Arguably the most interesting thing to come out of the draft this year doesn’t involve the new draftees for the Buffalo Sabres. No, the most interesting thing to come out of this year’s draft is the situation brewing between the Sabres and captain Jack Eichel. It was widely believed that Eichel would be traded away this past weekend along with now former Sabres Sam Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen, but that never materialized. Eichel’s management agency told the media on Sunday that he’s likely to be traded in the next week, but Kevyn Adams says he’s prepared to go to training camp with Eichel still on the roster.

Would the Sabres really go into next season with Jack Eichel still on the team?

“I would have no problem at all if Jack Eichel is on our team when we start training camp,” Adams said following the second round of draft. “I have said this before and I’ll say it again: If we are in a position that we believe will help our franchise, not just in the short term but for the long term in building this out, building around a core and the foundation of critical assets, then we’d be open and looking at it.”

Adams is adamant that bringing Eichel back is a feasible option for the Sabres. To be fair, that’s basically the only answer that Adams can give to the media. He can’t very well go tell the press – and other teams by extension – that it would be an untenable position to have Eichel back with the Sabres for training camp in September. There is no way that Adams would say that he’s going to trade Eichel because he feels that he has to.
But is this approach really feasible?

The first question for the Sabres is whether Eichel will be healthy enough to play when the puck drops this October, and if not by October, whether he’ll be good to go at some point during this season. It’s not exactly clear what Eichel’s status is health-wise, although his agent Peter Fish did disclose late last week that Eichel is on the ice and skating which seems to be a positive omen for Eichel’s availability. Obviously there is a massive difference between skating and absorbing hits when the action starts in the fall.

The Sabres also to need to internally discuss whether Eichel would cause any kind of internal strife among the young burgeoning core of this team due to what has transpired so far this summer. If he were so upset at the prospect of returning that he sulked around the room or just had a miserable attitude every day he showed up to the rink, then that could cause irreparable harm down the roster. The Sabres can ill afford to allow disgruntled veteran players to influence players like Dylan Cozens, Casey Mittelstadt, Rasmus Dahlin and Henri Jokiharju at such a critical point in the continuing rebuild.

If Eichel can come to the rink every day and be a pro, even while still preferring to leave the Sabres, then everything should be fine. It’s hard to imagine Eichel giving half an effort when he is out on the ice. Once the puck drops and the ice chips start flying, it’s easy to imagine the center returning to his dominant form when healthy. It’s simply not in the DNA of true competitors to give a subpar effort with their own reputation on the line for the whole hockey world to see.

Adams seems to be banking on Eichel adopting a positive attitude. According to Adams, there are no bitter feelings on management’s side toward the captain.

“I have no sort of - in any way shape or form - hard feelings with Jack Eichel,” he said. “I want to make that very clear. I like Jack. Over the past year plus I’ve been on the job, we’ve had a lot of different discussions, some of them maybe not as fun as others. We’ve gotten to know each other; I’ve talked to his agents twice today. There’s constant communication.
“But I understand where he is… from my standpoint, he is a player on our team and a very good one, very, very good one. And that’s how I look at it.

From a pure hockey perspective Eichel’s presence on the team is undoubtedly a positive for on-ice impact. Eichel can single-handedly take over games, and with the rest of the roster being so young, there really aren’t any otherplayers on the team about whom one could say the same thing. First-time head coach Don Granato figures to play an uptempo style of offensive hockey which could see Eichel score well above a point-per-game if he’s healthy, available and willing to play. There’s still a possibility – granted it’s an extremely unlikely possibility – that together, Eichel and Granato could absolutely shock the hockey world with an unexpectedly good season. Eichel has the talent to put a team on his back and score perhaps 90-100 points if healthy, and Granato seems to have his finger on the pulse of the young pieces on the team. Together, all of these elements could produce a very exciting season.

It would undoubtedly help the center depth of the team considerably to retain Eichel in light of the departure of Sam Reinhart to the Florida Panthers. For three years, the Sabres were plagued with insufficient center depth behind Eichel aft the departure of Ryan O’Reilly and they would likely face an even worse situation by forcing Cozens and Mittelstadt to assume top-6 center roles with no proven alternatives should the plan not work out.

If Eichel does indeed return then one of the biggest decisions that need to be made by Don Granato is what to do with the status of his captaincy. It would probably be seen as petty and spiteful to remove the “C” from Eichel’s jersey due to the events of the summer. That would be a huge test not only for the locker room, but also for Granato who hasn’t yet established a level of credibility that some of the bigger names in the NHL coaching world enjoy. Conversely, allowing Eichel to retain his captaincy could send an odd message to the rest of the NHL. Does it really make sense to have the leader of the team be someone who seemingly has one foot out the door while management is trying to lock that door behind him? That decision will likely be the first massive test for the new Sabres coach if Eichel does indeed stick around for the start of the season.

It appears the Sabres have entered into a long game of chicken with the rest of the league. Perhaps most NHL GMs don’t believe that the Sabres are willing to roll it back with Eichel and put him on the ice if he’s healthy. Adams is trying his darndest to convince them that he will if there isn’t a package of of picks, prospects and players available that he finds an acceptable return for the star captain.

If no one blinks, this could still be a topic of discussion at the 2022 NHL draft.

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