Eichel team says process not working

Jack Eichel is tired of waiting.

He has watched a number of top NHL players get traded. Seth Jones. His Buffalo teammates, Sam Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen. Marc-André Fleury. Duncan Keith.

Eichel has seen others switch teams via free agency, including Dougie Hamilton, Zach Hyman and Blake Coleman. Lots of bodies moving, lots of teams making new commitments to new players.

And still Eichel is a Sabre, something he no longer wants to be.

Late Friday night, Eichel and his agents, Peter Fish and Peter Donatelli, decided to turn the heat up on Buffalo owners Terry and Kim Pegula and general manager Kevyn Adams.

“The process is not working,” Fish and Donatelli said in a surprise news release. “We fully anticipated a trade by the start of the NHL free agency period.”

The agents complained that, after the team and the player agreed on special neck surgery called artificial disc replacement surgery, team doctors changed their minds. That has left Eichel in limbo, they say, and potentially delayed his healthy return to the NHL.

“What is being left out of the discussion is that Jack would be able to play in the NHL for the start of the season … if he were allowed to have the surgery he desires,” wrote the agents. “Repeated requests have been made to the Sabres since early June to no avail. This process is stopping Jack from playing in the NHL and it’s not working.”

It was an unusual statement given that medical matters like this are usually kept under wraps, and revealing that Eichel wants to have surgery on his neck could be a disincentive for teams considering taking on his $10-million (U.S.) annual cap hit. The Rangers were rumoured to be a leading candidate, but nothing has happened on that front. Minnesota seemed to be a fit, but now speculation is the Wild have dropped out. Anaheim and Calgary are two other teams rumoured to have serious interest.

Eichel’s agents may be concerned a shrinking market for Eichel could force him to return to Buffalo in the fall, which is clearly the last thing he wants to do.

Eichel, a six-year Sabre, suffered a herniated disc in his neck in March. Initially, Buffalo doctors recommended rest and rehab for the 24-year-old, and there has been disagreement between the doctors and the player ever since.

“What’s critically important is to make sure … that we’re in control of this process,” Adams said recently. “We have a player under contract. We don’t feel any pressure.”

Eichel has five years left on the $80-million contract he signed in 2017. Very few teams have the cap room to handle his salary. The expansion Seattle Kraken might have the room but not the assets to make a trade.

This process has officially become toxic.

Aside from his neck issue, which is significant, Eichel was expected to be the most notable player available this offseason. He has 355 points in 375 NHL games with the Sabres, but has yet to play a single game in the playoffs. Other Buffalo players, notably centre Ryan O’Reilly, have grown tired of losing with the team and asked to be moved in the past.

Over $900 million in freeagent contracts have been signed by NHL teams since free agency opened on the weekend, which means dollars and cap space that might have been available for Eichel with a variety of teams are being spent.

There is the question as to whether teams want to take the risk on a player with a serious neck issue. Clearly, Eichel wants to have the surgery to be ready for the fall, which is why his agents have apparently gone public to force the team to at least agree on the surgery even if a trade isn’t imminent. It was back in May that Eichel said he was “upset” with the way his health issues were being handled by the team.

At this point, it’s not exactly clear what Eichel’s agents hoped to accomplish by their Friday night statement aside from blowing off a little steam. Adams, who has been under the gun for months, is clearly prepared to wait, having already moved Reinhart and Ristolainen, gone through the draft and started bringing in players to assist in the latest Buffalo rebuild.

The Sabres took Owen Power first overall in the draft last weekend and seem to be positioning themselves to have a shot at next year’s likely No. 1 pick, Kingston centre Shane Wright.

Given where the Sabres seem to be headed, they can wait out the process, even if Eichel isn’t ready to play next fall. By winter, assuming Eichel is ready to play again, the market could be better, although moving a $10-million player in the middle of an NHL season comes with its own set of problems.

It seems impossible now that Eichel and the Sabres can work out their differences. The agents have made it clear they believe they were promised he would be moved before free agency, while Adams has said he’ll decide when and if a trade will be made.

Eichel, taken second in the 2015 NHL draft after Connor McDavid, was supposed to be the franchise player who could return the Sabres to competitiveness. He’s had some strong individual seasons and became the team’s captain, but the team has continued losing amidst coaching and management changes.

Where could he end up? Calgary still makes a lot of sense, with Sean Monahan a perfect fit in a trade scenario. But the Flames have made some salary commitments elsewhere and could be wary of bringing in an unhappy player after missing the playoffs in the North Division this season.

So the Jack Eichel soap opera continues. With no end in sight.