Quote:
Originally Posted by Poe969
If he makes his teammates better, why isn't the team better?
I do think he's good but I think he's over rated and not worth what some people are suggesting. And this injury and possible surgery are scary as heck. Getting him will not make the team an contender, they'll still be an average team that just gave up prospects and picks that will weaken them even more in the future.
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This thinking is always kind of weird to me.
What's the team supposed to be better than with him? What baseline are you measuring it against? There's no player in the league that can be air-dropped onto a bottom feeder and turn them into a contender. None. So "better" might be the difference between "worst team by a mile" and "worst team by a quarter mile."
Buffalo is it's own thing. It's a graveyard. ROR also gave up on hockey because of his time in Buffalo, and then went and led a different team to a cup. It's a different beast entirely.
Not saying that's a lock to happen w/ Eichel, but honestly, it's the absolute laziest thinking to assume a every player on a bad team must also be bad. You only have to look at a team like Vegas that was full of "scrubs" or the guys who have left teams like Buffalo and Edmonton to know that it's lazy.
Ryan O'Reilly, Robyn Lehner, Evander Kane, Taylor Hall... plenty of guys who left and improved (some even immediately). Then you have guys like Jeff Skinner who fell right off a cliff in Buffalo.
Don't discount the negative impact that team has on individuals. It's a mess.