Hot Topic: How Does The Jack Eichel-Sabres Stalemate End?
Jack Eichel is never going to going to play for the Buffalo Sabres again. This has been known for quite some time.
The rift between the Sabres and their franchise cornerstone started with years of mediocrity and the failure to build anything close to a legitimate contender. It then reached a breaking point when the two sides couldn’t agree on how to move forward with Eichel’s injury.
Eichel had the worst season of his NHL career in 2021. He was kept out of the lineup for a good chunk of the season due to a neck injury and scored just two goals and 18 points over the course of 21 games. At the end of the season, Eichel expressed frustration with how the team handled his injury.
Jack Eichel: “I’ve been a bit upset about the ways things have been handled since I’ve been hurt. There’s been a bit of a disconnect between myself and the organization. The most important thing now is to get healthy and be ready to play hockey next year, wherever that might be.”
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) May 10, 2021As time went along, we learned that the rift between the Sabres and Eichel had to do with him getting surgery done to deal with the issue in his neck. While the Sabres wanted Eichel to have an anterior cervical discectomy with fusion, which is the most common way to navigate such an injury, Eichel wanted to have a new disc put in his neck, which is an operation that has never been performed on an NHL player.
The real bomb here came when Eichel said “wherever that might be” in regards to where he would be playing next season. Based on that quote, it became very clear that Eichel’s time in Buffalo would soon be coming to an end.
Here we are now, nearly five months later. The start of the 2021-22 season is right around the corner and Eichel is still a member of the Sabres. He’s been stripped of his captaincy and there’s no saying where or when he’s going to play again.
There are a few challenges getting in the way of a deal involving Eichel.
The asking price by Buffalo’s general manager, Kevyn Adams, is apparently insanely high. Back in June, word came out that Adams was seeking “six components” in return for Eichel: a top-six center under the age of 25, a top-four defender under the age of 25, a first-round draft pick and an assortment of three prospects.
Mix Adams’ firm stance on his astronomical asking price with A) the league-wide salary cap issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic and B) uncertainty around Eichel’s health and it’s nearly impossible to imagine a deal getting done at this point.
So, what now?
@nhl is it good to keep a generational player out of the league? His body his choice. Do what’s right. @sabres
— Robin Lehner (@RobinLehner) October 1, 2021Robin Lehner took to Twitter earlier this week and put out a long rant about teams providing players with dangerous pain-killing medications. He also voiced support for Eichel, his former teammate in Buffalo, as the Sabres are pushing him to get a surgery done that will ultimately require him to get more surgeries down the road.
While Lehner is pushing the league to get involved and suggesting “his body, his choice” in regards to how Eichel can navigate his injury, the reality is the Players’ Association overlooked this issue back when they signed a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in the summer of 2020. Teams hold the leverage in this situation, per the agreed-upon terms of the CBA, and they’re going to use it.
But the narrative that Eichel isn’t allowed to get his surgery done isn’t accurate. He can still have a new disc placed in his neck, but he’ll be suspended by the Sabres for not following their medical advice and he won’t get paid.
Ideal? Maybe not. But Eichel has already made $40,000,000 in his career and that might be the best way for him to get out of this ugly situation and put his career back on track.
Last week, Darren Dreger of TSN reported that the Sabres are now sharing Eichel’s medical information with other teams as they work to make a trade. This will certainly make life a lot easier when it comes to finding a trade partner because there won’t be as much uncertainty around what they’re getting with Eichel.
Even if Eichel gets traded, there’s no guarantee that the new team will have a different stance on what surgery they’d like him to have. It would be strange for a team to give up a bunch of assets to acquire an injured Eichel and just take on this exact same issue that the Sabres are dealing with, but, you never know.
Eichel can take control of this situation by just going out and getting his surgery done. If it works and he’s cleared to play, it won’t be a challenge at all for the Sabres to move him.
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