SimpleJack
Registered User
Not gonna lie he did come off like such a little prick when he said those comments about the Sabers fans after the game a few weeks ago. Has he always had that kind of attitude? Are there other examples of him being lame?
Is the Golden Knights' problem Jack Eichel?
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Not gonna lie he did come off like such a little prick when he said those comments about the Sabers fans after the game a few weeks ago. Has he always had that kind of attitude? Are there other examples of him being lame?
Matt Ress
Don't sleep on me
Matt Ress
Don't sleep on me
I know you're pretty neutral. So you have to understand Sabres fans reasons for enjoying this monumental team and individual meltdown.
MOGlLNY
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- Jan 5, 2008
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Yes, his body language is awful. This also isn't including the stories about how he would act around Buffalo when he was "off the clock".
Doug Prishpreed
Registered User
Nah, it's definitely dunk-worthy.
As someone else mentioned, Pietrangelo is the biggest problem with the team though. He fell off a cliff right after he got the monster cobntract. Keep signing the biggest UFAs and that will catch up with any team.
983 others
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- Aug 26, 2009
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people will say that eichel isnt the problem, but when you give up the assets/cap space vegas did shouldnt you expect more? thats a really low standard lol.
PunchImlach is Alive
Registered User
Eichel's probably a little more of an emotional guy than people peg him for. I couldn't really point to any other outbursts off the top of my head as toxic as that one but he's always been a little contemptuous as an interview. I think Buffalo fans reacted to those comments so negatively because they figured that's always who he's been. Hard to argue with that assumption. Eichel came in, put up points, collected a check, and wanted out. Buffalo has a loyal fanbase because of how much their players integrate themselves into the local community. I don't live in Buffalo so I can't speak to a lot of the specifics of that but comparing Eichel's presence as a captain to the ones that came before him, it reads as pretty disappointing both on and off the ice.
At least some part of the reason Eichel wanted out of Buffalo was the disagreement over the surgery option with management, I never see that get brought up here its just “Eichel wanted out”. I’d want out to if my employers wouldn’t let me choose the type of surgery I wanted. Unpopular opinion but I have no problem with Eichel. Buffalo front office was a clown show the entire time he was there.
The Red Helmet
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- Dec 19, 2007
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He asked for a trade the off-season prior to the neck injury. Two years after signing a 8 year 80 million dollar deal.
The Sabres were actually exploring an Eichel trade before the pandemic. Eichel rubbed a lot of people in the organization the wrong way and from what I was told the Pegulas had soured on him. The Sabres thought it was best to move him but the didn't know how to sell it to the fans. I'm not an insider at all but I have a life long friend who is very tied in and gives me some info from time to time.
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His inability to raise his game to the next level is the reality that he’s good but isn’t ever going to be the player we expected he’s become when drafted. It took Tage Thompson one season to best Eichel’s top season.
Rengorlex
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- Aug 25, 2021
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I've never been that impressed by Eichel's skillset. He's fast, but not a dynamic skater. Pretty stiff posture and quite lacking in agility and changes of speed. Decent shooter, but not elite. Pretty good hands but not that great. Strong on the puck. Can be pretty poirous defensively. Good playmaker but clearly below the elite.
Just not that superstar that people thought he was going to be.
Just not that superstar that people thought he was going to be.
tsujimoto74
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- May 28, 2012
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Serious question, did you watch Eichel at all before the neck injury? Because basically nothing you said, apart from noting his inconsistent effort on D, is true of a healthy Eichel. I mean, f*** him, but he is an unreal athletic talent.
Rengorlex
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- Aug 25, 2021
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Yup. I also watch McDavid, MacKinnon, Barkov, Matthews, Kaprizov, Makar, Rantanen, Draisaitl, Point and am not impressed by Eichel in comparison.
The injury bug kept the VGK out of the playoffs more than any other factor, since they spent most of the season icing only about $60M (LTIR conspiracy theories notwithstanding), and only started getting the top players (Stone, Pachiorety, Martinez, etc.) back in the last couple of weeks but with them still finding their legs and no chemistry anywhere.
The second factor was DeBoer who has demonstrated an inability to learn from mistakes or fix things, much less rid himself of incompetent assistants, and he's probably sprucing up his resume today. At the very least, there will be an assistant dump and we'll get rid of dead weight there. But more likely DeBoer & Co. is gone, thankfully.
The third factor was in goal, where Lehner was inconsistent at best even when healthy, and never really recovered from his injury (and was really bad when he tried to come back), and Broissoit who could be OK as an emergency backup for a couple of periods, but otherwise was a constant liability.
The fourth factor was, IMHO, trying to work Eichel in and build an offense that has a true star center for the first time in the VGK franchise, which DeBoer appears to be struggling to figure out. On the other hand, if the VGK didn't acquire Eichel, who was able to step in (after he got his legs back) and keep the team close in contention, they likely would have been out of it a couple of weeks ago.
All quite fixable in the offseason, starting with the end of the DeBoer era hopefully. They probably will not re-sign free agent Reilly Smith, who has played little anyway, thus freeing up $5M in cap (leaving about another $3M to clear in the offseason), and that probably means dumping Lehner (another $5M), albeit we may get stuck with a million or something in retention to deal him.
Ironically, Dadonov started playing much better towards the end of the season and finally up to what was expected of him when he was signed, so he might stick even after the aborted trade to the Ducks.
An interesting question will be whether McCrimmon survives, since he was DeBoer's champion, acquired the Lehner/Broissoit duo, botched the Dadanov trade through negligence, and made some other questionable moves. Foley has a low tolerance for failure, and McCrimmon at the very least is on some thin ice.
The second factor was DeBoer who has demonstrated an inability to learn from mistakes or fix things, much less rid himself of incompetent assistants, and he's probably sprucing up his resume today. At the very least, there will be an assistant dump and we'll get rid of dead weight there. But more likely DeBoer & Co. is gone, thankfully.
The third factor was in goal, where Lehner was inconsistent at best even when healthy, and never really recovered from his injury (and was really bad when he tried to come back), and Broissoit who could be OK as an emergency backup for a couple of periods, but otherwise was a constant liability.
The fourth factor was, IMHO, trying to work Eichel in and build an offense that has a true star center for the first time in the VGK franchise, which DeBoer appears to be struggling to figure out. On the other hand, if the VGK didn't acquire Eichel, who was able to step in (after he got his legs back) and keep the team close in contention, they likely would have been out of it a couple of weeks ago.
All quite fixable in the offseason, starting with the end of the DeBoer era hopefully. They probably will not re-sign free agent Reilly Smith, who has played little anyway, thus freeing up $5M in cap (leaving about another $3M to clear in the offseason), and that probably means dumping Lehner (another $5M), albeit we may get stuck with a million or something in retention to deal him.
Ironically, Dadonov started playing much better towards the end of the season and finally up to what was expected of him when he was signed, so he might stick even after the aborted trade to the Ducks.
An interesting question will be whether McCrimmon survives, since he was DeBoer's champion, acquired the Lehner/Broissoit duo, botched the Dadanov trade through negligence, and made some other questionable moves. Foley has a low tolerance for failure, and McCrimmon at the very least is on some thin ice.
Doug Prishpreed
Registered User
You don't have the full story. It's out there to find -- he asked out once Botterill was fired, though he would always spin it when asked.
snag
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- Feb 22, 2014
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Well...it should also be embarrassment too saying he was going to be better than McDavid.
I mean, if I failed after such a bold statement I would want to GTFO too lol
- Feb 3, 2015
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It's too bad that Eichel's body is made of glass, just like his fragile ego. Like I said earlier in this thread, during the brief time that Eichel was healthy during his prime (literally just the first 60 games of 19-20), he was one of the best in the game. (He also missed a random game Dec 19th due to "an upper body injury", couldn't even stay healthy during that 60 game stretch)
Eichel and the Sabres have been unclear with what exactly happened and when, referring in interviews to both "a non-specific abdominal" injury, and the injured disk in his neck. It's unclear when the neck injury actually began, but he's admitted it was something he had been playing through and managing before it ended his 2021 season.
He was 7th in league scoring with 36 goals, 42 assists and a +14 through Feb 22nd 2020. In the next 8 games he scored 1 point, 0 goals and was a - 9, and then the season was canceled.
He began the 2020-21 season still injured with whatever had been lingering from the end of the 2019-20 season (disk, and ab injury) and he also had a broken rib from training camp. He scored 2 goals, 16 assists in 21 games before aggravating the neck injury to the point of requiring surgery.
Snippit
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- Dec 5, 2012
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Let’s not get silly here. Tags is having a nice season but it’s not close to Eichel’s 19-20 season in any metric except total goals (not even goals per game), in a higher scoring year.
Accelleratii
Registered User
Injuries to top players and trading off the better goalie probably doesn't help. Sounds like a toxic organization, too.
Snippit
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- Dec 5, 2012
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This is a good summary.
Eichel has not been the same player for 2 years and injuries have clearly taken their toll. His physical tools now look diminished. He’s slower, the shot is average now and he’s lost strength on the puck. I’ve seen this in 2 straight years now.
Doug Prishpreed
Registered User
Weird how teams are toxic when he's a part of them. Buffalo felt like it had a toxic locker room the entire time he was there, and the cloud noticbably lifted when he left.
It might be a cooncidence (if I'm being honest, it probably is), but Vegas has had a toxic cloud over them since the Eichel trade. But I think you gotta just fire the coach, throw this season away and see what you have next year before you can draw any real conclusions.
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MilkshakeMan
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- Apr 22, 2022
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There was that story Craig Rivet had a few weeks back on After the Whistle podcast where he brought the youth team he coached to a Sabres event/practice/post-game-thing and Eichel was supposed to come out and talk to the kids, sign autographs, take pictures etc.
Eichel walks out, sees all the kids there, acts like he got a call or alert on his cell, turns around and walks away in front of the kids. And doesn't come back either. Kyle Okposo came out after and signed autographs for like a half hour after that.
Again, that was an anecdote from Rivet. Think he used the term "whiny, little b***h" IIRC.
GrungeHockey
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- Sep 14, 2021
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Here's the thing about Buffalo. They tanked for the McDavid/Eichel draft and they didn't get McDavid but Eichel was supposed to be almost as good if not as good. Everything after that in Buffalo was about Eichel. Eichel will lead us, make Eichel happy, get Eichel the linemates he wants, Eichel is frustrated with the team, eventually Eichel wants.........or Eichel wants out. Everything was about Eichel.
Now Buffalo is about team chemistry and the players like each other and ask what can we do to make this team better rather than the other way around (which was Eichel). So they are now having fun, bonding, and playing much better.
Eichel in Vegas simply expected to show up and they'd win. Nobody likes the guy. He's a diva and he blames others rather than taking the responsibility himself.
Bottom line, zero points last few big games, on the ice for the final goal with San Jose, -2 in the game. He does not lead, and he does not rise to the occasion.
(On a side weird note, the strangest thing of all is in Buffalo with Eichel, Lehner fell apart and later blamed an injury that wasn't treated properly according to him for his bad play. Now with Eichel in Vegas it's deja vu. Probably just a coincidence, but you have to wonder about the similarity)
Now Buffalo is about team chemistry and the players like each other and ask what can we do to make this team better rather than the other way around (which was Eichel). So they are now having fun, bonding, and playing much better.
Eichel in Vegas simply expected to show up and they'd win. Nobody likes the guy. He's a diva and he blames others rather than taking the responsibility himself.
Bottom line, zero points last few big games, on the ice for the final goal with San Jose, -2 in the game. He does not lead, and he does not rise to the occasion.
(On a side weird note, the strangest thing of all is in Buffalo with Eichel, Lehner fell apart and later blamed an injury that wasn't treated properly according to him for his bad play. Now with Eichel in Vegas it's deja vu. Probably just a coincidence, but you have to wonder about the similarity)
Accelleratii
Registered User
It definitely preceded that - the handling of MAF was very unprofessional and disrespectful. But I hear what youre saying, the Eichel thing is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Thorton02
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- Feb 6, 2009
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I always find it problematic when the highest paid, highest scoring guy isn't a leader on your team. It's a recipe for disaster. We can lie to ourselves and say he doesn't need to be a leader as long as he's scoring goals, but I imagine it takes it's toll on the locker room when you have a guy making big bucks skipping his defensive zone assignment, not blocking shots and coasting back to the bench on a line change who then skips talking to the media after a loss and still collects the biggest paycheck.
