Around The League 2021 season - part VIII

[Buggsy]

That’s a pretty big if. Eichel wants to go for a very significant surgery that typically gets done on people twice his age. He may never be healthy again from a functional NHL player standpoint. You’d have to trade for him knowing he’s potentially damaged goods. Maybe that’s a risk you’d take but until he has his surgery and rehabs you don’t know what you are dealing with.

Yes there is no disputing that part of the argument.

It was the sentiment that Eichel is a loser or is overrated or that Hischier was too big of an add that bugged me.

 

[My3Sons]

Yes there is no disputing that part of the argument.

It was the sentiment that Eichel is a loser or is overrated or that Hischier was too big of an add that bugged me.

It’s a controversial topic to be sure. No question a healthy and happy Eichel would be a huge upgrade. I think most posters would acknowledge that Eichel if healthy is better than Hischier. I just think that most posters cannot see a happy Eichel if he goes from one struggling team to another one. I am not sure Eichel cures everything for NJ. He helps the offense of course but the defense and goaltending are more of a concern as I see it. COL could make a play for Eichel and probably should. If Sakic doesn’t want him that to me would be a bit of a red flag.

 

[Mgd31]

Devils should hire Jacques Martin

 

[Devils731]

The purge continues.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Curious what direction they go in. You would imagine it'd be with a veteran type of coach after Quinn bottomed out.

 

[Triumph]

Of course my first thought is 'what coaches did Drury play for who are currently not head coaches in the league?' - Hartley's a big one, he won a Stanley Cup with him, and Friedman dropped something into his column about wanting to maybe come back to the NHL. I think Marc Crawford is probably gone forever. He played for Tom Renney in New York as well as Tortorella. And of course he played for Lindy Ruff in Buffalo but he's presumably not available.

 

[Devils731]

Curious what direction they go in. You would imagine it'd be with a veteran type of coach after Quinn bottomed out.

I hear Tortorella is available.

Without joking, I feel like he gets short term results and he has a relationship with some of the decision makers there. I would think they’ll discuss him as an option.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Of course my first thought is 'what coaches did Drury play for who are currently not head coaches in the league?' - Hartley's a big one, he won a Stanley Cup with him, and Friedman dropped something into his column about wanting to maybe come back to the NHL. I think Marc Crawford is probably gone forever. He played for Tom Renney in New York as well as Tortorella. And of course he played for Lindy Ruff in Buffalo but he's presumably not available.

Hartley is a good call and I could imagine that being a fit.

Torts back in NY would be something.

 

[MartyOwns]

please please please hire messier

 

[Goptor]

Head Coach Scott Gomez?

 

[Guttersniped]

So it's the + in a trade that makes people say no?

I would gladly traded our first and Nico for Eichel if he is healthy.

He’s literally not healthy though. He has a herniated disk in neck plus different lingering injuries that have hampered his production in the last ~30 games of 2019-20 season and all 21 games this season. (He didn’t score 2 goals in 21 games after averaging +30 goals over his career because he wasn’t trying, that was the other guy.)

I don’t see how we’re remotely a sure thing to make the playoffs next season with a gimpy Eichel in the toughest division while sacrificing the assets we need to improve the defense. I don’t know what the price would be. I do think we should fix the biggest weaknesses and empty spots on this team rather than upgrading the positions that are already filled.

I don’t exactly what kind of person Eichel is but the team would have to make him happy, not just drag his ass to Jersey. It’s a big ego that they would have to accommodate and integrate into the lock-room. And he’s infamously not a good locker-room guy.

If it seemed liked he was one of the last missing pieces to making us a contender and/or he was healthy the trade could make some sense for this team right now. I don’t think either of those are true and Eichel isn’t going to be excited about being on a better bubble team next season. Look at the standings. Eichel can be pissy and unhappy here too, pretty much immediately. He wants to be on a much better team right now.

The Wild are, as tradition apparently demands, a solidly mediocre playoff team. They would have been in playoffs in 2019-20 if they didn’t battle it out with San Jose to see who could have the worst goaltending in the NHL. I don’t know how this will work out for them but they have a great chance to win the Eichel auction. People forget one thing, GM love love love trading stars to the other Conference.

 

[Guttersniped]

Devils should hire Jacques Martin

They should and I would be thrilled. I can stop bitching about the low rent AC for once.

 

[guitarguyvic]

This talk about Eichel being a loser and selfish is just straight up silly. First of all, everyone on that Buffalo team is a “loser”. Ryan O’Reilly talked about how he lost the love for playing hockey when he was on that team. A year later he led a different team to their first ever Stanley Cup championship. The Sabres are a horribly run organization that makes nearly every player who joins them turn miserable. Do people really not see the pattern there?

Likewise calling him selfish based on recent comments is ridiculous and requires completely removing the context. I have zero problem with him acknowledging that he has to prioritize his own interests when they conflict with the interests of the worst run team in the league. Teams prioritize their own interests over the players all the time, why should a player get shit for telling the truth in the other direction?

Now, that being said...I wouldn’t trade for him unless he can somehow be attained for peanuts. The issue is two-fold as I see it. First is the unknown long-term outlook of his current injury situation. The second is the likelihood of him being disgruntled having to play for a team that is probably still a few years as way from winning consistently. I don’t blame him for that or think it’s a poor reflection of his attitude...he’s simply lost patience playing for a dead end org his entire career.

I do believe a large contingent of posters here are over-confident in their prognostications for our “core”. However, the risk of Eichel not panning out here is high enough that I wouldn’t want to jettison them in his favor, even if they never pan out to be better than they currently are. It simply isn’t a good fit given the circumstances and timing.

 

[Guttersniped]

It’s a controversial topic to be sure. No question a healthy and happy Eichel would be a huge upgrade. I think most posters would acknowledge that Eichel if healthy is better than Hischier. I just think that most posters cannot see a happy Eichel if he goes from one struggling team to another one. I am not sure Eichel cures everything for NJ. He helps the offense of course but the defense and goaltending are more of a concern as I see it. COL could make a play for Eichel and probably should. If Sakic doesn’t want him that to me would be a bit of a red flag.

Not sure Colorado could afford Eichel easily so I wouldn’t consider it a red flag. Makar and Landeskog gets paid this off-season and MacKinnon gets a raise in 2023. Ratanen makes 9.25m. Still I don’t know if they can fit 10m forward and his neck issues are a real concern. There is no way to know what will happen there, doctors can’t tell the future.

The Minnesota owner is always borderline desperate and loves win now moves, this is right up his alley.

 

[JrFischer54]

This talk about Eichel being a loser and selfish is just straight up silly. First of all, everyone on that Buffalo team is a “loser”. Ryan O’Reilly talked about how he lost the love for playing hockey when he was on that team. A year later he led a different team to their first ever Stanley Cup championship. The Sabres are a horribly run organization that makes nearly every player who joins them turn miserable. Do people really not see the pattern there?

Likewise calling him selfish based on recent comments is ridiculous and requires completely removing the context. I have zero problem with him acknowledging that he has to prioritize his own interests when they conflict with the interests of the worst run team in the league. Teams prioritize their own interests over the players all the time, why should a player get shit for telling the truth in the other direction?

Now, that being said...I wouldn’t trade for him unless he can somehow be attained for peanuts. The issue is two-fold as I see it. First is the unknown long-term outlook of his current injury situation. The second is the likelihood of him being disgruntled having to play for a team that is probably still a few years as way from winning consistently. I don’t blame him for that or think it’s a poor reflection of his attitude...he’s simply lost patience playing for a dead end org his entire career.

I do believe a large contingent of posters here are over-confident in their prognostications for our “core”. However, the risk of Eichel not panning out here is high enough that I wouldn’t want to jettison them in his favor, even if they never pan out to be better than they currently are. It simply isn’t a good fit given the circumstances and timing.

exactly this. just look at taylor hall when he got out of there.


i'm either way on the trade. if they did pull the trade off then you have to assume fitz and company have done their diligence and know more then us posting on a hockey forum

 

[JrFischer54]

Not sure Colorado could afford Eichel easily so I wouldn’t consider it a red flag. Makar and Landeskog gets paid this off-season and MacKinnon gets a raise in 2023. Ratanen makes 9.25m. Still I don’t know if they can fit 10m forward and his neck issues are a real concern. There is no way to know what will happen there, doctors can’t tell the future.

The Minnesota owner is always borderline desperate and loves win now moves, this is right up his alley.

thats why the price isn't going to be super high like so many people think.


minimum is two first rounders and after that i don't know

 

[Blackjack]

If I'm Sakic I deal Newhook and the 2022 1st without batting an eye. MacKinnon Eichel down the middle would be incredible.

 

[My3Sons]

Not sure Colorado could afford Eichel easily so I wouldn’t consider it a red flag. Makar and Landeskog gets paid this off-season and MacKinnon gets a raise in 2023. Ratanen makes 9.25m. Still I don’t know if they can fit 10m forward and his neck issues are a real concern. There is no way to know what will happen there, doctors can’t tell the future.

The Minnesota owner is always borderline desperate and loves win now moves, this is right up his alley.

COL would have to let Landeskog go in UFA most likely but they have enough excellent prospects that they could move for Eichel without sacrificing their core if they admit that they are trying to win now. Also, red flag can mean anything. I'm not saying that is a mark on his character. It could be as simple as the health issue.

 

[OmNomNom]

lol maybe they'll hire gretzky, he was a good coach right

 

[Bleedred]

Hartley stinks

I’m hoping the Rangers hire him. That would be nice.

 

[Guttersniped]

This talk about Eichel being a loser and selfish is just straight up silly. First of all, everyone on that Buffalo team is a “loser”. Ryan O’Reilly talked about how he lost the love for playing hockey when he was on that team. A year later he led a different team to their first ever Stanley Cup championship. The Sabres are a horribly run organization that makes nearly every player who joins them turn miserable. Do people really not see the pattern there?

Likewise calling him selfish based on recent comments is ridiculous and requires completely removing the context. I have zero problem with him acknowledging that he has to prioritize his own interests when they conflict with the interests of the worst run team in the league. Teams prioritize their own interests over the players all the time, why should a player get shit for telling the truth in the other direction?

Now, that being said...I wouldn’t trade for him unless he can somehow be attained for peanuts. The issue is two-fold as I see it. First is the unknown long-term outlook of his current injury situation. The second is the likelihood of him being disgruntled having to play for a team that is probably still a few years as way from winning consistently. I don’t blame him for that or think it’s a poor reflection of his attitude...he’s simply lost patience playing for a dead end org his entire career.

I do believe a large contingent of posters here are over-confident in their prognostications for our “core”. However, the risk of Eichel not panning out here is high enough that I wouldn’t want to jettison them in his favor, even if they never pan out to be better than they currently are. It simply isn’t a good fit given the circumstances and timing.

Eichel has unfairly taken crap for “not wanting to win” when he clearly played injured last season in a desperate attempt to drag his crappy team into the playoffs. He was listed as day-to-day with a “upper-body injury” but only missed one game and then his stats noticeably dropped for all the games after that. You don’t have Sherlock Holmes to figure that out.

And he still may be paying a price for it, that upper-body injury was mysteriously described as “unresolved” in a recent Athletic article. And he had a pre-season rib injury he also played with. And he sprained his bum ankle, having missed significant time with two high ankle sprains before (2016 & 2018), and played five games before the neck injury. The dude been a warrior for that dumb crappy team and now they are in a sense gaslighting him about pain management and playing.

But, yeah, trades don’t always make sense for every team. I didn’t think the Schneider trade made a lot of sense for us but that was just a 1st and he’s literally the sweetest man on earth so that helped. People aren’t looking at this from the side of the dude forcing the trade.

And this doesn’t even really have to do with how good or bad our core or future actually is. We’re literally a “rebuilding” team too. It’s factually true. We weren’t in the bubble playoffs and we aren’t in the playoffs now. We came in 7th in the same division they came in 8th in. When Reinhart says he doesn’t want to be on a “rebuilding team” he’ll mean us too. We’ll need to do a little better first for a guy in that particular position to be interested in our team. They care about next season, they don’t want to hear a team tell them they’ll do better. Buffalo told them that for years. They’re in uniquely miserable position and they want more stability. They don’t want to be sold a young exciting team with a bright future, they want the future right now.

 

[HBK27]

COL would have to let Landeskog go in UFA most likely but they have enough excellent prospects that they could move for Eichel without sacrificing their core if they admit that they are trying to win now. Also, red flag can mean anything. I'm not saying that is a mark on his character. It could be as simple as the health issue.

Yeah, that's why Colorado really doesn't make any sense to me. They'd have to let their own captain and former #2 overall pick that's close to a PPG player walk in order to acquire Buffalo's.

They're better off just resigning Landeskog and holding on to the assets it would take to trade for Eichel, which can help to fill in cap-created voids upcoming seasons or as trade bait for what should be numerous Cup runs the next few years.

 

[ScottyK]

I hope the Rangers f*** it up and hire someone like Torts, Hartley or go off the board an ruin Messier's legacy.

I think Drury is too smart though, Gallant to NYR

 

[My3Sons]

Yeah, that's why Colorado really doesn't make any sense to me. They'd have to let their own captain and former #2 overall pick that's close to a PPG player walk in order to acquire Buffalo's.

They're better off just resigning Landeskog and holding on to the assets it would take to trade for Eichel, which can help to fill in cap-created voids upcoming seasons or as trade bait for what should be numerous Cup runs the next few years.

I don't disagree, but I will say that I see Eichel as an upgrade on Landeskog similar to how Eichel is better than Hischier so it might make sense to at least look at if you are COL and have to sign Landeskog to the dreaded UFA deal that goes into his 30s. I just think if Eichel leaves BUF it should be to a team that is trying to win now. Anything else seems to be another frustrating situation for him.

 

[aboriginal]

Lando brings so much more than scoring ability to the table tho.