After a dramatic summer of disagreements from the Buffalo Sabres, Jack Eichel has been stripped of his captaincy of the team.
At the beginning of the offseason, it seemed certain that Jack Eichel would be leaving the Buffalo Sabres and starting on a new team by the beginning of the 2021-22 season. However, with drama unfolding between the team and the player, it turns out that Eichel would end up staying on the Sabres, even after news surfaced that the team wouldn’t let him get a procedure on his neck. Today, it was announced that after failing his physical, the Sabres stripped him of his “C”. It’s now a waiting game to see what happens next.
Will Eichel get the surgery that he needs? He’s been placed on IR until he can figure out what to do regarding his injury. As of right now, it’s been said that he won’t get a fusion, which is what the Sabres doctors are recommending, and the medical staff doesn’t want him to get an artificial disk replacement, something that Eichel has expressed interest in. Currently, he’s not at training camp while the Sabres wait for either a) a trade to happen, or b) one side to finally concede on what to do about his neck.
“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
This is an unfortunate move for the Buffalo Sabres — Eichel is without a doubt their best player and the Sabres need someone like him if they’re going to try to make a cup run. After nothing short of an appalling season last year, including 18 straight losses (11 of which were without Eichel), it seems like this is the last thing the team needs right now.
Moving Ahead…
The only thing to do now is to wait and see what happens. It’s unlikely that the Sabres are going to trade Eichel, their star player. It’s the best way to rehabilitate the team is by keeping him. A trade is possible, but do the Sabres really want to see a team without their star player?