The Buffalo Sabres Drama With Jack Eichel Is Bad For The NHL

Not since Eric Lindros has there been such a dramatic standoff between a player, his team, and the desire to be traded. That’s the situation the Buffalo Sabres and Jack Eichel have found themselves in the past few months. Unlike Lindros, there’s a medical aspect to the Eichel drama that further complicates things. While the trade of one of the NHL’s star centers once would have netter Buffalo a king’s ransom, they’ll be lucky to get a few stray pieces from the treasure chest as Eichel’s value continues to drop faster than a player knocked out cold on the ice.

Now the calendar has changed to October. Instead of drama in the front office, there’s actual action on the ice. Fans are more concerned with their team actually playing instead of hypothetical trades from the far-off ice tundra of Western New York. Even Sabres fans seem done with the turmoil when only 8,000 fans showed up to their home opener, which was a surprising win over cup finalist the Montreal Canadians from last season.

Jack Eichel has been close to being traded for months at this point. When will the Buffalo Sabers end this stand-off?

The Jack Eichel trade saga has become the NHL’s version of the Cold War. It’s a seemingly endless “will they won’t they” full of tension that previously had hockey fans on the edge of their seat. Now where the former captain will end up has become back page news to the actual games of hockey being played. Hockey fans are getting tired of hearing about “the boy who cried Eichel”. It was one thing to follow the story in the offseason when we had no hockey to watch. With a plethora of games on now, we’d all rather watch our favorite teams than hearing “a trade might happen” for the millionth time.

We’ve been hearing a trade was imminent for the past several months. With every day Jack Eichel remains property of the Buffalo Sabres, he becomes worth less and less. Yes, there are all the complications of dealing with his medical records and agents, but potential suitors aren’t going to wait forever. The best landing spot for Eichel, and the team that would most likely pay the most in assets for him, was the New York Rangers. After shelling out a nice contract extension to Mika Zibanejad that seems unlikely.

Player’s decisions in their own health need to be addressed too. This has become a controversial subject over the past few months. Going off of Eichel’s grievances as a springboard, former Sabres goalie Robin Lehner sounded off on Twitter accusing multiple team doctors and teams themselves of malpractice and improperly treating injuries. Lehner cited examples of both himself and other players. Philadelphia Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault was directly accused. The cause of Jimmy Hayes’s tragic death being revealed and linked to a pain killer addiction earlier this week didn’t help. Even if all the developments between Lehner, Hayes, and Vigneault aren’t perfect comparisons, they do give the benefit of the doubt to Eichel that perhaps he knows best when it comes to his recovery.

As the NHL season enters its second week there is no end in sight. The Sabres have started with a surprisingly strong two-win streak while Eichel remains in the team’s past. No matter what happens. This entire Eichel saga hasn’t looked good for the NHL.