After Eichel expressed frustrations with the team in terms of how his injury has been managed and treated, Sabres GM Kevyn Adams told reporters the captain has not asked for a trade.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) â Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams intends to move ahead with âplayers who want to be hereâ and that â for now â includes disgruntled captain Jack Eichel.
Adams on Wednesday said Eichel has not requested a trade and disagreed with his team captain’s assessment of there being âa disconnectâ with the Sabres over how to treat a herniated disk that has sidelined him since early March. In raising questions about his future in Buffalo on Monday, Eichel said he favored having surgery.
Adams spent the first five minutes of an end-of-season video conference call by stressing both sides have been in constant communication in regards to the injury, and had agreed to wait until early June to determine how to proceed. He said the surgery Eichel desires is one that has never been performed on an NHL player.
Chicago (24-26-6) saw its season come to a close on Monday night with a 5-4 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars, finishing on the outside looking in at the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This is where we expected them to be at the close of this season, not playing in the postseason and looking forward to next year, as they continue to go forward in their rebuilding process.
• While the expectation from the outside was that Chicago would not be playing in the postseason, the expectations inside the club still were on competing for a Stanley Cup. For the future cornerstones of the organization like Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat, not playing Stanley Cup Playoff hockey is unacceptable.
31 Thoughts: What caused the disconnect between Eichel, Sabres
Elliotte Friedman joins Hockey Central to talk about the tensions between Jack Eichel and Buffalo Sabres. | May 11, 2021, 12:14 PM
May 11, 2021, 12:14 PM
• How did Eichel, Sabres get here?
• A look at the NHL coaching carousel
• When will North Division series start?
What we know: Jack Eichel dropped a neutron bomb on the Buffalo Sabres. As the team’s captain revealed Monday, he’s “a bit upset about the way that things have been handled since I’ve been hurt…. There’s been a bit of a disconnect from the organization and myself.
“The most important thing is trying to get healthy and figure out a way to be available to play hockey next year wherever that might be.”
The top rising candidates for NHL coach, GM jobs
Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images
If there s anything we know about NHL hiring practices, it s that they can be predictable. Since 2005-06, there have been 171 head-coaching changes in the NHL more than the NFL, NBA or MLB. However, 101 of the 171 new hires had previous head-coaching experience, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. That 59.1% rate of retreads is also the highest among the other three major men s professional sports leagues in North America.
So with three coaching vacancies already open this cycle the Arizona Coyotes, Columbus Blue Jackets and Seattle Kraken it s easy to guess who will get first looks. John Tortorella (who recently parted with Columbus after six years), Rick Tocchet (done in Arizona after four years) and Gerard Gallant (who took the NHL season off after being dismissed by Vegas in 2020) are going to be hot names. But other than them, who is next? And how about in management?