SEATTLE – It was an era that officially started on a June night in 2015 when then-General Manager Tim Murray walked to the microphone at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., and simply intoned four words – "Buffalo selects Jack Eichel."
The selection of the 18-year-old from Boston University with the No. 2 pick in the NHL draft was supposed to mark the end of the suffering, the key moment in a rebuild to bring the Sabres back to prominence.
It didn't happen. The Sabres never made the Stanley Cup playoffs in Eichel's six seasons and the captain's era in Buffalo ended Thursday morning when he was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Sabres got top Vegas forward prospect Peyton Krebs (the Golden Knights' first-round pick in 2019), veteran forward Alex Tuch, a first-round pick in 2022 and a second-round pick in 2023 while giving up their former captain and a 2023 third-rounder.
It's hard to pin much of the Sabres' failures over the last few years on Eichel's shoulders, when you consider he had 355 points in 375 games. That included five seasons of 24+ goals and a 2019-20 campaign that saw him finish eighth in the Hart Trophy balloting after collecting a career-high 36 goals and 78 points in just 68 games.
Eichel's statistics never approached the numbers put up in Edmonton by Connor McDavid, the No. 1 pick in 2015 and the player the Sabres were eyeing through their tank season. Ultimately, they couldn't land him when they lost the 2015 NHL draft lottery and were thus gifted Eichel
And in the end, six years in Buffalo won't land Eichel in the Top 10 in franchise history in just about any category for career scoring. The lone exception is his 0.58 assists per game, which currently ranks ninth between Alexander Mogilny (0.61) and John Van Boxmeer (0.56).
Here's a look back at some of the key moments in Eichel's time in Buffalo:
The lottery: The Sabres had to walk back their openly public frustration over their lottery defeat on April 18, 2015, in Toronto. They had a 20% chance to win, followed by Arizona at 13.5 and Edmonton at 11.5%. The Oilers won.
Afterward, Murray said, "I'm disappointed for our fans." An ashen-faced team president Ted Black slowly backed into an elevator and waved reporters away. A few weeks earlier, Murray told The New York Times of McDavid, "I watch him too much and I think too much about him. I wish I could help myself."
To his credit, Eichel never complained about the Sabres' love for McDavid. In fact, when he did his interview with the club at the 2015 scouting combine here, the team's social media channels famously showed a clip of someone in the team's front office off camera saying to him, "Maybe we won the lottery." Eichel cooly responds, "I think you did."
The draft: Eichel and McDavid were the focal points of draft week in Miami. They joined future standouts like Mitch Marner and Noah Hanifin in activities that included batting practice prior to an MLB game in Marlins Park and Eichel joined McDavid in throwing a ceremonial first pitch. The group was also profanely ordered off the top of a fish tank behind home plate by a Marlins groundskeeper who had no idea he was admonishing a future millionaires club.
There was a trip to the Everglades, NHL video and photo shoots, press conferences and, finally, Murray giving Eichel a staredown in the stands as he walked in front of him on the draft floor and headed to the podium.
Eichel's draft day was spiced by the Sabres' acquisition of Robin Lehner in the morning and Ryan O'Reilly just a few minutes before Buffalo's pick. New coach Dan Bylsma admitted afterward he was already sketching out forward lines. Murray was being hailed leaguewide for the stepped-up tank and rebuild.
"It goes by so quickly, you don’t realize what’s going on,” Eichel said of his whirlwind draft week. “It’s a process and an event you watch for so long, then it happens, it just goes by so fast. All of a sudden, you’re wearing an NHL jersey and you’re on stage. It’s your dream and it came true. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
The beginning: Several hundred fans cheered as Eichel – who was assigned No. 41 – took the ice for his first development camp scrimmage in KeyBank Center on July 6, 2015. But heads turned across the NHL on July 10, when 17,115 fans packed the arena for the annual camp scrimmage.
With his No. 9 taken by Evander Kane, Eichel announced he would wear No. 15 for the Sabres in honor of his draft year and the lucky number of his sister and father.
Eichel opted to live with veteran Matt Moulson for his rookie season and had the winger on his line at times. In his first preseason game on Sept. 21, 2015, the Sabres posted a 3-2 win at Minnesota as Eichel fed Moulson for the tying goal early in the third period and scored the winner himself on a short-handed breakaway at 5:44 of the third period by burning Minnesota regulars Jared Spurgeon on defense and Darcy Kuemper in goal.
"I don’t think he took a stride past the blueline,” said a stunned Moulson. “He’s sure got that smooth skating style.”
Oddly enough, Eichel only scored one short-handed goal during his six regular seasons in Buffalo -- and it didn't come until New Year's Eve, 2019 vs. Tampa Bay.
The first goal: Eichel's career officially opened with a 3-1 home loss to Ottawa on Oct 8, 2015 – and he scored the Sabres' only goal, getting his first NHL tally at 9:11 of the third period to cut a 2-0 deficit in half. The Sabres scored again to apparently tie the game on a Kane goal a couple of minutes later, but were confounded by the first offside replay challenge in franchise history to wipe out a goal.
"It was a special moment, something I’ll never forget,” Eichel said of his first NHL goal. “But it’s tough to really enjoy it when you don’t win the game. You come out in a season opener with so much riding on it. We had a great third period. At the end of the day, we fell a little bit short."
The overtime magic: Some of Eichel's most memorable Buffalo goals came in the 3-on-3 sessions to produce instant victories. He had eight overtime goals in his career, the most by a Sabres player since regular season OT was instituted by the NHL in 1983.
One of the most memorable was his beat-the-clock special to beat Carolina with one second left in OT on March 12, 2016. Eichel took a high flip from Kane – getting help from players on the bench yelling at him which shoulder to look over to find the puck – and was able to look at the clock on the end scoreboard before beating Canes goalie Cam Ward.
The play went viral in part because of the "RJ cam," which MSG was using that day to show play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret making his calls on the screen along with the game action.
There was his end-to-end rush to silence the Music City and give the Sabres a 5-4 win at Nashville on Jan. 24, 2017. And a quick rush to burn defenseman Mark Giordano to win in Calgary on Jan. 17, 2019.
And on Jan. 2, 2020, McDavid could only stand and watch as Eichel became the first player in Sabres history to win a game in OT on a penalty shot by giving Buffalo a 3-2 win over Edmonton in the first game of a new decade.
The first hat trick: It came in a 5-4 loss to Carolina on Dec. 15, 2017, with Eichel scoring two goals in a 10-second span of the third period to complete what play-by-play man Dan Dunleavy dubbed a "Jack trick." It was the first one by a Sabre at home since Thomas Vanek connected against Tampa Bay in 2011.
The contract: On Oct. 3, 2017, the eve of the season opener that would mark Phil Housley's debut as Sabres coach, the 20-year-old Eichel signed an eight-year, $80 million contract extension to become the richest player in franchise history. The contract kicked in for the 2018-19 season and remains in force through 2025-26.
The captaincy: Though it was not part of the negotiations the previous year, the Sabres named Eichel their captain on Oct. 3, 2018. He was cooking dinner in his waterfront town house when he received a call from Housley asking him to drive back to the arena for a meeting. Eichel was greeted by Housley, General Manager Jason Botterill and owner Terry Pegula, and they gave him the news.
"It was a really cool moment," Eichel said. "I'm very thankful and honored to be the captain of this franchise."
In what was probably not a cool moment, Sabres GM Kevyn Adams announced on Sept. 23 of this year that Eichel was no longer the captain.
"From our perspective and my perspective, I feel the captain is the heartbeat of your team," Adams said prior to the Sabres’ first training camp practices. "And we're in a situation from where we were in the past and where we are now that we felt that we need to do to address that and make that decision here."
The Referee – Eichel's All-Star debut was most memorable for what Auston Matthews dubbed the pointing, good-goal celebration he and Eichel used at the 2018 event in Tampa. It came on Eichel's goal that snapped a tie in an eventual 7-4 win by the Atlantic Division over the Metropolitan and was a tweak of NHL officiating that had wiped out a Matthews goal due to goalie interference during a game in Toronto the previous week.
The celebration was planned on the bench by the two USA Hockey alums after an Erik Karlsson goal was wiped out on an offside challenge.
"Me and Auston talked about it at the faceoff previous and he was like, 'Hey, if we score here let's both point at the net' so we kind of had it planned already," Eichel said. "He said, 'We better score this shift so we can do it.' "
The injuries: The neck issue that led to Eichel's trade developed on what looked like a routine hit by Casey Cizikas during a game on Long Island on March 7. NBC cameras caught Eichel in pain after a trainer touched his neck and it was the last time he was ever seen wearing a Sabres uniform.
Eichel in discomfort around the neck #LetsGoBuffalo #Isles #HDIA pic.twitter.com/IJtbL7TGpk
— Buffalo Hockey moments (@SabresPlays) March 7, 2021
Eichel suffered two significant ankle injuries in his career and the first proved to be franchise-changing. The Sabres improved from 54 points to 81 in Eichel's rookie season and Bylsma told reporters during development camp in 2016 he felt he was going to coach a 95-point club in 2016-17.
Optimism was high throughout training camp and the postseason heading toward opening night – and came crashing down with less than 10 minutes left in the final practice the day before the opener. Reporters heard a prolonged shout echo through the empty arena after a collision in front of the net and Eichel was helped off the ice. It was a high ankle sprain and Eichel missed the season's first 21 games. The Sabres never recovered. They missed the playoffs and both Murray and Bylsma were fired six months later.
Still, Eichel led the club with 57 points in 61 games and became just the fourth player in franchise history to lead the Sabres in points before age 21, joining Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin and Pierre Turgeon.
The disconnect: Eichel's final season with the Sabres, the pandemic-shortened 2021 campaign, ended with just two goals and 18 points in 21 games. And almost an annual rite of closure to a season since 2017 was Eichel sounding off about the club's lack of success and failure to make the playoffs.
But things turned dramatically on May 10, when Eichel dropped a bombshell during a 24-minute video session with reporters where he said there was a "disconnect" over treatment of the neck injury. He wanted surgery, the team said rest and rehab and that was that. Eventually, R&R didn't work and team agreed surgery was necessary but wouldn't approve Eichel's surgery of choice. The May video call was the last time Buffalo reporters heard from Eichel as a Sabre.
"Yeah, I'm frustrated, I'm sure if you went down the line in the locker room, I'm sure everyone's frustrated," Eichel said that day. "So I'm not in any different situation than anyone else. You can't sit here on Media Day and be happy that we're having this conversation. We should still be playing."
Once he fully recovers from his neck surgery, Eichel will back playing once again. But this time, it will be in Vegas.
