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Hamilton Take2: Jack Eichel in the present, past and future

WGRZ Sabres/NHL Insider Paul Hamilton shares his thoughts on former Sabres captain Jack Eichel returning to Buffalo on Thursday night.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Jack Eichel is back in Western New York to play the Sabres for the first time since he was traded in November.

Eichel and his Vegas Golden Knights teammates practiced in Buffalo on Wednesday to get ready for Thursday’s game.

Eichel asked to be traded before he ever had the disk injury to his neck and then got involved in a dispute with the club on what surgery should be done. More than once on Wednesday he said that he has no bitterness whatsoever toward the Pegulas or the organization.

Eichel spoke about how both were very good to him, from him playing his first NHL game to the honor he said he felt by being named captain.

The part about him having no bitterness toward the Pegulas is something new. There were rumblings while Eichel was still here that he had no problem with general manager Kevyn Adams, his anger was towards ownership. Elliotte Friedman interviewed Eichel the day he was traded, and he said he approached the Pegulas with a trade in the summer of 2020. The Sabres tried to appease him by signing Taylor Hall and Eichel said he felt like that was a move in the right direction.

After another last place season, Eichel wanted out and he told Friedman that they didn’t take that very well. Friedman said it was very apparent to him that Eichel’s anger was not toward Adams and that he respected Adams throughout the process, but his anger was toward ownership.

Chris Weidman is a Professional MMA fighter who had the disk replacement surgery. He has a podcast and a few months ago, Eichel appeared on it and said the Sabres agreed to the surgery, and then the day before it was supposed to take place, the team said no and never changed their stance.

Eichel told Weidman the team had chances to trade him and didn’t and that he was being held hostage until Nov. 4 when he was traded.

Now that doesn’t match with that he has no bitterness, but in some cases, time heals wounds. It’s quite possible that Eichel decided he didn’t want to carry around any resentment and no longer feels that towards the Pegulas. He did say the owners were always good to him and his family and gave him “a nice long-term contract.”

Eichel has also said in numerous interviews that he was upset that the Sabres stripped him of his captaincy just because he had a different opinion on a surgery. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The team was already into training camp and Eichel had asked to be traded.

The Sabres were going to fulfill that request, so why would they keep him captain when his days as a Sabre were over?

Eichel was asked that by The Buffalo News' Mike Harrington, and he didn’t know quite how to handle it. He acknowledged that, but did say, “Maybe I just disagreed with how things were handled. I took a lot of pride in being the captain and it’s an incredible honor to be named captain of a professional sports team, and I carried a lot of pride wearing the 'C' for the organization, and I just disagreed with some things that went on through the process, and I don’t think anybody would be happy with having the 'C' taken away from them, and I was no different.”

In the end, Eichel could be the piece that the Golden Knights were missing, and the Sabres could be very happy with Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and the first and second-round picks they have coming. Eichel is elite, but Buffalo has the opportunity to get four very good players when this trade is said and done.

I think we’ve already seen they have two very good ones in Tuch and Krebs. They also have in those two players two outstanding human beings, which is the goal of Adams with every move he makes.

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