Kevyn Adams has botched the Eichel situation horribly

[dudacek]

Whatever respect he deserves for not caving to a bad offer, is voided by his inability to find a way to make a deal happen.

He seems to have left himself no escape hatch in order to rehabilitate Jack’s value.

Medical compromise seems off the table. He hasn’t been able to make a creative deal involving conditionals or salary dumps materialize. And he’s boxed himself out of allowing Jack a dignified road back to the team by allowing things to get personal. Whatever breaks the logjam is going to come months after it could have, too late to help Granato and the kids execute this seasons plan.

He’s done a good job of making Jack the bad guy, but in the process he’s allowed things to get to this point and he’s failed to execute his job: making the team better.

Tell me I’m wrong.

Edited September 22, 2021 by dudacek

[GASabresIUFAN]

Why is this a surprise? 

 

[Wyldnwoody44]

Oh look, it's KA following Terry around

[LabattBlue]

12 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Whatever respect he deserves for not caving to a bad offer, is voided by his inability to find a way to make a deal happen.

He seems to have left himself no escape hatch in order to rehabilitate Jack’s value.

Medical compromise seems off the table. He hasn’t been able to make a creative deal involving conditionals or salary dumps materialize. And he’s boxed himself in to allowing Jack a dignified road back to the team by allowing things to get personal. Whatever breaks the logjam is going to come months after it could have, too late to help Granato and the kids execute this seasons plan.

He’s done a good job of making Jack the bad guy, but in the process he’s allowed things to get to this point and he’s failed to execute his job: making the team better.

Tell me I’m wrong.

I can't say you are wrong.  I'll say the same thing I've been saying for weeks...what a mess.

[Doohicksie]

Could you have done better?

[PerreaultForever]

9 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Could you have done better?

This is impossible to answer because we don't know what offers he has turned down. 

Hypothetically I'd have to say yes I and many others here might have because we felt the urgency required. Adams deconstructed the team but did it backwards moving the easiest pieces first and the biggest/toughest one still on the books while also botching goaltending and possibly whatever's happening with Dahlin. 

Overall, really, the question for me is what has Adams done well yet?

[SDS]

You’re wrong. 

[SwampD]

What if Jack’s value is playing for the Sabres? What if his injury was going to take this long to recover from no matter the treatment plan?

We are tanking this year. It’s just a fact. What if KA’s plan is to get more early draft talent and have Jack return the following year and kill it for us with them, or later this year with a team that he believes in.

There is just so much we don’t know.

[pi2000]

KA is showing some backbone here and it requires patience on our part.

The worst thing he could do is panic sell, which is what we've seen from recent Sabres GMs.

Holding the asset until you receive fair market value is the correct play... albeit something we're simply not used to as Sabres fans, so we get posts like this, smh.

[thewookie1]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Whatever respect he deserves for not caving to a bad offer, is voided by his inability to find a way to make a deal happen.

He seems to have left himself no escape hatch in order to rehabilitate Jack’s value.

Medical compromise seems off the table. He hasn’t been able to make a creative deal involving conditionals or salary dumps materialize. And he’s boxed himself out of allowing Jack a dignified road back to the team by allowing things to get personal. Whatever breaks the logjam is going to come months after it could have, too late to help Granato and the kids execute this seasons plan.

He’s done a good job of making Jack the bad guy, but in the process he’s allowed things to get to this point and he’s failed to execute his job: making the team better.

Tell me I’m wrong.

You're wrong

Primarily because there isn't enough information.

Medical compromise seems off the table. 

It takes two to tango and it seems like the Sabres are a bit more flexible than Eichel. The Sabres keep telling Eichel to find a consensus of doctors to which he has failed to do so yet has dug in on his desired treatment.

He hasn’t been able to make a creative deal involving conditionals or salary dumps materialize.

We have no clue what he's been trying to do. All the information we have is that Buffalo is asking for a king's ransom and other teams are refusing to even give ransom for a peasant. NO conditionals can be placed on players and I doubt KA wants 4 picks.

And he’s boxed himself out of allowing Jack a dignified road back to the team by allowing things to get personal.

To be honest, Eichel sort of did that to himself. Between his end of season statement, former agent's tirade and trying to use his preferred surgeon as a propaganda tool on Friedman's podcast doesn't exactly come across as dignified or in good nature. The Sabres have literally only done 2 things, state they will not trade him for pennies and as such are in control of his contract and stating their doctors are unwilling to sign off on the replacement disk surgery.

Whatever breaks the logjam is going to come months after it could have, too late to help Granato and the kids execute this seasons plan.

Better to get better assets than lesser assets sooner; prospects are exactly like money placed in CDs. They don't automatically collect interest and gain value over time. Granato and the kids will do with what they have like every other team has always done.

He’s done a good job of making Jack the bad guy, but in the process he’s allowed things to get to this point and he’s failed to execute his job: making the team better.

Again, information wise we cannot actually know if there was some earlier great trade worth Eichel. Last time we rushed into a trade and set up a line of no return was with ROR and we all saw how that went. Patience is what we need right now. Of course if we fail to get great assets it will have been for nothing but the general idea has been done correctly for the most part.

[Hoss]

1 hour ago, dudacek said:

Whatever respect he deserves for not caving to a bad offer, is voided by his inability to find a way to make a deal happen.

He seems to have left himself no escape hatch in order to rehabilitate Jack’s value.

Medical compromise seems off the table. He hasn’t been able to make a creative deal involving conditionals or salary dumps materialize. And he’s boxed himself out of allowing Jack a dignified road back to the team by allowing things to get personal. Whatever breaks the logjam is going to come months after it could have, too late to help Granato and the kids execute this seasons plan.

He’s done a good job of making Jack the bad guy, but in the process he’s allowed things to get to this point and he’s failed to execute his job: making the team better.

Tell me I’m wrong.

I find it odd that people are just sitting there and saying they respect KA exclusively because a deal hasn't happened. We don't know what deals have or haven't been offered. We do know this situation looks historically bad for the franchise. That's enough for me to say Adams is completely lost here and the situation will only continue to spiral until a deal is done.

[JKB1646]

While this whole situation has been nothing but a black eye for the Sabres organization. I am firmly in KA’s corner in dealing with Eichel! There will be no deal ever, ever worse than the ROR trade and its great to see some back bone by the Sabres management. As bad as this has been for us, Eichel’s reputation has taken a beating and his career is wasting away! Yes it doesn’t help the Sabres but at least we learned a hard lesson via the ROR fiasco! Look out for #1….that’s the team not some whining B*#€%h!

[Weave]

I think this was inevitable the moment Jack wanted to go rogue with his neck. 
 

Why he wanted to do his own thing with his neck……. there may be some Sabres blame there.

[Huckleberry]

The Duchene trade out of Colorado took 3 teams and more than a year to complete and Duchene at best was a 2C.

If you want to take less than the Duchene trade for Eichel be my guest, but I rather have Eichel on the team in a year then.

[Pimlach]

7 hours ago, dudacek said:

Whatever respect he deserves for not caving to a bad offer, is voided by his inability to find a way to make a deal happen.

He seems to have left himself no escape hatch in order to rehabilitate Jack’s value.

Medical compromise seems off the table. He hasn’t been able to make a creative deal involving conditionals or salary dumps materialize. And he’s boxed himself out of allowing Jack a dignified road back to the team by allowing things to get personal. Whatever breaks the logjam is going to come months after it could have, too late to help Granato and the kids execute this seasons plan.

He’s done a good job of making Jack the bad guy, but in the process he’s allowed things to get to this point and he’s failed to execute his job: making the team better.

Tell me I’m wrong.

You might be partially wrong. 
 

In this case it takes 3 parties to successfully negotiate.  Who left Jack no escape path, KA or Jack?   That we don’t really know.  Who fired their agent?  Jack.   Is that a sign that he was unhappy?   Yes.  Could he have felt his agent gave bad advise?  Yes.  So how does all this lay at the feet of KA?  There was a lot of time wasted.  
 

who did not come back to Buffalo to be with the team?  Jack 

who went public with a disconnect?  Jack

who lowered their value by by setting up a public medical sideshow?  Jack

 

Jack is equally accountable for not finding a “dignified” way back,  he left the team in an undignified way, unbecoming of a captain and of a player on contract.  

The trade looks unlikely and now the olympics look unlikely.  Maybe, maybe not.   

Adams is a virgin GM following orders from an unqualified hockey VP.  He probably missed some things.  Adams has failed in the ways you state but Jack is equally accountable for this fiasco.  The petulant star has done nothing to lower risk perception to other GMs. 

 

[Flashsabre]

Adams has handled this well. Bending over for a prima Donna player and moving him for pennies on the dollar is botching the deal.

 

If he traded Jack for the ROR return you would be on here complaining about him being incompetent.

Why don’t you lay out your plan of how you would have handled this including how you convinced other GMs to agree to your hypothetical trade.

[JohnC]

8 hours ago, dudacek said:

Whatever respect he deserves for not caving to a bad offer, is voided by his inability to find a way to make a deal happen.

He seems to have left himself no escape hatch in order to rehabilitate Jack’s value.

Medical compromise seems off the table. He hasn’t been able to make a creative deal involving conditionals or salary dumps materialize. And he’s boxed himself out of allowing Jack a dignified road back to the team by allowing things to get personal. Whatever breaks the logjam is going to come months after it could have, too late to help Granato and the kids execute this seasons plan.

He’s done a good job of making Jack the bad guy, but in the process he’s allowed things to get to this point and he’s failed to execute his job: making the team better.

Tell me I’m wrong.

Sometimes you get involved in a situation where there is no simple or quick solution. There was never going to be a quick resolution to this complicated health issue because the first responsible course of action was to see if over time it could heal by itself. It would have made no sense to resort to either one of the surgeries until this first extended wait and see phase was gone through. 

As far as the friction between the two sides that was inevitable. The organization wanted to take the more cautious and conventional surgical approach and the player side wanted a less than conventional surgical approach that at least theoretically had a shorter rehabilitation period. It shouldn't be surprising that these two different views resulted in conflict. It simply was inevitable. 

Overall, KA has handled this situation as well as can be expected. He is not going to give up a valuable asset for pennies on the dollar for the sake of getting ridding of a problem. That is the right thing to do. If it takes another year to resolve the situation, then so be it. 

 

[WildCard]

6 hours ago, Hoss said:

I find it odd that people are just sitting there and saying they respect KA exclusively because a deal hasn't happened. We don't know what deals have or haven't been offered. We do know this situation looks historically bad for the franchise. That's enough for me to say Adams is completely lost here and the situation will only continue to spiral until a deal is done.

100%

[bob_sauve28]

7 hours ago, Hoss said:

I find it odd that people are just sitting there and saying they respect KA exclusively because a deal hasn't happened. We don't know what deals have or haven't been offered. We do know this situation looks historically bad for the franchise. That's enough for me to say Adams is completely lost here and the situation will only continue to spiral until a deal is done.

Winning solves a lot of problems. But winning looks like it might not happen anytime soon, so KA is going to really look bad. He is in a tough spot. An injured super star that wants to be traded. I don't blame KA for not being able to trade a horse with a broken leg. The other teams are not stupid. I'd rather e hold onto the asset to see if the situation improves so we can get the best return. It's just the best thing to do, IMO 

[Doohicksie]

8 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

This is impossible to answer

That was my point.  Thank you.

[Doohicksie]

5 hours ago, JKB1646 said:

While this whole situation has been nothing but a black eye for the Sabres organization. I am firmly in KA’s corner in dealing with Eichel! There will be no deal ever, ever worse than the ROR trade and its great to see some back bone by the Sabres management. As bad as this has been for us, Eichel’s reputation has taken a beating and his career is wasting away! Yes it doesn’t help the Sabres but at least we learned a hard lesson via the ROR fiasco! Look out for #1….that’s the team not some whining B*#€%h!

I like everything about this post except for the exclamation points.

[dudacek]

8 hours ago, pi2000 said:

KA is showing some backbone here and it requires patience on our part.

The worst thing he could do is panic sell, which is what we've seen from recent Sabres GMs.

Holding the asset until you receive fair market value is the correct play... albeit something we're simply not used to as Sabres fans, so we get posts like this, smh.

No, leveraging the asset for fair market value is the correct play.

2 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

The Duchene trade out of Colorado took 3 teams and more than a year to complete and Duchene at best was a 2C.

If you want to take less than the Duchene trade for Eichel be my guest, but I rather have Eichel on the team in a year then.

I think a lot of you have missed the point of this (deliberately provocative) thread.

A lot of people (me included) don't want Adams to take less than market value. But their satisfaction that he hasn't made a bad trade has blinded them to the fact that he has failed to make a good one, or apparently made any progress in removing the obstacles blocking it.

Too many of you have chosen to adopt a side in this. It should not be about Jack getting his way, versus Adams staying strong.

It should be about making the Buffalo Sabres better.

To the bold, you didn't have Eichel on the team in the spring, you don't have him now, and there is a damn good chance you won't have him in a year.

One of the best assets in the NHL is sitting on a shelf, not making the Buffalo Sabres better.

50 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Adams has handled this well. Bending over for a prima Donna player and moving him for pennies on the dollar is botching the deal.

If he traded Jack for the ROR return you would be on here complaining about him being incompetent.

Why don’t you lay out your plan of how you would have handled this including how you convinced other GMs to agree to your hypothetical trade.

Yes, when you are a Buffalo Sabres fan, not ***** things up (yet) is equivalent to handling things well. This is precisely my point.

Adams may have been dealt a bad hand here.

But he has failed to keep the team's relationship with its captain on track.

He has failed to find a way to resolve Jack's injury situation.

And he has failed to make a deal.

And people are OK with these failures because Jack is a "prima donna," we haven't got "bent over," and "we weren't planning on winning this season any way."

This is where @pi2000 would say "do better"

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by dudacek

[bob_sauve28]

3 minutes ago, dudacek said:

 

One of the best assets in the NHL is sitting on a shelf

 

 

He's injured and would be sitting no matter what, right? 

[dudacek]

2 minutes ago, bob_sauve28 said:

He's injured and would be sitting no matter what, right? 

He was injured in March and is no closer to being healthy, right?

People think (thought?) he could be traded despite being injured, right?

[bob_sauve28]

Just now, dudacek said:

He was injured in March and is no closer to being healthy, right?

People think (thought?) he could be traded despite being injured, right?

I never believed this. I think its crazy to expect them to be able to trade a player who may never play again. I mean this procedure sounds rather problematic. No wonder the Sabres can't find a dance partner.