Friedman Interviews Jack Eichel

[Brawndo]

Full Interview later 

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by Brawndo

[WildCard]

We sucked for years and he wanted out while he was still in his prime to win a championship. Honestly I don't blame him. Wonder if McDavid does the same.

[LGR4GM]

Jack openly says he was not happy with the idea of a rebuild and people will still crap all over Adams for not keeping him. 

8 minutes ago, WildCard said:

We sucked for years and he wanted out while he was still in his prime to win a championship. Honestly I don't blame him. Wonder if McDavid does the same.

I don't either. I don't blame the Sabres for wanting to rebuild either. It didn't work and both parties need to move on. 

[K-9]

So, it wasn’t KA looking to move him, it was Eichel not wanting to be here. 

[WildCard]

Just now, LGR4GM said:

Jack openly says he was not happy with the idea of a rebuild and people will still crap all over Adams for not keeping him. 

I don't either. I don't blame the Sabres for wanting to rebuild either. It didn't work and both parties need to move on. 

Yup. Sabres screwed the pooch by not fielding a competent organization and team for years with him. Recognized it wasn't working and went for a rebuild. The decision to rebuild was correct but it also didn't align with Eichel's timeline, which is fine. 

1 minute ago, K-9 said:

So, it wasn’t KA looking to move him, it was Eichel not wanting to be here. 

I don't think it's KA vs Eichel. I look at it vs Sabres organization pre-KA that drove KA and Eichel to this. I also don't think KA handled this well at all in the media. 

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, K-9 said:

So, it wasn’t KA looking to move him, it was Eichel not wanting to be here. 

And Adams tried in year 1 to fix the problem and everything went south. Krueger, Hutton, Hall all contributed to a terrible season and Eichel got injured. 

Adams then decided to pull the trigger and fully rebuild. 

Literally from Jack's mouth we now know why Adams was willing to listen last summer and how he tried to give Jack a chance before it all blew up. 

[darksabre]

2 minutes ago, K-9 said:

So, it wasn’t KA looking to move him, it was Eichel not wanting to be here. 

Looks like it's both to me

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, WildCard said:

Yup. Sabres screwed the pooch by not fielding a competent organization and team for years with him. Recognized it wasn't working and went for a rebuild. The decision to rebuild was correct but it also didn't align with Eichel's timeline, which is fine. 

Right. It's still a choice to go in that direction. It's not like Eichel wanted out "full stop", it was because of the direction of the team. Adams should (and did) definitely operate by way of what HE, Kevyn Adams, thinks is best, but the entire process still comes down to choices, on both sides. 

1 minute ago, darksabre said:

Looks like it's both to me

Right. They were ok with keeping Botterill too, right, if he agreed to cut all those costs. 

And they were good with keeping Eichel, if he agreed to a rebuild. 

They are making their choices and then the chips are falling where they may. 

[Cheektorado]

Jack talked to him last year.  Exactly what I thought happened.  The whole thing ended up the way it needed to.

[Thorner]

6 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Yup. Sabres screwed the pooch by not fielding a competent organization and team for years with him. Recognized it wasn't working and went for a rebuild. The decision to rebuild was correct but it also didn't align with Eichel's timeline, which is fine. 

I don't think it's KA vs Eichel. I look at it vs Sabres organization pre-KA that drove KA and Eichel to this. I also don't think KA handled this well at all in the media. 

It's also interesting that he did indeed try to "go for it", at first, the Hall year. It was a complete fail of a season. 

Did it fail because Adams struggled with fielding a team that can win, so he decided to, again, go with what he originally wanted, a long rebuild, rather than trusting his abilities to get it right?

Or, did he realize the team HAD to be built "the long way", and, to his credit, moved things in that direction appropriately? 

Shall see. 

[K-9]

3 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Yup. Sabres screwed the pooch by not fielding a competent organization and team for years with him. Recognized it wasn't working and went for a rebuild. The decision to rebuild was correct but it also didn't align with Eichel's timeline, which is fine. 

I don't think it's KA vs Eichel. I look at it vs Sabres organization pre-KA that drove KA and Eichel to this. I also don't think KA handled this well at all in the media. 

I never thought it was KA vs. Eichel or vice versa as that’s a very narrow view, but I recall some fans suggesting KA stabbed Jack in the back by looking to get rid of him. KA has taken flack for the “players who want to be here” theme he’s been pushing. I think Jack’s admission kind of vindicates KA’s position on that. 

There’s also the question of, since Jack wanted out before last season started, how did that manifest in the locker room; what impact did that have on his captaincy and position as team leader? 

[K-9]

8 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Looks like it's both to me

Sure, after Jack made it clear he no longer wanted to play in Buffalo. But as @LGR4GMpointed out, KA first tried to accommodate Jack by adding pieces before last season. It was only after the season went south that KA pulled the trigger on the rebuild, imo.

[Brawndo]

 

[darksabre]

2 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Sure, after Jack made it clear he no longer wanted to play in Buffalo. But as @LGR4GMpointed out, KA first tried to accommodate Jack by adding pieces before last season. It was only after the season went south that KA pulled the trigger on the rebuild, imo.

Just because Jack didn't want to be here for a rebuild doesn't mean KA was obligated to care. 

They traded him because they wanted to. 

[LGR4GM]

9 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Just because Jack didn't want to be here for a rebuild doesn't mean KA was obligated to care. 

They traded him because they wanted to. 

So if I follow the stuff correctly we have people saying that Adams is terrible for not allowing Eichel to get his surgery. He is terrible for not trading him sooner. He is terrible for not trying to build around Eichel. And he is terrible because he cared about trading Eichel after Eichel didn't want to be here. That cover everyone's gripes?

[thewookie1]

1 minute ago, darksabre said:

Just because Jack didn't want to be here for a rebuild doesn't mean KA was obligated to care. 

They traded him because they wanted to. 

It wouldn't exactly be easy to rebuild a team with the captain being passive aggressive. Especially seeing as Eichel proved that he was disinterested in being professional about thing at the end of last season.

[K-9]

7 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Just because Jack didn't want to be here for a rebuild doesn't mean KA was obligated to care. 

They traded him because they wanted to. 

Technically, that’s 100% true. The Sabres always had the option of not acceding to his desire to be moved. 

But I view it as they traded him because they had to. It is simply an untenable situation when the team captain and face of the franchise demands to be traded. Especially after the five years of futility that was the previous rebuild. Time to move on. 

[K-9]

16 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

My guess is no F ing way. He asked to be traded long before he was injured. 

[Gatorman0519]

We had an elite superstar and our management failed to build a team around him. Bottom line. Inept front office and coaching. Hopefully KA and all the new people in the front office will do this right in rebuild 3.0. Maybe out if the ashes the franchise will resurrect back to the top. It’s honestly been a mismanaged team since 07 and has never stopped. That’s why we are looking at the NHL playoff futility record. 

[thewookie1]

In the end Eichel was a great player, supported the community but was a mediocre leader and a terrible captain.

A terrible captain because he took the C, and then immediately after one season gave up after we missed the playoffs due to Covid and Botterill's inaction.

[WildCard]

24 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

Yeah that's a no. Surgery or not his decision revolved around the rebuild.

[darksabre]

12 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Technically, that’s 100% true. The Sabres always had the option of not acceding to his desire to be moved. 

But I view it as they traded him because they had to. It is simply an untenable situation when the team captain and face of the franchise demands to be traded. Especially after the five years of futility that was the previous rebuild. Time to move on. 

Yeah, I'm never going to get to "they had to." 

[Thorner]

24 minutes ago, darksabre said:

Just because Jack didn't want to be here for a rebuild doesn't mean KA was obligated to care. 

They traded him because they wanted to. 

And he's also...choosing to rebuild. So while he doesn't need to be "blamed" for Jack wanting to leave, if the trade were to not work out, Adams would still be answerable for overall results, and how the trade affected such, considering it's all a fallout from the chosen course of strategy, anyways. 

[triumph_communes]

Pretty much every narrative about Eichel being spoiled was confirmed. He initiated conversation to leave when KA started, it wasn’t KA’s choice. The whole charade about surgery had nothing to do with Eichel wanting out, he would’ve been locker room cancer even if he had ADR and was healthy again. 

[WildCard]

Just now, triumph_communes said:

Pretty much every narrative about Eichel being spoiled was confirmed. He initiated conversation to leave when KA started, it wasn’t KA’s choice. The whole charade about surgery had nothing to do with Eichel wanting out, he would’ve been locker room cancer even if he had ADR and was healthy again. 

How is he spoiled? We sucked for years and he has a window. Is he obligated to waste his entire career here because we drafted him?