Buffalo Sabres

Despite being unhappy with how the organization has handled his neck injury, Jack Eichel reportedly isn't yet looking to leave the Buffalo Sabres. 

Per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, Eichel's camp hasn't asked the Sabres for a trade, though the two sides haven't spoken "for a few weeks."

Eichel did hint during a press conference Monday that he could play somewhere else next season. 

"I've been a bit upset about the ways things have been handled since I've been hurt," Eichel told reporters. "There's been a bit of a disconnect between myself and the organization. The most important thing now is to get healthy and be ready to play hockey next year, wherever that might be."

The Sabres announced April 15 that Eichel would miss the remainder of the season because of a herniated disk in his neck. 

Head coach Don Granato said at the time that the decision about surgery was up to Buffalo's medical staff. 

During his press conference Monday, Eichel made it sound like he wanted surgery, but the team prevented it. 

"It doesn't work like that. I wish. ... I'm under contract with this team, and they definitely hold a lot of cards on what I can and can't do," he said. 

The Sabres signed Eichel to an eight-year, $80 million contract extension in October 2017. The deal runs through the 2025-26 season. 

Buffalo selected Eichel with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft. He debuted for the team that same season at the age of 18, scoring 56 points in 81 contests. 

Eichel's final game of the 2020-21 campaign was March 7 against the New York Islanders. The 24-year-old had 18 points in 21 games. 

The Sabres finished their season with 37 points, the fewest in the NHL, and a 15-34-7 record.     

Buffalo Sabres center Jack Eichel has been out since March with a herniated disk in his neck that prematurely ended his season, and he doesn't like how the team has treated him following his injury. 

"I've been a bit upset about the ways things have been handled since I've been hurt," Eichel said Monday. "There's been a bit of a disconnect between myself and the organization. The most important thing now is to get healthy and be ready to play hockey next year, wherever that might be."

Eichel explained that the organization wouldn't let him get surgery, per John Vogl of The Athletic.

"It doesn't work like that. I wish. ... I'm under contract with this team and they definitely hold a lot of cards on what I can and can't do."

The 24-year-old is under contract through 2026 after signing an eight-year, $80 million contract extension, but his future with the team is suddenly uncertain.

"I have a lot of thinking to do in this offseason," Eichel said. "I think that there's a lot that I have to consider. But for now, obviously, I'm here."

When the team announced in April that Eichel would miss the rest of the season with the injury, general manager Kevyn Adams indicated the initial plan was to avoid surgery.

"The course of treatment was to rehab it and give it some time to see if the disk had moved back to where the doctors were comfortable, and then the hope was that he could jump back in and play," Adams said.

Adams did not reveal if there was a plan to have surgery going forward in order to prepare him for the future.

"We all want him back on the ice, [one] hundred percent healthy, and we all feel that will happen at the start of training camp next year," he added.

If Eichel does want to play somewhere else next season, there will likely be plenty of interest based on what the young player has showed while healthy. The 2015 No. 2 overall draft pick had at least 50 points in each of his first five years, peaking with 82 in 2018-19.

The center was at his best in 2019-20 with 36 goals and 42 assists in 68 games, earning votes for the Hart Trophy despite playing for a team that missed the playoffs. The Sabres will miss the playoffs for the 10th straight season this year and currently have the worst record in the NHL.

It could be time for the two sides to part ways, helping the player get a fresh start while helping Buffalo rebuild.

According to Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic, the Rangers made a "hard push" for Eichel last offseason but couldn't complete a deal.

Taylor Hall may be on the move again.

According to Darren Dreger of TSN, the Buffalo Sabres are "getting close" to trading the left-winger with three teams remaining "in the mix."

Ryan Rishaug of TSN reported Sunday the Edmonton Oilers don't appear to be one of the teams actively pursuing Hall in part because they do not want to trade draft picks.

Hall spent the first six seasons of his career on the Oilers before joining the New Jersey Devils for the next three-plus until they traded him to the Arizona Coyotes in 2019-20.

The 29-year-old signed a one-year deal with Buffalo prior to the 2020-21 campaign, and he has 19 points in 37 games. Things have not gone according to plan in the standings either, as the Sabres are 10-25-6 and in last place in the East Division.

He represents a valuable trade chip on an expiring contract, and Buffalo has a chance to acquire some draft capital with an eye on the future, with multiple teams reportedly bidding on him.

While Hall hasn't been at his peak form this season, he is a two-time All-Star and won the 2017-18 Hart Memorial Trophy as the league MVP when he was on the Devils with 93 points on 39 goals and 54 assists.

He is also still theoretically in the middle of his prime and could provide a significant boost for a contending team looking for an offensive playmaker to help lead the push in the fight for the Stanley Cup.

It appears as if it will come down to whichever team bids more prior to Monday's trade deadline.

The Buffalo Sabres are holding forward Taylor Hall out of Tuesday's game against his former club, the New Jersey Devils, in the latest sign that the winger is likely to be moved by the April 12 trade deadline, according to ESPN's Emily Kaplan.

Hall has underperformed this year with just two goals and 17 assists in 37 games, but  the 29-year-old doesn't have much talent around him. The Sabres are 8-23-6, last in the East Division and coming off an 18-game winless streak. 

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman noted Hall's removal from the lineup doesn't exactly mean a trade is all but finished. It's more likely the Sabres want to keep one of their most valuable assets sidelined rather than risk any injuries.

With a week until the deadline—and a few teams still on the bubble of becoming contenders—more suitors may emerge for Hall, who should be used to being in this position by now. 

If the 2010 No. 1 overall draft pick is dealt again, he'll be joining his fourth team in the last three years after stints in New Jersey, Arizona and Buffalo. He spent the first six years of his career with the Edmonton Oilers before the Devils pulled off a stunning one-for-one trade that sent Adam Larsson to the Oilers for the Calgary, Alberta, native. 

Hall recorded at least 50 points per year in six of his first eight seasons, but hasn't topped 40 points in a year since 2017-18, when he tallied 39 goals and 54 assists en route to winning the Hart Trophy as the league MVP. He remains a magnificent playmaker and a useful tool on the power play, but it may take a team loaded with talent to help him rediscover his scoring touch after being targeted by defenses the last few seasons. 

The left wing signed a one-year, $8 million deal with Buffalo this offseason that included a no-movement clause, but he has signaled a willingness to waive that in recent weeks as the Sabres have plummeted out of contention and into an historic losing streak. 

The Buffalo Sabres announced Wednesday head coach Ralph Krueger has been fired following the team's 12-game losing streak. 

Buffalo sits at the bottom of the NHL standings with 16 points (6-18-4 record), which is six points fewer than any other team. Krueger, who was hired in May 2019, finishes his tenure with a 36-49-12 mark.

Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News reported the other staff changes, including Don Granato taking over as head coach on an interim basis:

Expectations were on the rise for the Sabres coming into the 2020-21 campaign. They'd made a major free-agent splash by signing Taylor Hall, who won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's MVP in 2017-18, along with the trade acquisition of Eric Staal from the Minnesota Wild.

Those additions combined with the continued development of highly touted young players like Rasmus Dahlin and Dylan Cozens was projected to at least keep Buffalo competitive in the tough East Division.

Instead, Krueger drew the ire of fans and local media for his questionable lineup decisions and his preferred style of play. The Buffalo News recently ranked the team below the Seattle Kraken, an expansion franchise yet to draft a roster ahead of its 2021-22 debut, in its NHL power rankings:

Jeff Skinner, who scored 40 goals playing alongside franchise cornerstone Jack Eichel on the top line two seasons ago, was demoted to the fourth line and averaged a career-low ice time (13:45). It was a strange decision based on his history of being an elite five-on-five scorer.

Skinner, who's in the second season of an eight-year, $72 million contract, was a healthy scratch for two games earlier in the campaign but shrugged off Krueger's suggestion it could help him evaluate his play.

"I don't think I've ever really felt like I need a day off to relook at things," Skinner told reporters. "I've seen a lot in this league, run through adversity before my career. You just work, keep working and put your head down, and that's what I'll do."

Most of the problems stemmed from Krueger's insistence on a defense-first brand of hockey despite Buffalo's subpar group of defensemen and lackluster goaltending.

If the Sabres were going to make a jump this season, it was going to come on the back of an offense led by Eichel, Hall, Staal, Skinner, Sam Reinhart and Victor Olofsson. It's a top six with ample upside if given more offensive freedom.

Yet, Krueger refused to relent to conventional wisdom as the losses mounted—fittingly, Skinner scored a five-on-five goal in Tuesday's loss to the New Jersey Devils despite logging less ice time than the likes of Kyle Okposo and Riley Sheahan—and it cost the 61-year-old Canadian his job.

The coaching change likely won't mean much for Buffalo this season. It's 18 points behind the Boston Bruins for the East's final playoff spot and the relative strength of the division makes it virtually impossible to go on the type of run it needs to climb the standings.

That said, Krueger illustrated he wasn't the answer to the problems that have led the Sabres to an NHL-long nine-year playoff drought, and the 12-game losing skid hastened his departure.

Now the focus shifts to the NHL trade deadline on April 12, where players such as Hall and Staal could be on the move as the team's roster reconstruction begins anew with an eye toward the 2021-22 season.

Buffalo Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger announced Saturday center Jack Eichel will be out of the lineup for the "foreseeable future" with an upper-body injury.

Former NHL defenseman Aaron Ward reported Eichel is expected to miss around eight weeks with a neck injury, which means he could be sidelined for the remainder of the 2020-21 season.

Eichel, the second overall pick in the 2015 NHL draft, enjoyed a strong rookie season for the Sabres. The former Boston University standout tallied 24 goals and 32 assists across 81 games. His second season got off to a delayed start because of a high-ankle sprain, however.

The 24-year-old Massachusetts native missed the first quarter of the 2016-17 campaign with the ailment, which he suffered in the final practice before the season. He returned to play the final 61 contests. It represented a rare health setback after missing just one game each as a rookie and during his year at BU.

Eichel suffered another high-ankle sprain during the 2017-18 season. He ended up making 67 appearances before bouncing back to play 145 appearances over the past two years.

In all, he's tallied 355 points in 375 career games despite the injury absences.

The Sabres will need to juggle the lineup to fill the void. Rookie Dylan Cozens is the best option to take over alongside Taylor Hall and Sam Reinhart on the top line, but Krueger's head-scratching lineup decisions make it tough to project how the lines will look in the coming weeks.

Buffalo's offense has ranked near the bottom of the league in recent years, and its struggles are compounded when Eichel is sidelined. That said, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the team play it safe with its young star with an eye toward the future since it's not prepared to contend yet.

The Buffalo Sabres announced Thursday that head coach Ralph Krueger has tested positive for COVID-19.

The announcement of Krueger's positive test comes on the heels of the Sabres placing forwards Taylor Hall and Tobias Rieder and defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Brandon Montour on the COVID-19 protocol list over the past two days.

Because of the Sabres' coronavirus situation, the NHL postponed their games against the New York Islanders scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday, as well as their games against the Boston Bruins on Saturday and Monday.

The Sabres are not set to play again until Feb. 11 at the earliest, which is when they are scheduled to host the Washington Capitals.

The placement of four Sabres players on the COVID-19 list and Krueger's positive test come on the heels of the Sabres playing a two-game set against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday and Sunday.

As of Wednesday, the Devils had 17 players on the COVID-19 list, which raises the question of whether the NHL was negligent in allowing the Sabres vs. Devils games to be played.

Per NJ.com's Chris Ryan, several Devils players who played in both games against Buffalo are among those on the COVID-19 list. Forward Kyle Palmieri was placed on the COVID-19 list prior to the Sunday game after playing in the Saturday game, which perhaps should have been cause for alarm.

Of the 11 games originally scheduled to be played Thursday, three of them have been postponed because of COVID-19 protocol.

The Sabres, Devils, Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche are among the teams that have placed players on the COVID-19 list this week.

Krueger, 61, is in the midst of his second season as head coach of the Sabres after serving as the Edmonton Oilers head coach in 2012-13.

Following his one season as head coach of the Oilers, Krueger became chairman of English Premier League soccer club Southampton. He returned to the NHL last season and led the Sabres to a 30-31-8 record, which left them out of the playoffs for the ninth consecutive year.

So far this season, the Sabres are 4-4-2 and sit tied for fifth in the East Division with 10 points.

Superstar winger Taylor Hall was the biggest prize in NHL free agency this offseason, and he is now off the market after signing a one-year, $8 million contract with the Buffalo Sabres, Hall told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.

The Sabres later confirmed the pact:

Darren Dreger of TSN was the first to report the deal.

Hall split the 2019-20 season between the New Jersey Devils and Arizona Coyotes, as New Jersey dealt him to Arizona to avoid losing him for nothing in free agency.

The 28-year-old Hall is now a 10-year NHL veteran after going No. 1 overall in the 2010 NHL draft to the Edmonton Oilers. He enjoyed another strong year last season, finishing with 16 goals and 36 assists for 52 points in 65 regular-season games.

Hall had his moments with the Oilers, including an 80-point campaign in 2013-14, but he was never the type of consistently dominant player that teams expect a No. 1 overall pick to be. Because of that, the Oilers shook things up by trading him to New Jersey in 2016.

The deal was a rare one-for-one swap, with the Devils sending defenseman Adam Larsson to Edmonton. Like Hall, Larsson was a high draft pick (No. 4 overall in 2011) who never quite reached his potential.

In the end, the trade was a huge win for New Jersey, as Hall blossomed into a top-tier player. His first season with the Devils was somewhat suspect since he finished with just 53 points in 72 games, but he exploded in 2017-18.

Hall set career highs across the board with 39 goals and 54 assists for 93 points, as well as a plus-14 rating. He also helped the Devils go from 70 points in 2016-17 to 97 points in 2017-18, giving them their first playoff berth since 2011-12.

For his efforts, Hall won the Hart Memorial Trophy given to the NHL's most valuable player, making him the first Devil to ever win the award.

Hall was productive again the following season with 37 points in 33 games, but a lower-body injury caused him to miss more than half the season, and the Devils went into a tailspin because of it, finishing with just 72 points.

After getting traded to Arizona last season, Hall helped push the Coyotes into the expanded playoffs, and they beat the Nashville Predators in the qualifying round to reach the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, where they were eliminated by the Colorado Avalanche.

Hall finished with six points in nine playoff games, giving him 12 points in 14 career playoff games.

Now, he joins a Sabres squad that is led by Jack Eichel, though 2018 No. 1 overall pick Rasmus Dahlin could be the future face of the franchise. Eichel's name has popped up in the rumor mill over the past few months, but his agent has denied the notion that his client wants out.

If Eichel does indeed stick around, the Sabres now have a dynamic winger to pair with their star center.

Buffalo has not reached the postseason since 2010-11, finishing this past season with just 68 points, and the fact that the Sabres signed him suggests they are serious about contending in 2020-21. While Hall has never truly played for a great team, he has been a productive NHL player for a long time.

TSN's Bob McKenzie reported Monday that Buffalo Sabres star Jack Eichel may have requested a trade, and the New York Rangers are one of the teams interested in acquiring him.

Eichel's agent attempted to put the rumor to rest when McKenzie inquired about them.

"I hear that trade talk a lot," he said. "Jack wants to win, he's frustrated [not winning] but no, he doesn't want out. Jack is preparing to head to Buffalo at some point here and prepare for the season, whenever that may be. That's all he controls."  

McKenzie said that the team also said they were not actively looking to trade Eichel, but several teams inquired about the center's availability when Kevyn Adams took over as the team's general manager in June.

"None of those talks with other clubs resulted in Eichel trade traction," McKenzie wrote. "But it's also believed there has been dialogue between Eichel and [Buffalo] to ensure they both want the same thing (to get better obviously) and share the same timetable (sooner rather than later). 

The bottom line, McKenzie reported, was that calls were made, but Eichel is staying put.

Since Eichel was drafted out of Boston University in the first round in 2015, has been a mainstay in the Sabres lineup since he joined the team. Through five years, he has appeared in 354 games, starting 137 of them, and has potted 137 goals and helped out on 200 others. 

The Sabres want to keep him around, which is clear in the contract they signed him to in 2017—an eight-year extension, with a $10 million cap hit annually. 

Eichel is the focal point of a Sabres squad that went 30-31-8 this season, and at just 23, he's the future of the team, too. It would serve the Sabres well to keep him around.