Quote:
Originally Posted by direwolf
Lol @ Eichel. Requests a trade from bottom feeder Buffalo
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Can you really blame him though? Ignoring the argument over their health and the GM Jack Eichel stuff, just on the surface this looks like a team you want to get away from.
He had 355 points in 375 games with the Sabres. It's not like he wasn't doing his job when healthy. The next highest point producers while he was a Sabre were Reinhart (traded for futures), Ristolainen (traded for futures), O'Reilly (traded for futures, though Thompson broke out this year), Kane (traded for futures, though part of that package would bring in Montour). Then while he was there he saw Skinner, Okposo and especially Moulson have these albatross contracts (though Skinner has bounced back).
When it comes to their recent first round picks, it's a gloomy situation.
Girgensons, the Latvian locomotive, was supposed to become a two-way can't miss top six center. Instead he's closer to a fourth liner.
Grigorenko, very much his opposite, was supposed to be this high-risk, high-reward, offensive talent that had top line potential that fell to them but he was out of the league quickly (and back).
Ristolainen and Zadorov were supposed to be in that tier with Nurse right below Jones for that 2013 deep draft. Instead Ristolainen was made to anchor the team's defensive corps when he probably should have had developed outside the NHL. He became one of the worst WAR defenseman in the league but was still played a ton. Zadorov's on his fourth NHL team finding a spot on the third line.
Mittelstadt was supposed to be challenging for the Calder when he made the NHL and cement himself in the top six. Instead he hasn't quite cracked 80 total points 5 years after being drafted.
Nylander was a bust. Jury is certainly still out on Cozens but Seider is challenging for the Calder while Zegras, Boldy, and Caulfield have all had more impact so far despite being drafted after.
Reinhart and Dahlin are fine on paper but neither really lived up to the hype in much the same way as Eichel. Reinhart being drafted ahead of Draisaitl is also telling. In a vacuum you could probably simply put down the discrepancy between Draisaitl and Reinhart as luck but when a pattern of underperforming first round picks never living up to their expectations keeps happening, it's no longer looking like just luck. And it doesn't help that Reinhart goes to Florida and immediately has his best season. Dahlin was supposed to be challenging for the Norris at this point in his "generational" career. Instead he's an after thought compared to the real number 1 defensemen. And of course Eichel was supposed to be challenging McDavid in a Crosby vs Ovechkin situation but Eichel isn't even the second best player in his draft at this point.
So you have an incompetent team that has pro-scouting issues giving massive contracts out that become terrible almost immediately. And either poor amateur scouting (except most players went exactly where they expected to) or poor developmental skills. On a team that trades away their good players for futures because their top players don't want to stay. Because it's a team that hasn't made the playoffs in over a decade. Then to add insult to injury (literally), the Sabres decide to go into the season with 40 year old Craig Anderson as their goalie?
Sabres could turn it around quickly if Power is as good as he was touted as but you could have said the same thing about the Sabres for a decade now almost. I won't blame anyone for trying to get away from that gongshow, especially when they disagree about how best to deal with an injury as serious as his was. Eichel's probably more likely to see the playoffs with Vegas than he would have with the Sabres anytime soon.
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