2015 2nd overall draft pick Jack Eichel once considered as the cornerstone to the Buffalo Sabres franchise revival has been traded to the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
The trade may come as no surprise to anyone following the team as management and Eichel have wrestled over Eichel’s surgery options to fix a herniated disc.
In addition to Eichel the offseason offloading of Samson Reinhardt and Rasmus Ristolainen, the Sabres have jettisoned three players many thought would turn the team into a perennial playoff team. Instead the Sabres have missed the playoffs in every year of the Eichel-era.
Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams said the moves were made to move the franchise forward both in the short term and long term.
“I go back to we need to build an organization of people and players that want to be here that are truly buying in and all in,” he said. “That was an important part of this.”
The Sabres currently sit in 2nd place in the N-H-L’s Atlantic Division with a 5-4 record.
Speaking to reporters from Seattle ahead of tonight’s game against the Karken, Sabres Head Coach Don Granato said there isn’t going to be a savior coming to the team to change its fortunes.
“This franchise is going to change by a group effort and we've added some competent pieces to the group but it's still going to be a group effort,” he said.
Granato doesn’t feel any sense of clarity with the Eichel trade and said the team’s focus has, since the start of the season, been on their next opponent.
