Eichel thrown under the bus by Vegas HC Bruce Cassidy

[kas23]

16 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Well if that's the case it begs the question why VGK traded for Eichel and his contract in the first place? If I recall, at the time Jack was thought of as a franchise-transformative player.

Or the bigger elephant in the room is does VGK move on from Eichel and his contract. Iirc, his NMC kicks in this offseason. If they don’t move him, they’ll be stuck with that contract till the end. 

[MBD]

10 minutes ago, kas23 said:

Or the bigger elephant in the room is does VGK move on from Eichel and his contract. Iirc, his NMC kicks in this offseason. If they don’t move him, they’ll be stuck with that contract till the end. 

Will anyone want to take on the player/contract is the question.

[K-9]

22 minutes ago, kas23 said:

Or the bigger elephant in the room is does VGK move on from Eichel and his contract. Iirc, his NMC kicks in this offseason. If they don’t move him, they’ll be stuck with that contract till the end. 

His full no move clause kicked in last July. They’re stuck unless he agrees to leave. 

[MattPie]

4 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Well if that's the case it begs the question why VGK traded for Eichel and his contract in the first place? If I recall, at the time Jack was thought of as a franchise-transformative player.

There's always a GM that thinks a player is just in a bad spot and it'll totally be different on their team. In fairness, the dysfunctional 2010s Sabres were probably the best chance of that being true, but so far it appears that Jack is Jack. Change of scenery is a thing (Jost), but not always (Risto).

[mjd1001]

6 hours ago, kas23 said:

Or the bigger elephant in the room is does VGK move on from Eichel and his contract. Iirc, his NMC kicks in this offseason. If they don’t move him, they’ll be stuck with that contract till the end. 

Jack being a guy who for his career is 25th-30th in the league in points per game, at his pre-injury peak was knocking on the door to top 10 in points per game for a year, and who sometimes has good 'fancy stat' numbers regarding 2 way play and other seasons doesn't....that is a player that another time would probably be interested in.

HOWEVER, think as if you are a GM around the league with a contending team, how much would you give up for him?  Jack being a guy that post injury is 92nd in the league in points per game, has that major injury on his resume, appears to have had a couple other minor injuries since then in about a season since he was back, whos old team got better with the return they received for him and his new team got worse since he arrived....AND a contender that wants him has to fit in is $10m per year deal (for a few more years) under their cap?   I really, really don't see many other teams having any interest in aquiring him at all almost under any circumstances, unless they are giving up a fracition of what Vegas gave up for him.  Almost any contender that could use him would have to do cap gymanstics to get him to fit, and maybe/probabaly have to move/get rid of players that are his equal or better to make him fit.

Vegas is probably stuck with him and just has to hope he gets really healthy and can somehow turn is game around and have his best 2-3 seasons EVER in the upcoming years.

Edited January 30, 2023 by mjd1001

[kas23]

5 hours ago, K-9 said:

His full no move clause kicked in last July. They’re stuck unless he agrees to leave. 

Good to know. That’s looking like a bad contract. $10M for 92nd in total points since coming back. Plus, his reported lack of effort off the puck. 

[RochesterExpat]

6 minutes ago, kas23 said:

Good to know. That’s looking like a bad contract. $10M for 92nd in total points since coming back. Plus, his reported lack of effort off the puck. 

There are 13 players carrying a cap hit of $10m a year or more other than Eichel. That list includes Carey Price who is LTIRetired. Bobrovsky is also on the list as well so, when goalies are removed, that's a total of 11 other players making $10m a year. That list includes two defensemen as well (Doughty and Karlsson). So now we're talking 10 forwards in the entire league making his cap hit or more.

Does anyone think Eichel is a top 10 league-wide forward? If we want to narrow it further, we can remove wingers (Panarin, Marner, Kane) and that leaves 7 centers. Is Eichel really that good to justify it?

If we look at comparable contracts for age at signing, date of signing, games played and point production, this is what we get:

McDavid signed his contract 4 months before Eichel after posting 100 points in 82 games and 9 points in 13 playoff games. The year prior he had 48 points in 45 games.

Draisaitl signed his contract 2 months before Eichel. He posted 77 points in 82 games and 16 points in 13 playoff games. The year prior he had 51 points in 72 games.

 

What about Jack? Jack posted 57 points in 61 games following a rookie season of 56 points in 81 games.

His contract should have been line with Draisaitl's contract of $8.5m, but Buffalo instead gambled that Eichel would be at the level of McDavid when McDavid signed his contract (while Edmonton gambled that McDavid would be the McDavid he is today) and I'm sure Eichel's camp argued Draisaitl was a year older and more along in development, etc.

Funny enough, if you swap Eichel and Draisaitl's contracts, suddenly neither looks bad. Eichel at $8.5x8 is more appropriate cap hit for his production that followed and Draisaitl at $10x8 is pretty fair to the player Draisaitl developed into. 

[PromoTheRobot]

That's a shame...

 

[PerreaultForever]

15 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

Well if that's the case it begs the question why VGK traded for Eichel and his contract in the first place? If I recall, at the time Jack was thought of as a franchise-transformative player.

Vegas got that early taste of huge success and it went to their heads imo. They believed they could buy/add the missing pieces quickly and take it over the top. In their minds adding an Eichel for a mid level player for them (Tuch), a propsect who hadn't proven himself yet (Krebs) and a few future picks seemed like a no brainer upgrade and on paper I guess it was. 

They didn't consider chemistry and character though. If they had, they wouldn't have dumped the very popular Fluery for the nutjob Lehner to start. 

[SABRES 0311]

26 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Vegas got that early taste of huge success and it went to their heads imo. They believed they could buy/add the missing pieces quickly and take it over the top. In their minds adding an Eichel for a mid level player for them (Tuch), a propsect who hadn't proven himself yet (Krebs) and a few future picks seemed like a no brainer upgrade and on paper I guess it was. 

They didn't consider chemistry and character though. If they had, they wouldn't have dumped the very popular Fluery for the nutjob Lehner to start. 

Fair assessment. Talent is great to have but how does the talent mesh with linemates and system.

[Eleven]

13 minutes ago, SABRES 0311 said:

Fair assessment. Talent is great to have but how does the talent mesh with linemates and system.

Hard work beats drinking hard when drinking doesn't work talent.  --Stetson Bennett.

[Doohicksie]

On 1/30/2023 at 7:14 AM, PromoTheRobot said:

Well if that's the case it begs the question why VGK traded for Eichel and his contract in the first place? If I recall, at the time Jack was thought of as a franchise-transformative player.

I thought he was supposed to be more of a Missing Piece on a team that was already close.

[French Collection]

4 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

I thought he was supposed to be more of a Missing Piece on a team that was already close.

Yes, they never had a true 1C to match up with other teams. 
 

William Karlsson and Chandler Stephenson weren’t enough in their eyes.

[Indabuff]

12 hours ago, Eleven said:

Hard work beats drinking hard when drinking doesn't work talent.  --Stetson Bennett.

Deep thinking by a cologne

[Contempt]

1 minute ago, Indabuff said:

Deep thinking by a cologne

He's all hat and no cattle.

[Mustache of God]

My dream scenario would be to have the Sabres make the playoffs and Vegas to fall out of the running - gotta make sure that 2nd round pick is worth something good.

[MattPie]

24 minutes ago, Mustache of God said:

My dream scenario would be to have the Sabres make the playoffs and Vegas to fall out of the running - gotta make sure that 2nd round pick is worth something good.

Not impossible, looks like LA, EDM, and VGK are essentially tied for the last two division spots, and there 2 teams 5 points behind for the wild card spots. So it'd take LA and EDM to play a game or two better than VGK to put them into the Wildcard, and COL and CAL a good run (or a bad run by VGK) to be out of the wildcard at the end of the season.

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, Mustache of God said:

My dream scenario would be to have the Sabres make the playoffs and Vegas to fall out of the running - gotta make sure that 2nd round pick is worth something good.

This is my sincere hope as well.

[Scottysabres]

22 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

That's a shame...

 

Well maybe if Jack had spent more time practicing those toe drags or shooting at the actual net instead of perfecting his every shift shoulder slumping with Warner Brother cartoon eye rolls, he may have been picked to carry Tage's gear in to the locker room.

Instead, he was shipped off to gamblers anonymous heaven, where his perfected shoulder slumping and eye rolls blend in at the rows of slot machines.