Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
The Sabres even lucked out in getting a franchise center in Eichel.
And they f'd that up.
That's the tipping point. Eichel was a guy to build around on and off the ice, including to draw other players there.
Them pushing him out, including by not allowing him to have some say in how to handle his health issues, pushed them to this point.
It doesn't get talked about enough in terms of how BAD that screwed that up. The trade was meh. But the issue isn't the trade, it's what led to the trade.
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I agree that it kind of got forgotten, but I will say that the Sabres poor handling of the relationship with Eichel was WIDELY reported and discussed during the trade process. Around here we were all dunking on the sabres repeatedly for not allowing the surgery. There were a few who were pushing back on its "experimental" nature vis a vis hockey players, but ultimately thats an even more insane dunning-kruger moment than the rest of us armchair GMs usually present lol.