Eakin over Larsson: a big blunder by Kevyn Adams

[GASabresIUFAN]

Eakin however is not KAs biggest blunder, Hall was.  He signed him to appease Jack and RK despite having VO and Skinner as top 6 LWs.  He then gave him an above market $ contract plus a full NMC that tied his hands at the deadline.

Hall clearly didn’t want to be here and we were his method to maximize his wallet and then get himself to Boston.  

He, along with RK and Kozlov, are among my most disliked Sabres of all time.

Ultimately signing him didn’t help the offense.  The money wasted on his contract used up KAs cap space to sign a goalie and we got virtually nothing for him in trade for our trouble.

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Thorny said:

or worried because the people who decided to operatively, and financially give all that say to Krueger are still running things?

Given what KA was thrown into and the fact that RFK had both coaching and executive experience, I don't blame him for trying to build the team with Krueger's input.

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Eakin however is not KAs biggest blunder, Hall was.  He signed him to appease Jack and RK despite having VO and Skinner as top 6 LWs.  He then gave him an above market $ contract plus a full NMC that tied his hands at the deadline.

The good thing about the Hall deal was term.  It was a failed experiment but it is thankfully over.  Even Eakin at two years is a decent term.  If they want to move on from him and can't slip him into another deal, they can bury him like they did Moulson.

[JoeSchmoe]

People are talking about Eakin in the past tense... He's.still under contract.

Sadly, I see this team giving minutes to him next year... because for whatever stupid reason, veterens in this league get every chance in the world to continue to suck, while viable talent sits upstairs or in the minors. 

Full marks to the team if they waive him to Rochester, or can trade him for a bucket of pucks.

[Marvin]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmoe said:

Full marks to the team if they waive him to Rochester, or can trade him for a bucket of pucks.

The bucket doesn't need any pucks for a trade to unload Eakin to be worthwhile.

[Pimlach]

Lamenting the loss of Johan Larsson says it all.  

[kas23]

The only blunder KA did was him ignoring the goalie situation. Every other move was done to maximize the potential success of RK. He gave him the tools to win and many on here thought we had a chance at the playoffs last off-season. We supposedly signed a 2C, a 3rd/4th line center with offensive upside, and an elite winger for Jack, one that knew RK well. I don’t care how much money they gave Hall. Wasn’t my money and it was just a 1 year deal. And I also don’t care that they gave him a NMC during a pandemic. We signed him to give us a chance of winning games, not to win a trade deadline deal. With the huge exception of not signing a decent goalie, KA gave RK the tools to win. Gave him one last decent chance. RK failed and that’s why he was fired. KA can’t say he didn’t try. 

[Randall Flagg]

It was not the Sabres' biggest blunder, but it had a real impact on the 2021 season, just like many of us liked to repeat would happen over and over and over and over again when Larry was here and people were dismissive of his game and the idea that we might not simply replace him without a second thought

He played 15 minutes per game in a shutdown role, almost always on the ice against the other team's top or 2nd offensive line (Matthews, IIRC, was the forward he saw the most out of all NHL forwards last year). He came out of that season a +8. We took that same role, filled it with Eakin and created what many on this forum (almost certainly including people who couldn't care less about Larry) called the worst line in the NHL, which posted tank-level stats and performance and was reluctantly used rather than relied upon, which put more strain on the lines above it versus being a pressure release valve like the Larsson line.

Goalies were more important to this season, but as I and others have said a million times, the Sabres love to have a crappy season in which only ~3 things go well, and then immediately blow up 1 or 2 of those 3 things for no reason the following offseason, completely butchering attempts to replace it. With effort and resources that could have gone into fixing the REAL problems, which in turn linger longer than they should.

it's the Sabre way, and it's the Sabre fan way that many of them watched with misplaced contentment if not outright glee 

[DarthEbriate]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

Lamenting the loss of Johan Larsson says it all.  

Larsson was a useful part of a team -- not great, but a solid role. And he agitated people, which was nice. But to lose a nearly-defense-only guy and to get a worse offensive player for more money?

52 minutes ago, kas23 said:

The only blunder KA did was him ignoring the goalie situation. 

Hall and the goalie. If we could turn back time and spend Hall's contract on Toffoli and a goalie instead. Heck, MTL's signings could have as easily have been ours: Jake Allen and Tyler Toffoli. No Hall.  And instead of Cody Fr-Eakin Eakin on day 2 or day 3 of free agency, and getting another guy for less later (Haula, or bring back Larry). RK's wishes destroyed this team to the point that now we're considering moving Eichel. What the hell? What the your taun-taun-will-freeze-before-the-first-marker-then-I'll-see-you-in Hell?

[Gatorman0519]

The bottom line is KA took us to the basement of the league in his first year. He can’t do that again. There needs to be a major improvement. 

[PerreaultForever]

9 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Cool story broseph

Sabrespace, and the usual disgruntled and bitter summer of snideness, sarcasm and other assorted egomaniacal quips. How wonderful. 

[Kong]

The Pegulas don't know what they're doing. RK didn't know what he was doing. KA doesn't know what he's doing. 

What's not to like?

[Thorner]

56 minutes ago, Kong said:

The Pegulas don't know what they're doing. RK didn't know what he was doing. KA doesn't know what he's doing. 

What's not to like?

I laugh a little at the “KA was just doing what Ralph wanted” line of thinking. What, Ralph wanted KA to acquire bad players? He wanted a 2C who can’t skate? He wanted a terrible checking line C? No goalies? He failed in getting Ralph even what Ralph wanted. If Ralph specifically picked the players, the decision to GIVE Ralph all that say was still KA’s choice. 

[Archie Lee]

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.

 

[kas23]

14 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

 

Hall and the goalie. If we could turn back time and spend Hall's contract on Toffoli and a goalie instead. Heck, MTL's signings could have as easily have been ours: Jake Allen and Tyler Toffoli. No Hall.  And instead of Cody Fr-Eakin Eakin on day 2 or day 3 of free agency, and getting another guy for less later (Haula, or bring back Larry). RK's wishes destroyed this team to the point that now we're considering moving Eichel. What the hell? What the your taun-taun-will-freeze-before-the-first-marker-then-I'll-see-you-in Hell?

I don’t see the signing of Hall and getting a goalie as mutually exclusive. They could’ve done both. The signing of Hall was supposed to be a godsend. We were going to have a 1st line with Eichel and a former MVP. No one on here could’ve guessed how horrid this line would be. They completely imploded. I can’t blame KA for that. That was all RK. 

[Taro T]

2 hours ago, kas23 said:

I don’t see the signing of Hall and getting a goalie as mutually exclusive. They could’ve done both. The signing of Hall was supposed to be a godsend. We were going to have a 1st line with Eichel and a former MVP. No one on here could’ve guessed how horrid this line would be. They completely imploded. I can’t blame KA for that. That was all RK. 

You are very correct that signing Hall & bringing in a goalie could both have happened last season.

Not wanting Larsson back with the corresponding ability to have arguably 1 of the 2 best 4th lines in the league (had Girgensons stayed healthy) was a huge blunder & @Randall Flagg is right that several of us wanted him back.

But the Eichel line not working like expected wasn't on Krueger.  It was on Eichel breaking his ribs training.  But even with the line "not working" until he suffered additional injuries, Eichel was over a ppg player & Hall was at/nearly at a ppg.  (Nealy all those points by both being assists, but that just means somebody else was getting fed by them.)

[kas23]

27 minutes ago, Taro T said:

You are very correct that signing Hall & bringing in a goalie could both have happened last season.

Not wanting Larsson back with the corresponding ability to have arguably 1 of the 2 best 4th lines in the league (had Girgensons stayed healthy) was a huge blunder & @Randall Flagg is right that several of us wanted him back.

But the Eichel line not working like expected wasn't on Krueger.  It was on Eichel breaking his ribs training.  But even with the line "not working" until he suffered additional injuries, Eichel was over a ppg player & Hall was at/nearly at a ppg.  (Nealy all those points by both being assists, but that just means somebody else was getting fed by them.)

I agree Eichel’s injuries played a major role. So, this may tell us something. Either our team was completely reliant on the health of a single player (a horrible position the team to be in) or they didn’t have the coach skillful enough to adapt to losing its star player. If we believe the signs of life we saw at the season’s end, then it was the coach that was holding us back. Granato was able to plug Rhino into the 1C role with some success. I think Hall was checked out by that point though. If you asked KA what he regretted more, signing Hall or waiting until mid-March to fire RK, my guess is that he wished he fired RK much sooner. 

[DarthEbriate]

7 hours ago, kas23 said:

I don’t see the signing of Hall and getting a goalie as mutually exclusive. They could’ve done both. The signing of Hall was supposed to be a godsend. We were going to have a 1st line with Eichel and a former MVP. No one on here could’ve guessed how horrid this line would be. They completely imploded. I can’t blame KA for that. That was all RK. 

Not mutually exclusive, but if we were going to get a goalie then we needed a capital G goalie. Ullmark had yet to play 40 games in a season, was coming off an injury, and the other goalie couldn't see and had had one hot month but otherwise had been below average for us in two seasons. So if we weren't going to trust Hutton (rightfully so) then we needed a 1A and we needed to pony up 4M+ for that player or work a trade for him. Instead, we got Tokarski. And he was better than JoJo and Hutton, but he's also a career AHLer and he didn't change that with this season's performance.

Of course, claiming Nedeljkovic off waivers was an option. Not that this team would've made him look great. But maybe he could play as well as Ullmark and voila... we have ourselves a competitive team (once RaKru was dismissed).

[GASabresIUFAN]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

Not mutually exclusive, but if we were going to get a goalie then we needed a capital G goalie. Ullmark had yet to play 40 games in a season, was coming off an injury, and the other goalie couldn't see and had had one hot month but otherwise had been below average for us in two seasons. So if we weren't going to trust Hutton (rightfully so) then we needed a 1A and we needed to pony up 4M+ for that player or work a trade for him. Instead, we got Tokarski. And he was better than JoJo and Hutton, but he's also a career AHLer and he didn't change that with this season's performance.

Of course, claiming Nedeljkovic off waivers was an option. Not that this team would've made him look great. But maybe he could play as well as Ullmark and voila... we have ourselves a competitive team (once RaKru was dismissed).

Signing Hall and a goalie is a nice theory but it would have taken significantly more skill then KA has.  He overpaid for Eakin, Girgensons and even Thompson and those deals when added to Hall’s eliminated any cap for a goalie.  Had he committed to part of the youth movement (Asplund, Mitts and Cozens) to start the year and given Lazar the 4C gig instead of spending 4 mill on Girgensons and Eakin, and then demoted Hutton to the A, he may have been able find the cap for Hall and a goalie.  
 

PS.  I said signing Hall was his biggest blunder, but maybe not upgrading Hutton was even bigger.

Edited May 30, 2021 by GASabresIUFAN

[PerreaultForever]

I really don't think signing Eakin is any big thing one way or the other. Bottom line player, a couple years, easily benched. Small mistake.

The real problem this team has (for years to come) is Jeff Skinner.

There is simply no way to build a winner when you're paying, what, 1.3 million per goal or thereabouts. 

and it's not like he suddenly got great after RK was fired either. 

[Thorner]

7 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

I really don't think signing Eakin is any big thing one way or the other. Bottom line player, a couple years, easily benched. Small mistake.

The real problem this team has (for years to come) is Jeff Skinner.

There is simply no way to build a winner when you're paying, what, 1.3 million per goal or thereabouts. 

and it's not like he suddenly got great after RK was fired either. 

Well, he did improve from a 10 (ten!) point pace over 82 under Ralph to a 32 point pace under Don. 32 isn't anything to write home about certainly but he tripled his production rate. Our only hope is that the trend can continue 

[DarthEbriate]

On 5/29/2021 at 10:07 PM, GASabresIUFAN said:

Signing Hall and a goalie is a nice theory but it would have taken significantly more skill then KA has.  He overpaid for Eakin, Girgensons and even Thompson and those deals when added to Hall’s eliminated any cap for a goalie.  Had he committed to part of the youth movement (Asplund, Mitts and Cozens) to start the year and given Lazar the 4C gig instead of spending 4 mill on Girgensons and Eakin, and then demoted Hutton to the A, he may have been able find the cap for Hall and a goalie.  
 

PS.  I said signing Hall was his biggest blunder, but maybe not upgrading Hutton was even bigger.

Yes, bu RaKru wanted veterans and was going to play the veterans. (And I recall Eichel wanting veteran leadership in an interview, maybe the 2020 exit interview?) So the youth movement wasn't happening this year with RaKru in power. I'd have loved to see Girgs - Lazar - Okposo as the GLO replacement. That's a solid 3rd line if Hall and Staal and Skinner truly solidify the top 6, and with a healthy Eichel. That could've worked. But lots of factors went into ripping that apart.

Alas, now we've got to look to the future.

On 5/29/2021 at 10:15 PM, PerreaultForever said:

I really don't think signing Eakin is any big thing one way or the other. Bottom line player, a couple years, easily benched. Small mistake.

But with this franchise (and any franchise) small mistakes pile up. Trading for Frolik, acquiring Kahun and his bonus overage, along with Dahlin's and Joker's bonuses, then overpaying Eakin and Girgensons. None of those are big. But all together and we can't do things like creatively move Hutton or be a 3rd party to carry cap in a trade.

Big issues like Skinner's contract and paying Leino to be a C, and giving Ehrhoff 10M for his first season when the league is trying to eliminate Kovalchuk deals (and wouldn't Regier have known that from GM meetings?) -- you can work around one or two of those if you minimize the little mistakes.

[Derrico]

On 5/28/2021 at 12:50 PM, 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. 

This is the signing and associated decision that made me think either Nightingale is completely incompetent in his job as head of analytics or Adams isn't listening to his analytics staff.

 

Either way this is an enormous problem.

[LGR4GM]

Every time someone calls Larson a 4th line center I laugh because he wasn't that his last 2 seasons in Buffalo. 

1 hour ago, Derrico said:

This is the signing and associated decision that made me think either Nightingale is completely incompetent in his job as head of analytics or Adams isn't listening to his analytics staff.

 

Either way this is an enormous problem.

Yup! Either nightingale is bad, or no one listens to him. Both are signs this team is destined to wallow in mediocre for a long time. 

[Thorner]

21 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Every time someone calls Larson a 4th line center I laugh because he wasn't that his last 2 seasons in Buffalo. 

Yup! Either nightingale is bad, or no one listens to him. Both are signs this team is destined to wallow in mediocre for a long time. 

Jeeze where do I sign up?