I mean, regardless of whether we played him more than a 4th liner, he's still a frickin 4th liner on every team that hasn't sucked for a decade.  And one with hands of stone at that.

FFS if we are lamenting Larsson that hard we should have been in the playoffs, no?  Because downgrading Larry just ain't that big in the grand scheme of suckitude we've got going on here.

You are looking at a tree and not the forest. This might be the prefect example of it because ever little downgrade the Sabres made turned into a big snowball of crap that has been the last few years. ROR -> Larsson -> Eakin... each time the team downgraded and got worse. It was big because it was a further escalation of the downgrade approach which has included things like wasting picks on Vesey, Simmonds, and Frolic as well as downgrading Larry. His defensive metrics last year were amazing and I don't need him to score if the other team simply wasn't. 

Downgrading Larry was a big deal because it left no one to take on the heavy defensive responsbilities but Eichel and Staal. Staal couldn't handle it and it created a cascade throughout the lineup. Again more mismanagement by a team of fools. 

[Thorner]

10 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

You are looking at a tree and not the forest. This might be the prefect example of it because ever little downgrade the Sabres made turned into a big snowball of crap that has been the last few years. ROR -> Larsson -> Eakin... each time the team downgraded and got worse. It was big because it was a further escalation of the downgrade approach which has included things like wasting picks on Vesey, Simmonds, and Frolic as well as downgrading Larry. His defensive metrics last year were amazing and I don't need him to score if the other team simply wasn't. 

Downgrading Larry was a big deal because it left no one to take on the heavy defensive responsbilities but Eichel and Staal. Staal couldn't handle it and it created a cascade throughout the lineup. Again more mismanagement by a team of fools. 

Perfectly stated. None of it is in isolation - it's symptomatic - and therein lies the rub 

[Hoss]

Eakin is brutal and Larsson is a decent bottom sixer. I didn’t need a chart that maybe 20% of hockey fans understand to tell me that.