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Sabres Update- Eichel-Karmanos. By Mark Pino |
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On Monday afternoon during his post-trade deadline media availability, Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams was asked to provide an update on the whereabouts and medical status of his captain Jack Eichel. The rookie GM said that Eichel had recently been seen by team doctors and that the North Chelmsford, Mass. native had made slight progress in his recovery from the serious neck injury that he had suffered during a game against the NY Islanders on March 7. Adams added that he would be providing a status update on Eichel this week and did not rule out whether Eichel would return to action this season.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Sabres announced that Eichel will miss the rest of the season recovering from a herniated disc in his neck. The team did not mention whether or not Eichel will be undergoing a surgery to repair the herniated disk.
Eichel, 24, is expected to make a full recovery from his injury and be healthy to compete at 100% in training camp (date TBD) next season.
Eichel’s neck was injured on this play. Watch how Islanders grinder Casey Cizikas attacks the Buffalo captain from behind with a high stick to the back of the neck.
If Cizikas had pulled this crap on an unsuspecting victim on the street outside the arena, he would have be facing assault charges. Why was Cizikas not penalized for his act of aggression? Why was there not hearing for Cizikas to give him supplemental punishment for the egregious high stick that has caused Eichel to sit out the last 19 games?
The National Hockey League does such a terrible job of protecting it’s star players. Eichel didn’t deserve to have his season ended due to the negligence of an opposing player. It is an affront to the NHL that there was no penalty on the play that injured Eichel nor was Cizikas penalized by the officials on the ice and the Department of Player Safety.
Despite injuries to his ribs, ankle and neck, Eichel still managed to scored two goals and sixteen assists in 21 games this season, Eichel recorded a career low 0.86 points per game in 2021.
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In the aftermath of the Eichel injury news, Kevyn Adams has announced the hiring of his Associate General Manager, Jason Karmanos.
Karmanos spent the past six seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he served as Jim Rutherford’s AGM for three seasons. Karmanos was the Penguins’ VP of Hockey Operations prior to his AGM role.
Karmanos was also a member of the Carolina Hurricanes' front office from 1998-2013 and served as AGM for 13 of those seasons. Karmanos’ father, Peter, owned the Hartford Whalers and Carolina Hurricanes from 1994 until 2018.
Karmanos, 46, has been part of three Stanley Cup championships. He won one with Carolina in 2006 and two with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017.
Adams and Karmanos won a Stanley Cup together with the Hurricanes in 2006.
How do I feel about the hiring of Karmanos?
I don’t hate the move.
However, I don’t love it either.
Listen, Karmanos has an impressive resume. He has the halo-effect of having been on the management teams of Jim Rutherford’s successful franchises in Carolina and Pittsburgh. Jason Botterill, Bill Guerin, and Tom Fitzgerald can make the same claim. We all know that Sid, Geno, Flower, Kris Letang, Jake Guentzel, and the Penguins players won those Cups.
I was hoping that Adams would shy away from the safe choice habit of hiring a friend and former colleague.
I am high on Kevin Weekes, Mike Futa and Pat Verbeek
I feel strongly that he will be an excellent front office executive in the very near future. To know Weekes is to know that he is more than an excellent broadcaster and NHL analyst. Weekes is an excellent communicator and has many contacts both inside and outside the NHL. He knows the modern era players and what elements are necessary to construct winning hockey teams on and off the ice. Mark my words. Kevin Weekes will be a respected font office leader on an NHL club’s management staff in the very near future.
Futa played an integral role in constructing the Los Angeles Kings into a two-time Stanley Cup (2012, 2014) winning franchise. Futa is too good a talent evaluator and draft specialist to be unemployed. Futa would provide intel, support and credibility to Adams and the soon-to-be-rebuilt scouting staff in Buffalo. Futa was promoted to assistant general manager in April 2017, one of the first moves made by Rob Blake after Blake succeeded Dean Lombardi as general manager. Before that, Futa had been the Kings’ vice president of hockey operations and director of player personnel, titles and responsibilities he was given by Lombardi in May 2014 as a way to keep Futa when rival teams expressed interest in hiring him away. Before that, Futa was co-director of amateur scouting. He had worked for the Kings for 13 seasons
Verbeek won Stanley Cups as a player with the Detroit Red Wings. After he retired from the NHL. Verbeek transitioned his on-ice excellence to the management suite where he assisted Steve Yzreman and Julien BriseBois in building a Stanley Cup championship team in Tampa Bay. Though Verbeek and Yzerman left Tampa in 2019 to pursue a return to greatness in Detroit, both men had their fingerprints all over the roster of 2020 Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning and the AHL Syracuse Crunch
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