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Is the Golden Knights' problem Jack Eichel?

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As much as I’m not an Eichel fan he’s only a symptom of the problem. Hard to really blame Vegas management, they struck gold in the expansion draft and were too competitive early on, in a non-traditional hockey market they had to keep feeding the machine. Now they’re left with hardly any picks/prospects, cap problems and an aging-injury prone squad. As much flack as Francis got for the expansion draft there’s no pressure on the Kraken, they can be a bottom team drafting high for next few years and take advantage of cap strapped teams to build a team from the bottom up.
 
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HanSolo said:
Who, pray tell? Vegas had all one way contracts on the team at the time. They had to make moves just to get Theodore and Tuch on the team and would have made another move to get Ship in there which was always the plan. In fact, he was probably going to be the first call up as soon as they moved a single contract since Vegas had no idea how good their forwards would be and they had a lot more defensemen on one way deals so Theodore could have been held in Chicago for longer.

Shipachyov was guaranteed a spot. He just needed to sit tight and let the team clear up space. Ship wasn't going to shrivel up and die if he had to play a couple preseason AHL games before Vegas made space for him. I mean if you want to argue that the team should have cleared contracts faster, fine, but Shipachyov was signed with a two-way clause for this very purpose. He knew this was a possibility when he signed with the team. He had advanced notice that it would happen and his reaction was to throw a tantrum.
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Then you cut someone or you trade someone in a trade you don’t want to make. Shipachyov didn’t come over to NA with the understanding he was spending time in the AHL. He obviously felt like McPhee broke his word. He’s not known as a crybaby or someone who causes problems. Acting like he’s some enigmatic Russian because he didn’t want to play any time in the AHL and then explained his side to the media is sour grapes.
 
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NoNecksCurse said:
Don’t be that guy
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Pavel Buchnevich said:
Then you cut someone or you trade someone in a trade you don’t want to make. Shipachyov didn’t come over to NA with the understanding he was spending time in the AHL. He obviously felt like McPhee broke his word. He’s a grown man and not known as a crybaby. Acting like he’s some enigmatic Russian because he didn’t want to play any time in the AHL and then explained his side to the media is sour grapes.
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I mean I never said anything about his nationality so you're just putting words in my mouth. And again, you're ignoring the fact that the very reason Ship was signed to a two-way contract was to allow Vegas flexibility to hold him in the AHL for a very short time to allow the team time to sort out the inevitable overage of one way contracts they would have after the expansion draft. This would have been explained to him by the team and by his agent otherwise the clause wouldn't have been in the contract or it wouldn't have been signed by Ship as written. When Ship complained to the media he never alleged that the team misled him regarding the terms of his contract. Vegas never pulled the wool over his eyes. He was given advanced notice well before he started training camp.

Having to spend a week or two in the AHL would not have prevented him from playing out the remainder of his three year contract. It was never Vegas' plan to bury him in the AHL for three years. And again, they told him they'd trade him to another team if he was so unhappy but he chose to return to Russia. Like you said, other teams were interested so I don't know how that's anything less than a tantrum to just throw his hands up and say "f*** Vegas and f*** the NHL I'm going home, f*** this." I mean to this point I've only been dealing with facts that are on record, but if I'm allowed to speculate, I'm fairly certain he only declined the option to be traded to prevent Vegas from getting any assets from said trade.
 
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CanuckLuck said:
Geez guys Vegas has made some dumb moves but cutting ties with Shipachyov ain't one of them. He sucked and that's okay.
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I mean that's wrong in a different direction. Ship never got the chance to show if he would suck in the NHL or not, but that's because he decided to peace out back to Russia cause he didn't get to play in Vegas' first game.
 
Pavel Buchnevich said:
Just a reminder Sabres fans that are trying to dunk on Eichel, your team isn't actually yet good or even really better than when Eichel was there. You also undoubtedly lost your best player, and a player that isn't replaceable. May not be the time for some of these comments.

If you guys are better than Vegas in a year or two and Eichel is playing bad then, that would be the time. I'm not sure its really dunk-worthy that Eichel hasn't been at his best after coming off a neck surgery and that he's the one you should really be looking to blame on a team that had plenty of problems before him and makes a lot of enemies around the league for how they go about their business.
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Dahlin is better than Eichel, Thompson is better this year as well. Next season I'd expect Eichel to be a top 50 forward and Dahlin a top 10 defenseman. Thompson will probably fall back to middle six level of play.

Not the time to dunk on Vegas but:
Buffalo has two points less than Vegas after Tuch's debut 20th of december.

Since Eichel's debut for Vegas the teams have almost the same pts/gp (Buffalo is 0.03 higher)

Vegas and Buffalo are pretty much equal right now. Shitty goaltending and all. One team is going for the cup and circumventing the cap. One is struggling to reach the cap floor and in the beginning of a rebuild.

Oh wait, this is definately the time to dunk on Vegas management!
 
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Pavel Buchnevich said:
Just a reminder Sabres fans that are trying to dunk on Eichel, your team isn't actually yet good or even really better than when Eichel was there. You also undoubtedly lost your best player, and a player that isn't replaceable. May not be the time for some of these comments.

If you guys are better than Vegas in a year or two and Eichel is playing bad then, that would be the time. I'm not sure its really dunk-worthy that Eichel hasn't been at his best after coming off a neck surgery and that he's the one you should really be looking to blame on a team that had plenty of problems before him and makes a lot of enemies around the league for how they go about their business.
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Lol, Eichel talked his shit about the fanbase of Buffalo after VGK lost to the Sabres a few months ago. Youre kidding youself if you think Buffalo fans are going to be quiet after that shit. Talking smack is fun. The Eichel story line has been awesome. He's playing the heel to a T.

Buffalo may vert well suck in a year or two, but who cares? It's only hockey trash talk. May as well lay into him while he and his new team struggle.
 
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Eichel isn't an elite player, that conversation is done and VGK gave up too much to get him. His contract is baadddd.
 
Vegas was Cinderella the first two years but the growing pangs of the league are now catching up with them. Eichel was abused by Kruger in Buffalo with the expectations he could carry that whole team. You put McDavid in the atmosphere in Buffalo he would be a villan too. As to the surgery it appears Eichel was right in his choice. Tyler Johnson had the same surgery this year after Eichel had his. I point to Buffalo ownership getting too involved in the game where they have little knowledge. It cost them Eichel and nearly cost them Skinner who since Kruger was canned has had a good comeback. Buffalo is finally turning the corner after more than a decade of suckage. This is the direction Vegas is headed right now there cap is spent in wonkie places and that alone will cause the house of cards to collapse for a while.
 
There is still wide gap between the idea of Jack Eichel vs. the reality of Jack Eichel.

The thought that Jack Eichel is an elite talent, who is one of the top forwards in the game is prevalent still. He may yet "arrive" one day but the reality that outside of one season, he has yet to live up to that idea in his first 6 seasons.

I chuckle at so many giving him a pass on this season when he was the one that chose to rush back.

His camp was the one that said that his preferred surgery promised a quicker return, that his preferred surgery would make him a "30% better player".

Considering his salary, his conduct, he deserves all the criticisms thrown his way.
 
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The problem exists between ownership and the GM. The directive to win the Cup is what all NHL fans want to know their ownership is dedicated to. However... at some point McPhee or McCrimmon have to say "no" to trying to acquire every shiny toy on the market. Maybe the Knights have learned that stripping out the prospect cupboard and not having ELC's to lean on is a rough way to go. Maybe they've learned that their cap issues are self-inflicted which compounds their need to LTIR people just to ice a full lineup. Maybe they've learned that when the team drops 7 in the row on the road, even with some guys out of the lineup, the coach probably shouldn't be safe.

But the directives to management and management's unwillingness to say no have put them where they are. Eichel is just another shiny toy in all of this and it's not really fair to put this on him.
 
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