The Hockey PDOcast - Episode 417: Emergency Eichel Trade Reaction

Episode Date: November 4, 2021

Chad DeDominicis joins the show to discuss initial reactions to the Jack Eichel trade, the return the Sabres were able to get for him, and what the Golden Knights will actually be getting from him whenever he's ready to play again. Topics include: Complicating factors that affected the market Which teams were actually in on him The leaked Flames offer Krebs as the crown jewel of the package Tuch's future and realistic upside Where Vegas' first round pick could land this year Eichel's statistical profile the past few seasons What the Golden Knights need him to be If you haven't done so yet, please take a minute to leave a rating and review for the show. Smash that 5-star button. Each one counts, and helps us out greatly. If you're feeling extra generous, you can also leave a little note about why you recommend people check the PDOcast out. Thanks for the help! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

On a beautiful run through the park, on a pleasant day, you can easily get lost. No, no, no. She didn't kill him. Huh? In your true crime podcast. It was the pool guy. So obvious. Whatever motivates you works for us.

It's all about letting your run be your run. And Brooks is here for every runner. Doing the research and sweating the details to create gear that works for you. It's your run. Brooks, run happy. progressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey P.D.O.cast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEOCast. My name is Dimitio Fulovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Chad, D. D. Diminis to Chad. What's going on, man? I'm good, man. How are you? I'm good. And you know why I'm good? Because our long national nightmare of seeing insiders tweet about how things are heating up on the trade front, only to shortly thereafter tweet about how they've actually cooled off is mercifully over because Jack Eichel has been.

been traded. Yeah, it's been a long time coming for sure. Everybody, I think literally everybody involved in this process is, is happy this is finally behind us. It is. So for those that have somehow missed it and are learning about this from listening to the P.D.O.cast, Eichael got traded to the Golden Knights for a package involving Alex Tuck, Peyton Crabbs, a 222 first, which is topped and protected, and a 23 second from Vegas. Let's focus on on Buffalo side of this for now. So when we spoke about this back in June, I believe, we did a mega show kind of outlining the potential landing spots and the trade considerations and sort of just like a trade

primer for this. And at the time, I certainly didn't think it would take this long for it to play out. But, you know, we outlined how the sabres were kind of getting squeezed by a combination of Eichol's uncertain health, the no move clause that was kicking in this summer, which would obviously limit the market. And just kind of how difficult moving a $10 million dollar. players, especially in season, because you have, on the one hand, like most contending teams that you'd figure would be really interested in adding someone like Jack Iko would have a tough time

doing it without fundamentally just gutting their existing roster. And I think that's why, like, we can talk a bit about this proposed or rumored Calgary trade yesterday. They came out and Camerox tweeted about how Matthew Cichuk would be involved in other pieces. And it just didn't pass the smell test for me because it didn't make sense for a team that's been playing as well as Calgary. has and that honestly can't really afford to just punt this season for them to essentially remove a top line player in the present for this kind of unknown, not knowing what they'd get from Jack Eichol this season. So like stuff just really made it complicated where it was really tough to find a logical

natural fit for Buffalo to even deal with to begin with. Yeah, for sure. You know, I mean, really there has been, what you can say, your four or five main teams from the beginning that have really been involved in this. the Rangers, Vegas, ducks, kings to an extent, and then Calgary. Those have become a five major team, but I've always really been around this. I've had teams like Colorado tried to jump in, but really nothing ever happened. And I'm sure there were other doing here, but Minnesota was one such scene.

Yeah, we heard about how Carolina might have also been involved, but they're pretty much involved in like any potential trade. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But, you know, as the summer went along as the season started, kind of as far to narrow our view here, It feels like for maybe like a month or two even now that like it's always kind of really been Vegas. That's a team that made the most sense with their LTIR and their need and how as a team they could afford to wait for Igo because of how stacked that team was in general. We're now this is different sitting here today because a quarter of their team is injured. But still in general, you know, they have the ability to probably still be a playoff team.

And once those players get healthy, they can wait for Jack until March. And then you're adding Ico for a playoff push. And realistically, Vegas probably has a two to three year window here. They see to really make some cup runs. And that's what they're trying to take advantage of. So it's made sense all along. It just simply came down to at the end of it making the money work. And, you know, if they were going to give up that top prospect,

because we've heard for all along now. I know there was never going to be Zegris. It was never going to be, you know, Tuck wasn't going to be involved. The Rangers decided their entire roster was untouchable, so they were pretty much out of it. So, yeah, I mean, really the big prospect didn't come finally be part of this until recently, and that's, I think, why things escalated in the last week here,

and finally why things got pushed over the finish line today. And, you know, that Calgary thing, just to put the touch on that. It seems like that, it kind of seems like Kevin Weeks was fed that by somebody, I don't know who. You know, Kenney Adams just finished his press conference on this, on the trade, you know, like an hour before we're recording this. And he came flat out and said that the players involved in this was Matthew, such I didn't specify the players from that rumor.

And the rumor itself was not factual. So, you know, it seems like it came from somebody to put that out there to maybe push Vegas over the line. Who it came from? I don't know. But it's also not a coincidence. that popped out last night and then this morning we have the Michael trade so I think it's tied together in some way but where it came from is is interesting I mean it's it's ultimately irrelevant

in the grand scheme of things right I think that is such a fascinating thing from a PR perspective because you'd imagine you know if you're just kind of trying to tracing the steps all right well who would benefit from from pushing that leak out well it would be the sabers because they just want to get the deal done and they kind of want to force Vegas's hand right but at the same time I think a big part of why you're seeing a lot of the Twitter reaction and not necessarily from Sabers fans, just from people around the league in general being like, oh, that's it? Like how come Calgary or someone else couldn't conceivably match that type of a return? I think it did them a little bit of a disservice from a PR perspective where when that leaked

trade proposal from Calgary came out, everyone was like, wow, what a deal for Buffalo. They got to jump on this immediately. And then when you see what they actually got from Vegas, it's like it looks bad in comparison, but I don't think that deal was ever there to begin with. So we shouldn't necessarily consider it when factoring in what they got back and what they could have gotten back. But if it was Buffalo pushing that leak out to get this deal done, like good on them because it clearly worked because the deal is over with now. But in a way, it sort of soured people on the return from a PR perspective just because it looks worse in comparison. Yeah, for sure.

And I mean, it is what it is. You know, I mean, going back to the summer, I think that there was a possibility that it could have been like to Chuck or Guadro or Monaghan. and a first is one option, and that was one option. And I think the second option would have been a prospect-driven package. And it kind of seems like those two packages got put into one. And that was really never on the table. It was kind of two ways Calgary approached it. And then once the season started, I think like any of those guys were off the table,

because it's like you said, how well they're playing right now. It just doesn't make sense for them to, you know, rip one of those players out of the lineup. And then bring, I go, oh, by the way, I was not going to play until March. Maybe, maybe if everything goes well. So it's never really made sense from that perspective, like you said. Yeah. Well, I think if you're building a trade together, it's like the kind of cookie cutter template is, you know, roster player, prospect slash young player that has a chance

to certainly elevate their game and then a couple picks. And that's sort of what they got here. And I think if you're looking at that, all of them, all of the assets they got checked those boxes. I'll let you talk a bit about Krebs here because I know he's someone that you sort of valued as a potential crown jewel in a return like this, acknowledging that you weren't going to get Zegris or Drysdale or anyone's like super duper elite prospect.

We obviously can't evaluate Krebs based on his 10 NHL games so far given the circumstances, but just in terms of the talent and sort of the appeal as a young player who's still, I believe in year one of his ELC because it's been sliding over the past couple years. It's a pretty interesting asset for Buffalo to sort of latch on to as the number one asset in this deal. Yeah, for sure. part too on top of it is they're going to take the slow approach of them. Adam said in his press conference said about an hour ago that they're going to send them to the AHL to start. So they're not even bringing them to the NHL. They're going to send him to the

HL. And he'll be down there with, you know, Jack Quinn and JJ Paterka, who are, you know, if you haven't looked, two leading scores in the H.L. Right now, they're absolutely tearing it up. So he'll go down there with that group. There's Linus Wiesbach down there. Matias Samuelson's down there too, Oskario Laxson in a couple weeks. The way things are going, Dylan cousins. can I even join them down there. So, you know, so they have a nice group and they're trying to build it together and bring them up. So I think that's, I think that's at the end of the day, while selfishly I would like to see him in the NHL right away. I understand it.

It makes sense to go that approach to them. But yeah, I mean, I think they kind of got all things considered, you know, when those guys, like I said, Zegris and Drysdale, whatever on the table when Lafranier and Kako were never on the tail up in the Rangers or byfield, you know, from the Kings and so on and so forth, boldie, Rossi, all those. guys that were talked about. You know, I think Krebs is right up there, you know, with some of those players, you know, maybe that's a level of Zegris, but maybe the next notch down. And, you know, that's a good return. That's a good poll. All things consider for a $10,000 player here with a neck injury that sure, he'll probably be okay after he gets it, but it's also, I don't know, maybe not. So that and the money and just all of this when everybody in the world knew that he was getting

traded home. He's never playing for the Sabres again. But in fact, all that in, I think getting Krebs is great. I think he's going to be a really good player for the way forward. I have a lot of, you know, hope for him. I think he projects to be a nice sentiment for them down the line. He brings some size. He has some skill. He's tenacious on the foretack.

So a lot of the things that I think they're trying to build right now, there's some speed, some foretruck and transition that we're kind of seeing early in this season. That's got them off to this pretty decent start. A little things have slow recently at West, but still, you know, they're playing better than expected under Granato. and that's the kind of player that would fit that system under Granado. So, you know, it makes a lot of sense. And, you know, we'll see when he actually gets his first look with the team,

which may not be for a few months at least. Yeah, you know, definitely a blue chipper. And I believe, like Bob McKenzie had him, I think 10th on his board heading into 2019 draft before his injury. Yeah, if he doesn't have that partially torn Achilles, he's probably a top something. Yes, yeah. So a lot of intrigue there. Yeah, the tuck part is also a very interesting piece of this to me because, you know,

he's going to be out for at least a couple more months, I believe, recovering from the shoulder surgery. I expect we'll see him probably sometime in early 2022. You know, on the one hand, like, super highly appealing piece for the Sabres here because he's 25. He's under contract at 4.75 for the next four years after this one. The skill set is all entirely there, right? He's like insanely fast. He's a great Russian transition player, which certainly checks out with what you're saying about how they want to play ideally and how John Granato wants to use them. At the past three years, at 5-1-5,

he's tied with someone like Chris Kreider and T.J. O'Shee, in point rate, I think I believe he's 41st and shot rate. So, like, it's always been a matter of getting him more usage, and that was kind of a point of, like, a beef or quibble for me. I was like, oh, I want to see more Alex Tucker. I want to see them bump him up here. And he's certainly going to get that opportunity here in Buffalo, which leads me to the million,

the billion dollar question here of is he ultimately just a nice luxury item for a good team where you throw him out there in kind of a middle six role he changes the pace he catches the other team off guard and creates chances and looks great in that role or is he someone that you can ultimately surround with other top players and feature in a number one scoring role and we don't necessarily have the answer to that like he has the skills he hasn't really gotten the chance to do that at this point as an hl career so the jury's still out on that but i think that it won't determine whether his trade was a good one or a bad one regardless because there's so many other moving factors to consider. But I think what Alex Tucker ultimately is over the next four years of this contract is certainly going to change sort of the outlook of what this deal looks like for Buffalo.

Yeah, for sure. I think he's kind of in a sense getting overlooked in this for two reasons because, you know, Krebs and the first home pick are going to be your highlight. You know, if they go ahead now, Alex talk too. but he's only 25, like you said. And I think the shoulder injury is not going to play for a couple of years, so he's kind of being overlooked in that, or a couple months, I'm sorry, overlooked in that aspect. So, yeah, but I think it's a good fit.

You know, I think it's a veteran player that has a lot of playoff experience for a young team that's going to come over and play with. You know, I think you can fit right in nice, you know, if you want to like a leadership pool with Oposo and Gergensons, and kind of be maybe the part of that next wave of leadership once those guys, you know, move on in the next year. So I think from the on ice, off ice standpoint, I think that is an improvement too. But on ice, yeah, we're going to find out.

He's going to get the opportunity to play big minutes when he gets back. We'll see how long or how many games he will go get that because I assume when he comes back. They'll work them in slowly. So we may only see about, you know, 15 to 10 games of that this year. But, you know, I think they absolutely expect him to be a top six forward for them moving forward. where they'll play and it would be interesting too. I would assume it would be on the wing because they do have a decent amount of centers now, especially with T.H. Thompson somehow miraculously working as a center for them at this current time.

So that they're pretty loaded, I guess you could say, down the middle. So I would assume he'll play wing. And then they'll put them in a top six role. Or maybe with a Dylan Cousins and Andrews Burek, that kind of seems like a line that can use their speed and forecheck to kind of really irritate teams and be, you know, low-key dangerous offensively. So I think as a winger with Dylan Cousins is maybe what I see down the road. That would make a lot of sense because they both play with speed. They both like to get on transition. And they can both be dangerous on the forecheck too.

And I think Cousins has had some defensive issues too, which maybe Tuck can help clean that up as well as a winner. Well, yeah, I mean, he's always, I think the usage is so interesting to me because he always kind of got squeezed out in Vegas where they'd have those top two forward lines and that they basically just entrust tuck to play with whoever was. left, right? Like if you look at his most common linemates over the past three years, it's Paul Stasney, Cody Eakin, who you're very familiar with, Cody Glass, Nikwa, Thomas Nocheck. It's like all these bottom six guys and they were just basically asking Tuck to go out there and just fly around and try to generate some hidden offense for them. And I wonder if there is more untapped potential there if you increase the quality of linemates. But I think ultimately, even if he is what he is at this point, he's on a really nice contract and he's cost controlled. And for them,

he's always flippable down the road where I imagine there's going to be plenty of teams lining up to be interested in Alex Tuck even if he is just ultimately capped out at what he's been over the past couple years for Vegas. So like that's what I keep coming back to here where I think a lot of these rumored deals involved them, the roster player they're getting back being this kind of also sort of damaged goods where it was like, is that really a player you want to be taking on their contract? Like you mentioned Sean Monaghan there. I think that would have been a disaster for Buffalo.

I think ultimately in this one, they didn't really handcuff them. themselves by taking on any bad money or even retaining Eichol's salary. Not that that's a concern for Buffalo as currently constructed, but three, four years down the road, you don't want bad money on the books for no reason. So I think they did a good job here in identifying at least a roster player that is a useful asset and will help them and could potentially be flipped down the road without needing to retain any money. Yeah, for sure.

And if I want to look at it from a sentimentality point, too. I mean, he grew up in the Syracuse area, which is a couple hours outside of Buffalo. Adam said today that he talked to talk and Tucker told him that it's a dream come true to play for the Sabres. He watched them growing up. So, you know, you have that thing too. You have a player who actually, and this is kind of that ends big thing, players who want to be here.

But still, I mean, it's important if you're going to get a veteran like that where most veteran players, they're traded from Vegas to Buffalo. Oh, God, here we go. Where I think Tuck would actually be open to that, not only because what we talked about, I think he'll get more ice time in a bigger role, but also he's going close to home.

And I think if it's really what he's feels that it's been a dream to play for the Sabres at some point, then, you know, I think that'll be good for him, too. So from a sentimentality standpoint, I think this also another check for the savers bringing him in. Well, he may feel that way now. Let's give him a couple years. Well, right, of course. I mean, hey, they're playing well right now. You never know. No, no, it's certainly trending upwards. Yeah, certainly better than they were when, you know, the situation a year ago. On the draft picks, do you have any takes? I did find it interesting that, you know, they weren't like in the Seth Jones trade, for example, last summer, the Blackhawks

for whatever reason, only lottery protected them in terms of literally winning either of the two lotteries. In this case, Vegas top 10 protected it. And if it falls in that range, they can bump it down to the following year. Now, that still leaves them kind of open to potentially be like the 12th or 13th overall pick or whatever, which would be, I think, a win for Buffalo because I think their opportunity to maximize that draft slot is probably going to be this year. I imagine Vegas heading into next season, despite all the veterans that they have is going to be much better. So it'll be interesting to see kind of how that unfolds, obviously, but they're trying to kind of thread this needle here

where they don't want Vegas to necessarily be too bad, but they also don't want them to turn it around fully. So I imagine that they would ideally like to get that pick this year and have it be somewhere in the teams. Yeah, for sure. I'm not surprised it's top-time protected. I mean, you rarely see that this day, where teams won't protect that pick,

unless it is Chicago Blackhawks, and that looks like that was a glorious, decision for them right now. But, you know, it's interesting in the aspect that they're not going to get like until about March. Mark Stone, we don't know. He has a back issue and back shoes. He was always King Creepaw. Patchretti's hurt. Carlson's her. White Clouds hurt. And they're not off to a great start right now. So is it possible that they could miss the playoffs, but still be in that, you know, that 12 to 15ish range outside the top 10, I think so. But at the same time, you look at the division and it's, that division really isn't that

great. Although some of the teams the top are playing pretty well right now. I still think at the end of the day, they find a way to get in to, you know, one of those top three spots are at worst, a wild card. But it's interesting to follow. It'll over the next few months to see how this team goes with a lot of these injuries still. And if Mark Stone can be the player, we, know he is or if that backage you was going to haunt him all season long and how that'll go. So it's it's certainly an interesting dynamic that you didn't think about originally going into Vegas trade because the assumption always goes, well, it's going to be a 25 plus

pick. So who really even cares? Right. But now there's like, well, maybe it could be down in the teams. You never know. Which is going to be good in this draft. Right. Yes.

Yeah, I think it's the best they could have hoped for because I just thought like there was no way if they did a trade with Anaheim or something like that where they were going to get any top pick of theirs just because. That would have been an insane move on Anaheim's part. That's right. Recognized employees with Custom Ink. Show customer appreciation with Custom Ink. Outfit your teams with Custom Ink.

Easily add your logo to your favorite products and brands at Customink.com. Make Custom Ink your Custom Gear partner with great customer service, quality products, and all in pricing, along with personalized help when you need it, and an easy-to-use website when you don't. All backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Do it all today at custom ink.com. Champions aren't born. They're made. And the secret to make your business reign supreme, Shopify,

the all-in-one commerce platform to start, run, and grow your business. Forget the off-season work. Shopify makes it simple to sell to anyone from anywhere. Whether you're selling warm-ups or wall hangers, it's time to start selling with Shopify and join the platform, simplifying commerce for millions of businesses worldwide. With Shopify, you'll customize your online store to your brand, discover new customers, and build the relationships that create die-hard fans. Shopify filled all the sales channels to grow a winning business from an in-person

POS system to an all-in-one e-commerce platform, even across social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. Shopify is a secret to becoming a business champion by making it simple for anyone to sell their products anywhere, taking the guest work out of selling. When you're ready to take your winning idea to the world, team up with Shopify, the commerce platform powering millions of businesses down the street and around the globe. Sign up for a free trial at Shopify.com slash bluewire, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash bluewire to start selling online today. Shopify.com slash bluewire.

Yeah, okay, so we'll kind of talk about the return. Let's talk about Ikel a little bit now because I think certainly a complicating factor beyond the $10 million cap hit he carries and not knowing when he'll be back on the ice, whether it's, you know, towards the end of the regular season or even until the playoffs or maybe even into next year, is not being entirely sure what you're going to get even when he returns. And I find that following the discourse and kind of talking to people around the league, find it surprising how under talked about this is as part of the calculus here in evaluating

the trade because I think everyone just seems to be under the impression that Vegas just got a top five center in the league here and it's just kind of like set it and forget it. And that's what you're going to have for the duration of this deal. And I don't know if that's entirely the case. He's such an interesting player from a statistical profile. You and I have talked about this in the past on past PDOCAST, but a big wrinkle here. for me is in his first four seasons, he was kind of this volume shooter who did not convert on a lot of, on a lot of his chances. He was a sub 10% shooting percentage player, I believe,

and convert scored at like 29 goals per 82 games or something. And then in 2019, 20, 20, 20, he became entirely different offensive player where he shot nearly 16%. He scored 43 goals per 82 802 games. And he was a complete offensive dynamo to the degree that we've never really seen before from him. And I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, not necessarily that he had suddenly become a 16% shooter, but he's so talented and so dynamic and shoot so much off the rush that I was willing to believe that

he was closer to that than the 9.7 or whatever he'd been previously in previously. And that obviously changes the dynamic quite a bit if you're all of a sudden going to have that big of a boost in offensive performance. And that's really the only time we've seen that from him at the NHL. So I'm not saying that he has to be that for this deal

to make sense for Vegas, but it also isn't necessarily as much of a given that that's just who he's going to be moving forward as people seem to be just like really comfortable making out to be. No, that's a good point. And I think one thing you touched on, though, that helps Vegas is with how deep that roster is, I don't think they need him to be that player. I think to just need him to be, I mean, to win a championship. I think they need him to be better than William Carlson and Chandler Stevenson.

Like, you know, be, provide, you know, that 25 to 30 goal guy. know that, you know, maybe has a lot of assists. Would it be nice if he gets to 40? Sure. But I think they can also live in that realm, maybe he's a 25 to 30 goal score that can, you know, just be a dynamic force where that team can just literally roll three lines at you. And he can be that top center that can play in all situations.

You're not going to kill penalties, but, you know, playing all situations, play against the most difficult matchups and still be successful in that. Because you've seen him do it in Buffalo with, you know, lesser teammates. where he was successful against playing the team's top line every single night with, you know, poor teammates carrying them around and still doing what he's doing. So, you know, if he plays with like Mark Stone or Patcher Ready, you know, that's a step up for him that I think will really help Vegas. They don't need that player to be the 2019-20 version of I go. I think they can kind of take the middle ground where maybe

a nash below that and they'll be just fine from a team standpoint. But the neck injury really does. It's just it's not guaranteed that he's even going to be back to, you know, a little bit below last time we saw him really in the MVP season because I don't really count last year because, you know, he had a ribinger and ankle injuring on the back and like Kruger and all of that mess. I don't even count that season. But I did think it was interesting how in that season he did totally transform a statistical profile to being this like awesome defensive player. Yeah, I can't shoot because my ribs are broken. So I'm going to do this instill instead. And it's encouraging that he'll find a way to provide positive value, certainly. I disagree with you a little bit, though, in that Vegas doesn't need him to be that player

because obviously, like, he's going to be awesome for them and he's going to help. But there is an opportunity cost here where I imagine at some point they're going to have to sacrifice further depth and other players off of their current roster to make room for all of these salaries. and so they're going to need him to go above and beyond in terms of carrying players. And this is a team that has been an awesome 5-on-5 team in pretty much every single type of metric, except for converting their expected goals into actual goals. And I'm not saying that that's going to carry over here with Hekel as well, but if they're not going to get elite conversion rates and actually having someone inserted into

the lineup that can help them create some more of those goals, then it's kind of more of the same. I'm not necessarily sure that's what they're ultimately signing up for here. So I think there is an interesting conversation to be had there about what that is going like with him in this lineup and whether it's going to accomplish the desired effect. Yeah, and that's a good point. I think maybe in the first year or two of him being there, they can probably get away with him kind of getting back to being himself, but make a good point. Maybe after the first year or two, then yeah, he's got to be that player because, you know,

you're going to lose patchy right. they're getting older, stones getting older, some of those guys, Petrangelo's going to age, but still are going to have those big contracts where you've got to, you know, need him to be the player to elevate others. And, you know, they traded away first round picks here and prospects over the last two years. So, yeah, I mean, I guess I thought about that aspect that you're correct. He's going to need to carry them, you know, in a couple years for sure. Yeah.

I mean, listen, he's still only 25 years old and is an elite tower. And his skill set is diverse enough as we talked about that he'll find a way to be effective. I just think it in terms of maximizing the roster and the money they have available, I think it is interesting. I think that's about it from sort of the Buffalo Eichl side here of this trade. Is there any other sort of considerations or angles that we haven't touched on yet that you think are worth discussing? No, I don't think so. I think it's just essentially this is, you know, from a savers aspect, officially ends, you know,

an error of hockey for them. Ritalin and Reinhart went in the summer. Eichol is gone now. So officially, you know, you could take November 4th, boom, put a stamp on it. This is the official start of, you know, a new Sabres era of hockey and see where things go now. You know, they have a pretty decent prospect pool. They've built up. Doesn't mean it always works.

But, you know, you're going to add prebs to it now. Like I said, you have Quinn. You have Paterka playing well, Ryan Johnson, Owen Power. So Matias Samuelson looks good. You know, they have three decent goalie prospects. We'll see if, you know, Levi or Portillo, how they come out of college and look in and struggle. But still, so they have pieces there. You know, cousins, too, I forgot to mention him.

So they have pieces now. They have hope. And then now it's just hopefully, you know, this is done. The team and all the fans can kind of move on and focus on this next era and pray and hope that it works out. And a lot of these prospects hit because if they do, I think they'll be in pretty good shape. What's your lasting memory of this Jack E. Alara in Buffalo. You know, it's hard because I think that they never really gave him an opportunity to be a winner.

And I think that will always kind of stain his time here because really they were never, and they never even got close to a playoff team. He had injuries in there. You know, I mean, Ryan O'Reilly was here and that kind of seemed like some dynamic that just never worked out for the team because the rest of the roster was built so poorly. So it's unfortunate because everything that I would into it, all the excitement when they got him, you know, really, you know, thought that the Sabres were going to be something now

with him at the forefront. And it just never happened. So I think disappointment is probably, you know, what I would attach to it. But also I think he gets an unfair amount of blame for that when really he was actually in most cases the only bright spot for the team over the last six years. Yeah.

Yeah. We've talked about the on-ice, off-ice splits. there are basically, whenever he wasn't on the ice at 5-on-5, they were, like, scoring at a fourth-line rate for the entirety of his Buffalo tenure. And that's just an organizational, systemic failure to put him in a position to succeed. So I'm with you. It'll be, I'm glad that this is finally over, and everyone can kind of move on and get a fresh start. And, yeah, or like I said, at the top, or our long national nightmare is finally over.

So, Chad, this was a blast. I'm glad we got to do this. Thanks for taking the time. I know it's a busy time for you. Plug some stuff. Where can people check you out? And what are you up to these days? Yeah.

So you can follow me on Twitter. Dimitri will tweet. I'm not going to spell my whole long last name. But you can follow my site, Expected Buffalo at Expected Buffalo on Twitter. So we'll have our reaction podcast coming out we're going to be doing. And then I have, we have a ton of written content on this.

We'll be pushing out too. So the next few days to the weekend will definitely be Eichel trade focused. And then we'll get back. to a team that looks kind of interesting to start this season better than expectations. You guess you could say to start. A lot of the team thought they were maybe be the coyotes and it turns out they're not going to be. So, you know, I don't think they're going to be great. But I think they'll be more interesting than people thought.

And, you know, around here we'll take interesting because interesting is fun to talk about. Yeah. We need more Rasmus Aspline deep dives. That's what I. Look at Rasmus Aspline, man, I'm trying to time right now. That guy is going to be something. Like, he's fantastic. He already is.

He doesn't need to be something. He already is. is. All right, man. Well, this was a blast. I'm glad we got to do this. And we will definitely have you back on the show sometime on the road. So until then, good luck with all the ICO content here and we'll chat soon. All right, man. Thanks. All right. That is going to be it for today's episode of the Hockey PDOCast. Obviously, it was a much shorter show than we're used to doing on this feed. But I really wanted to get some instant analysis out there for you in a timely manner. And so we did the best we could. Hopefully it's enough to desiate you for now and hold you over for the time

being. Even though we had months to think about the logistics and prepare ourselves for the trade, having it actually happened first thing this morning and just being the first thing I saw when I woke up and looked at my phone, it did kind of catch me off guard a little bit in a weird way. So I just tried to get my thoughts out here and talk about some of the stuff that was at top of mind with Chad. And it was fun and we kind of bounced around some interesting ideas. So don't worry, though. That won't be it. Certainly we'll have more analysis of the trade and other angles moving forward both on this feed where we're going to look at uh you know more closely at vegas's side of the deal and how ico fit and why they ultimately decided to pull the trigger on the move now i think probably

first thing next week we'll do that and we'll have a full show on it but in the meantime if you do subscribe to elite prospects rigside i'll also have a write-up there of my thoughts at kind of greater length as well so so you can check that out but that will be it for today though if you enjoy the show please go drop us a five-star rating and potentially even a review if you're feeling up for it. But thanks as always for listening, and we'll be back soon with more on this feed. So until then.

Hockey P.DOCHAST with Dmitri Filippovich. Follow on Twitter at Dim Philipovic and on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com slash hockeypedocast.