By; Maeve Hushman, Staff Writer
After the Buffalo Sabres’ disastrous 2020-2021 season in which they famously went on a 18-game winless streak, there was a lot of speculation that their star center and captain, Jack Eichel, had requested a trade. Eichel is one of the best Americans in the NHL right now; he was drafted second overall in 2015 behind the best player in the league Connor McDavid. Eichel trade talk dominated both the 2021 trade deadline as well as the entire off-season. People were listing off all sorts of teams who could be interesting, among the most intriguing was the power-house Vegas Golden Knights. On November 4th, it was announced that Eichel and a 2022 3rd round pick had been traded to the Golden Knights for Payton Krebs, Alex Tuch, a 2022 1st Round pick, and a 2023 2nd round pick.
The Eichel case is made even more interesting by its complex conditions. It is a story of a franchise that let down its star and then denied him medical autonomy. So, here is the Ballad of Jack Eichel, a top 10 talent wrongfully maligned and scorned by the team which drafted him, presented as a three-act play of sorts:
Part 1: Medical Autonomy
Eichel was placed on LTIR (long-term injury reserve) last season with a neck injury which required surgery. Eichel wanted to fix this nagging injury with artificial disk replacement surgery. It would be better for him in the long term and not require any further maintenance surgeries. There was just one problem: the surgery only became regularly practiced in 2000 and had never been performed on an NHL player. While Eichel and his doctor believed this surgery was the best option, the Sabres refused to allow it, instead insisting that Eichel get an anterior cervical discectomy with fusion (ACDF). That surgery, while it has been performed on active NHL players, has a longer recovery time, is riskier, will be worse for Eichel in the long term, and require maintenance surgeries later on. Eichel is a star center and has a $10 million contract. He is an asset to the Sabres organization. In many contracts, NHL players sign over their medical autonomy to their team. They usually have to act on the recommendation of the team doctor. The CBA (collective bargaining agreement) says that players can seek a second or third opinion to challenge the team medical staff, but there is no guarantee that this will convince the team doctor or the organization at large to agree to the procedure. In the case of the Sabres, the medical staff chose not to.
The Sabres and Eichel drew to a stalemate over the summer. Eichel refused to get the fusion and the Sabres refused to allow him to receive an artificial disk replacement. Eichel spent the summer in pain, unable to do anything to fix it. Because of this he will likely miss most of the season and be unable to play for team USA in the winter Olympics, both of which he would’ve been able to do if the Sabres allowed him to have the surgery this summer or traded him to a team that would allow him to get the surgery this summer.
On the ESPN podcast “In the Crease'', co-host Linda Cohn put it somewhat crassly when she said, “Jack Eichel is property of the Buffalo Sabres” but that is the case. It is a, frankly, disgusting notion; Eichel is a person who deserves the right to autonomy and choice in what happens to his body. The Sabres organization does not see him that way, to them he is an asset, something to be used to win games. The importance of him as an asset is not only in his ability and contract, but also in his trade value. The Sabres believed the artificial disc replacement surgery would decrease Eichel’s trade value due to the unprecedented nature of the surgery. Thus, Eichel was viewed as a business decision, a property of the Sabres, not a person in pain suffering needlessly while a franchise played chess with his life. Eichel is a hockey player who makes his living based on his ability to play hockey. The fusion surgery would put that at risk more than the disc replacement surgery. So, he was acting in the best interest of his well-being in career, meanwhile the Sabres were acting in their best interest, ignoring the person who this would most affect. It is an NHL team putting winning above human well-being once again, something that seems to be all too common.
Part 2: How to Fail a Star Player 101: written by the Buffalo Sabres
There is another element to this story beyond the denial of body autonomy. It is the age-old story of how a franchise can mishandle a star player. Missmanging star power seems to be a Sabres trait in general (see Taylor Hall, Sam Reinhart, and Ryan O’Reilly) but it was the most grossly evident in the case of Eichel.
The story really starts in 2015, with one of the best draft classes in recent memory. That draft included talented players like Mitch Marner, Sebastian Aho, Mikko Rantanen, and Zach Wereneski. However, the real jewels of the draft were McDavid and Eichel. McDavid was one of five ever players to receive exceptional status in the Ontario Hockey League, meaning he was able to enter major juniors at age 15. His play was so incredible that people were touting him as McJesus, or the Next One. He was a generational talent and was almost guaranteed to make a team competitive. Eichel, while he was not quite at the level of McDavid, was also a future franchise center, another player who could turn a team around just by playing for them.
Coming into the 2014-15 season, the Sabres had a three-year post season drought. When a team starts to lose their competitive edge, they have two options: a retool or a full rebuild. Because of the promised top two players in the 2015 draft, the Sabres opted for the latter. Then, they decided to make a move that some rebuilding teams chose, they tanked. Tanking involves trading off the team’s best players, while holding back top prospects in the AHL and juniors, which causes the team to plummet in the standings increasing their chances of getting the first overall pick in the draft lottery. Despite the fact the league tries to discourage tanking with the presence of the draft lottery, many teams still do it. In the 2014-15 season, the Edmonton Oilers, Sabres, and Arizona Coyotes all decided to tank for the opportunity to get either McDavid or Eichel.
The 2014-15 Sabres finished out the season with a record of 23-51-8, putting them last in the league, which was the goal. Because the Sabres finished last, they had the highest probability of getting the first overall pick in the league (a 20% chance). Sabres fans started to fall in love with McDavid, who played for the nearby Erie Otters at the time. They cheered for their own team to lose that year, knowing the more they lost the better their odds at landing McDavid. The fans were so certain or maybe so hopeful that they would draft McDavid, that many bought custom McDavid Sabres Jerseys (custom jerseys can cost between $199-$249). It was very clear, the Sabres organization and their fans wanted McDavid more than anything.
Then the draft lottery rolled around; the Sabres organization and fans were all waiting, almost certain they’d hear their team’s name announced as the winner of the first overall pick and thus McDavid. But then it wasn’t, the Edmonton Oilers got the first overall pick that year and Buffalo received the second. The GM at the time, Tim Murray, said he was disappointed in the outcome.
So, with that “disappointing” second overall pick, the Sabres selected Eichel. This part of the Eichel story cannot be ignored. Eichel joined a team that wanted McDavid more than anything else and that unintentionally put him in the role of a consolation prize, the one they settled for. Maybe Eichel did not see it that way but still the shadow of McDavid was cast onto Eichel. It did not help that the next year another American star center, Auston Matthews, went first overall to the Sabres rival and nearby Toronto Maple Leafs, which invited another comparison for Eichel to deal with during his career.
Even with that rocky start, Eichel quickly was recognized for his talent and became a fan favorite. Despite this, all throughout his time in Buffalo, the Sabres did not make the postseason. They had hot streaks where it looked like the Sabres might finally break their playoff drought, but they always came crashing back to earth. Jack Eichel is a top 10 center and has never played a single NHL playoff game. He has never had a shot at the cup. Meanwhile, the Oilers and the Leafs, two formerly tanking teams, both made the playoffs in the 2016-17 season. It was McDavid’s second year in the NHL and Matthew’s first, meanwhile the Sabres and Jack Eichel were left to watch from afar.
What was the difference? Well, let’s use the Leafs and Oilers as comparisons. When Matthews entered the league, so did the Leafs’ top prospects, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Kasperi Kappanen, and Andreas Johnsson. The Leafs also had prime Freddie Andersen in net and former first round picks Nazem Kadri and Morgan Rielly on the roster. The Oilers, when McDavid joined, had another amazing player in Leon Draisaitl as well as former first overall pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The Leafs worked to surround Matthews with talent and set him up for success because of it. The Oilers made some missteps under GM Peter Chiarelli in those early years, but at least had Draisaitl and were able to make the playoffs.
During that same time, the Sabres traded away Robin Lehner, now one of the top goalies in the league, and Ryan O'Reilly, who, that year, went on to win the Stanley Cup with the Blues and received the Conn Smythe trophy. They tried to make additions, signing winger Jeff Skinner to a $9 million contract. However, Skinner has failed to repeat the performance he had the year prior to signing that contract. They drafted first overall pick Rasmus Dahlin in 2018, but he has not found NHL success yet. The Sabres failed to surround Eichel with legitimate talent. They cycled through coaches and general managers, all while fans and players lost their patience. The rebuild was supposed to be finished but the team still wasn’t winning.
The Sabres failed Eichel. They failed to get top tier talent to play well in Buffalo and play with Eichel. They failed him by bringing him onto the team with the specter of McDavid on his shoulder. They failed him by preventing him from getting the surgery he needed. The Sabres wasted 6 years of Jack Eichel and now they are left to rebuild all over again. The mismanagement of Eichel has tarnished the reputation of the Sabres organization.
Part 3: The Finale: Trading Eichel
So now that the stage has been set, the situation revealed, let’s get to the final part: the Jack Eichel trade. Hockey fans have been begging for Eichel to get traded since it became clear the Sabres were squandering him. It was out of desire to see Eichel’s talent really supported and also to see him given an actual chance to win, but the trade talk picked up in the 2020-2021 season when the Sabres were historically bad and Eichel went on LTIR. Early in the trade speculation, it was still about the way the Sabres failed Eichel on the ice. However, when the situation surrounding the neck injury was revealed the trade talks really picked up.
The hockey world agreed that there was no way to salvage the Eichel-Sabres relationship and that a trade had to happen. Adding fuel to the fire, Eichel hired a new agent, Pat Brisson, who is known for representing other high-end talent like Sidney Crosby, John Tavares, and Nathan MacKinnon. Switching agents was a big move by Eichel and hockey analysts were convinced that this was a sign that hell or high water, Eichel would be traded.
However, the trade deadline and offseason came and went all without Eichel moving. It became a showdown. The Sabres front office did not want to be taken advantage of or look like idiots, and Eichel wanted artificial disk replacement surgery and to be traded. It became a matter of pride for the Sabres and a power move by the organization. The Sabres kept a player suffering in limbo all in a show of power. It definitely made the Sabres look malicious and vindictive rather than strong, powerful, or in control. It caused Eichel’s trade value to depreciate and in the end, the return was not nearly what GM Kevyn Adams said he wanted earlier.
The whole situation came to a head at the beginning of this season when Eichel was stripped of his captaincy for failing his team physical at the beginning of the year (because he was prohibited from getting his surgery) . Eichel was made Captain almost immediately upon arriving in Buffalo and they took it away because he didn’t comply with their plan. Players should have bodily autonomy. Even if they are an asset to a team, the team should not dictate players’ medical decisions.
The hockey world agreed that there was no way to salvage the Eichel-Sabres relationship and that a trade had to happen. Adding fuel to the fire, Eichel hired a new agent, Pat Brisson who is known for representing high end talent like Sidney Crosby, John Tavares, and Nathan MacKinnon. Switching agents was a big move by Eichel, and hockey analysts were convinced that this was a sign that hell or high water, Eichel would be traded.
However, the trade deadline and offseason came and went all without Eichel moving. There was wild speculation with the biggest contenders for Eichel being the Calgary Flames, the Vegas Golden Knight, the Anaheim Ducks, the Wild, the New York Rangers, and even the Avalanche. By the beginning of the week of November 4 rumors were churning that it had come down to the Flames and Golden Knights. Finally, the Sabres made the decision and traded Eichel to the Golden Knights.
The Golden Knights have not missed the playoffs since they entered the league in 2017. Eichel will finally be the legitimate star center they have been missing. He will be centering a line with Mark Stone, a top tier two-way winger. He will also no longer be the only talented player on the team or the captain, so the pressure he was under in Buffalo to carry the team to success will be alleviated on the Golden Knights. This trade finally gave Eichel the opportunity for success he has lacked since he entered the league.
It will also give Eichel the ability to get his desired surgery. GM of the Golden Knights, Kelly McCrimmon, when asked about Eichel’s surgery, responded, “We’re respectful of what he wants to do. Why wouldn’t his people want what’s best for him? None of us in this room have the medical expertise to have an opinion.” That quote confirms what has been reported, the Golden Knights will allow Eichel to have artificial disk replacement surgery. Finally, Eichel can have surgery and end the pain he has been going through since last season. So, not only will Eichel be in a better on ice situation, but he will also be able to get the medical care he needs and wants.
So here we are at the end of the saga (at least for now). Eichel is finally free of the Sabres, but what comes next? Hopefully Eichel will be a solid player for Vegas and ideally take them back to the cup finals. But what about the Sabres? Well, they are tanking again, hoping to get another star player in Shane Wright or Connor Bedard. They had a hot start to the 2021-22 season but have started to fall back down to earth. So the question remains, can the Sabres learn from their mishandling of Eichel and actually support Wright or Bedard? Will they even land Wright or Bedard? Or will the Eichel cycle repeat itself? It is a lesson in what not to do. Investing too much in the first overall pick, failing to surround a skilled player with talent, and treating human beings like commodities. If the Sabres fail to learn from this, they will never rebuild successfully.