Jack Eichel Spilling the Beans on the Buffalo Sabres
To say the the Buffalo Sabres and Jack Eichel spilt was messy is a understatement. Jack Eichel was the Sabres captain and their superstar, but they couldn't see to eye on what was best for Jack Eichel.
Eichel stood his ground and took a trade to the Las Vegas Golden Knights. While he has been recovering from the
surgery he needed, he took time to go on the Chris Wideman Podcast.
While on there, Jack Eichel discussed what ultimately led to his end with the Sabres and it seemed to be over Eichel's preferred treatment and the Sabres opposed it until the very last minute. By then, he was done with the Buffalo Sabres.
Jack Eichel would say,
"Then the mood of them being very OK with me getting surgery just changed and I didn't really understand why," said Eichel on the podcast. "It was fine yesterday but now its not you know what I mean... and I didn't understand why right? And their explanation was that it hadn't been done on an NHL player yet and to me I didn't find that as a valid medical reason to not get a surgery. If in medicine nobody ever made any sort of transition to a better way of doing something, then we would be doing the same thing we've always done. There's was a bit of a disconnect at that point between me and the team."
Jack Eichel would then acuse some of his former Sabres teammates of being shady though wouldn't name those players specifically. Eichel would just say they were telling him two different things at the same time.
Eichel would say, "I was getting one thing in private conversations from some people and then when it became in a bigger setting and there were more people involved in the conversations, what I was hearing in private conversations was completely different than what was being said."
Eichel would admit is was clearly frustrated on how things went with his former team but was even going to work with them even when they deceived him before but they once again did Eichel dirty. Eichel would go on to say,
They wanted me to continue to do this conservative rehab route that I had been doing, so I said 'ok I'll do it' but all the doctors we had went and saw said realistically if you do it for 3 months and you don't make any improvement.... after 3 months it's not gonna get any better. I said to Buffalo 'Ok I'll do it for 3 months' and at the end 3 months if it hasn't got any better and I still have the same symptoms then we should probably consider the surgery," said Eichel.
"And they said 'OK fine.'"
"So I went back to Florida worked with the guy again and at the end of 3 months I went back to Buffalo and they were still like 'No, you can't get surgery."
Wide like Eichel has also dealt with neck issues being a former UFC athlete was clearly taken back the Buffalo Sabres were preventing Jack Eichel from having the process done.
Jack Eichel would continue telling his story to Chris Wideman saying, "The thing that I didn't really understand, and I still don't, is as if I was going to make a decision that was going to compromise my ability to play hockey. At the end of the day my goal is to be the best hockey player that I can be and perform every night, so I'm not going to make a decision or do something that I think is going to deteriorate my career," said Eichel. "That's where I was frustrated, I'm not gonna do something that I think is gonna be detrimental to my career, I'm doing something that I think is in my best interest."
The Anerican forward said as hard as it was on the Buffalo Sabres he's
praised his new team the Golden Knights saying, "It was very refreshing when I went to Vegas," said Eichel with relief in his voice. "They were just all supportive... and it was very refreshing and I'm very fortunate."
Jack Eichel told Wideman before being traded said he just didn't feel like he had the say in his own health with the Sabres. He would go on to say,
"At this point I had went and saw other doctors. I had talked to probably 5 or 6 different spine or neurosurgeons around the country and the consensus from everyone was to do a disk replacement other than Buffalo," said Eichel. "There were some things going on where it didn't really seem they actually believe what they were saying, they were just saying it to say it. It got very political, the medical side of things kinda went away and it was sort of like 'We're just gonna hold you ransom here."
Wideman chimed in at this point and said what Eichel wasn't willing to.
"I know you don't wanna say it but screw them, are you kidding me." said the former UFC Champion.
Jack Eichel didn't agree nor disagree, just shrugged his shoulders, he just called the whole experience "eye opening". Eichel would go on to say, "At the end of the day you're an entity to them and as soon as you can't perform for them anymore they're not really there for you. That's sort of the feeling that I got and it was an eye opening experience,".
Credit: Hockeyfeed
