Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
They better be. This is a $50M decision.
He needs to be a hell of a lot better than he was in Buffalo. He has to learn to play both sides of the puck or Sutter will kill him. If he brings his Buffalo performance with him, we'll be Buffalo West.
That's a great narrative, but not true. Buffalo has made plenty of moves to improve the team and they have iced some good talent. Why that talent hasn't turned into something, especially with a supposed superstar like Jack Eichel on the team, is a concern. Coaching plays a big part in that, as we've seen in Calgary and Edmonton. But the larger problem still lands directly on the players and not coming together to play like a team.
As would I. It would be division champion or bust, then at least the second or third round of the playoffs. The problem is, our salary structure and lack of organizational depth may not make either of expectations a possibility. You need depth to go anywhere in the playoffs. Depth would still be our biggest problem.
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What makes you think Sutter will kill Eichel? If he's willing to work with Sean Monahan he would ecstatic to work with Eichel.
This is the NHL- no one guy can carry a team- even the best player in the world can only elevate Edmonton to a bubble team so why are you blaming Jack Eichel for all of Buffalo's failures?
What exactly have the Sabers done to improve their team like you say?
-Ice Ristolainen 25 minutes/night since he was 20 years old and never find a guy to share those minutes?
-Use 5 coaches over the course of 6 years with only 1 of those guys having significant experience?
-Never finding a number 1 goalie until Lehner showed up and then immediately letting him walk for nothing
-Using a combination of Ullmark, Hutton, Tokarski, Johnson, Nilsson in the net?
-Giving massive contracts to Skinner and Okposo?
-Surrounding Eichel and O'Rielly with such a crap team that O'Rielly lost his love for the game? Then trading him for peanuts?
Buffalo has been a one man show basically since 2015 and one man can only do so much. If Calgary were to acquire Eichel they would be in a vastly better spot to compete than Buffalo ever was.
Even right now Calgary is closer to a contender than they are to being Buffalo West and that's without Eichel.
Depth is much easier to acquire than elite talent- take the shot when you can.
Gaudreau - Eichel - Coleman
Tkahcuk - Lindholm - Mangiapane
Dube - Backlund - Pitlick
Lucic - Ritchie - Lewis
is fine depth- maybe not the best in the league, but great defensively in the bottom six- especially under a Sutter team.