Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. You may have seen a lot of chatter on Thursday about Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres, and a whole lot of drama surrounding the star forward. If you need to be caught up, that’s what we’re here for.
The drama in Buffalo got ratcheted up quite a bit as NHL teams including the Sabres are getting ready to start training camp, with an announcement on Thursday that Eichel was no longer the captain of the team.
But where did this all come from? And why is this suddenly happening now? Let’s break it all down for you:
Who is Jack Eichel?
Eichel is a center for the Sabres who was taken by the franchise with the second overall pick of the 2015 draft. He’s very, very good at hockey, having scored 139 goals and 355 points in 375 games with the team that hoped he’d develop in to a cornerstone in the rebuild in Western New York.
When did all this drama start?
Let’s go back to 2020. The Sabres hadn’t made the playoffs in any of Eichel’s first five seasons, and he expressed his frustration with reporters in May of that year by saying how fed up he was with losing.
But he did say he was happy with the direction things were going in.
At least in my opinion, the most powerful answer we heard during our phone call with Jack Eichel today. The tone of his voice says a lot here #Sabres @WKBW pic.twitter.com/4GkksFj7Go
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) May 28, 2020
What happened next?
Eichel started the 2020-21 season with just two goals in 21 games (although he had 16 assists). But a hit from the New York Islanders’ Casey Cizikas put an end to his season with a hit that resulted in a herniated disk in his neck.
But why would the Sabres strip him of his captaincy over that?
Because the team and the player disagree on what the surgery should be.
Eichel wants cervical disk replacement surgery, a procedure that hasn’t been done on an NHL player. The team would like to him to undergo disk fusion.
Does the team have the option of just forcing the issue?
Nope. From The Associated Press:
Under the NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement reached last year, teams now have the final say on how players can treat injuries. The Sabres could eventually opt to suspend Eichel, which would likely lead to the player filing a grievance through the NHL Players’ Association.
So they didn't suspend him.
Nope. On Thursday, general manager Kevyn Adams announced Eichel was placed on injured reserved after a failed physical and had the “C” taken away:
“I spoke to Jack two days ago, I spoke to the team yesterday and addressed this, Jack Eichel is no longer the captain of the Buffalo Sabres. From our perspective, the captain is your heartbeat of your team, and we are in a situation where we felt we needed to make that decision.” pic.twitter.com/K0vajWnCR0
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) September 23, 2021
Shouldn't the Sabres just trade him if they're unhappy about all this?
Well … that’s complicated, isn’t it? First off, the injury needs to be fixed, and who’s going to trade for a star player with that uncertainty at the moment? Second, Eichel’s trade value might be at an all-time low given what’s going on. So it might be better for the Sabres to wait.
Eichel changed agents last month, for what it’s worth.
Has Eichel said much about all this lately?
There hasn’t been much … except this very cryptic one-emoji tweet that got the NHL world going nuts wondering what it meant.
😒
— Jack Eichel (@jackeichel) August 19, 2021
What a mess.
I know, right? And it might get uglier.
