Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres weren’t able to get a trade done for Jack Eichel over the weekend during the 2021 NHL Draft.
Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams was, of course, talking to teams, but he said there’s no deadline to get a deal done.
"Discussions are going on, and we’re having a lot of them on a lot of different players," Adams said on Saturday following the conclusion of the draft. "If people were thinking that something’s going to happen at the draft, we’ve never looked at any sort of timeline or pressure point to say that we have to do something on any player."
So what if the right deal doesn’t come along? Can Adams live with Eichel on the team this year? He said, of course.
“I have no, in any way, shape or form, hard feelings with Jack Eichel," Adams said. "He’s a player on our team, so I would have no problem at all if Jack Eichel is on our team when we start training camp.”
The Sabres were able to complete the Sam Reinhart trade on Saturday afternoon. Word broke of the trade with the Florida Panthers late Friday night, but Adams couldn’t comment on it then.
“It was a little bit of the nuance of the [collective bargaining agreement], in terms of the language that had to be worked out," Adams explained.
During Reinhart’s Zoom conference call with the Florida media, he, for the first time, talked about how it bothered him that he was never offered a long-term contract in Buffalo when others were. He expressed how he had done everything that was asked of him, and he was always prepared to sign a long-term deal. He said that is what led to this situation and his trade.
Reinhart felt slighted, and wasn’t about to even talk about a long-term deal this time.
“I’m a big believer in Sam Reinhart as a player, but the fact of the matter is he wasn’t going to be here past this year and he was entering into a UFA situation,” Adams said.
Adams got excellent value out of the Rasmus Ristolainen trade to the Philadelphia Flyers, but the Reinhart trade netted less. The reality of the NHL, according to Adams, is defensemen hold more value.
“Defensemen are at a premium," Adams explained. "The way teams have been built lately, the 'Risto' type of player, there’s a value to that in the league right now.
“Clearly centermen are at a premium, and mostly in Sam’s career he’s been a winger. That plays into it.”
After drafting Owen Power with the first overall pick on Friday night, the Sabres went small, drafting three smaller Russian players that possess high skill.
Over the years, the Sabres have almost totally ignored the Russians. Director of amateur scouting Jerry Forton said on Saturday they decided to change things up.
“This was not my decision. We decided organizationally to take a look at this, but we did not go into the draft thinking we need to draft five Russians," Forton said. "I think we had a very strong comfort level with a lot of the Russian players on our list. We had great video, and the analytic data out of the Russian leagues is very advanced and very accurate."
Here's a recap of the selections made in the 2021 NHL Draft for the Sabres:
Round 1:
1.) Owen Power - Defense
14.) Isak Rosen - Forward
Round 2:
33.) Prokhor Poltapov - Forward
53.) Aleksandr Kisakov - Forward
Round 3:
88.) Stiven Sardarian - Forward
95.) Josh Bloom - Forward
Round 4:
97.) Olivier Nadeau - Forward
Round 5:
159.) Viljami Marjala - Forward
Round 6:
161.) William von Barnekow-Lofberg - Forward
188.) Nikita Novikov - Defense
Round 7:
193.) Tyson Kozak - Forward
NHL free agency begins at 12 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Adams said he’s still trying to get a deal done with goalie Linus Ullmark, but defenseman Jake McCabe is a different story.
“We’ve had conversations all along," he said of the veteran defenseman. "I’m a big fan of Jake McCabe, but we’re in a spot where he said he’s going to see what’s out there.”
