TSN: Darren Dreger when asked on TSN 1050 Overdrive a couple of days ago if he has any idea of what is going on with the Buffalo Sabres. (before Thursday’s night’s Eichel injury)
“Well look, Kevan Adams is just putting out fire after fire, and that’s kind of what he does as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. They came out of the COVID mess and were hoping that they could hit a bit of reset. There are some who wonder is Jack Eichel hurt? Ralph Krueger insists he’s not hurt, and the organization believes he’s not hurt but his body language and the way he’s playing, it doesn’t look good at all.
Prior to the start of this season, and you go back into the summer, it’s believed that Eichel had a conversation, and part of that conversation was wanting a change. Wanting out of Buffalo. Now they found a way to talk him into changing from that mindset. They brought in Taylor Hall at $8 million, and that thought that look, with a real good year maybe things would settle down.
It’s gone the exact opposite way. It’s almost unbelievable how bad things have gotten. To a point where Ralph Krueger is scratching a $72 million contract in back-to-back games in Jeff Skinner. That’s an unmovable contract right now.
So the general manager is in a pickle there unless the Pegula’s come down and direct him to do whatever they feel he needs to do. From re-addressing coaching to whatever.
Specific to Eichel though, if this team continues to plod along here in the way that they are, then I can’t imagine this situation isn’t revisited around the trade deadline or in offseason. But if he wants a change, he’s going to have to play better and start putting the puck in the net.