However the Covid-19 pandemic has cast a shadow over NHL players' participation in Beijing in February. National Hockey Players won the right to play at the 20 Winter Olympics in a new collective bargaining agreement signed in 2020, after players were not released for the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Don’t blame Eichel if that light at the end of the tunnel looks, to him, like one of those garish Golden Knights helmets.At a press briefing to mark the naming of the Minnesota Wild's Bill Guerin as the US team's general manager for Beijing, US officials said they were "fully focused" on sending a full-strength team to China. Eichel still needs surgery, and it remains to be seen if he’ll bounce back from that to become the star he’s been even during Buffalo’s lows.Īnd the Golden Knights likely need to answer some salary cap questions with Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, and Eichel all needing to fit.Īll that aside, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. And it’s true that the process isn’t over. It’s tough to imagine it not costing Eichel an Olympic appearance - though he’s hoping to participate.
Ultimately, the Eichel trade/surgery process took longer than just about anyone expected. Strange to run down how those scenarios would’ve played out.) The Avalanche struck him as a possibility, too. (Oh, Eichel also interestingly thought he could get traded to the Wild.
He regrets how much played out in the media, and you get the sense that Twitter trolls and other critics sometimes bothered him. More than once, Eichel spoke about the trade process dragging on. Interestingly, Eichel wonders if those feelings carried over to his preference for a trade, and route to getting surgery. When Eichel said that to Sabres management, it didn’t go over well. But maybe Eichel feels the need to make up for lost time.Īs Eichel told Friedman and others, he didn’t like the idea of the Sabres following a failed rebuild with another one. Said post-operation he’s expecting a three-month recovery and he wants the surgery “pretty soon.” Jack Eichel told a goal of his is to play in the Olympics. One interesting idea is that Eichel’s hoping he can recover from neck surgery in time to play for the U.S. Eichel suiting up for them, and wearing one of those golden helmets. Friedman painted a picture of the Golden Knights’ pre-game show. The most fun moment, though, came when Eichel could barely contain his excitement about becoming “a hockey player again” with the Golden Knights. About five minutes into the video above, Eichel said he wasn’t going to get into the Sabres’ opinion about fusion over disk replacement surgery. Some of Eichel’s most animated moments happened in his interview with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Eichel happy to end Sabres trade drama, play for Golden Knights - and in Olympics?
Eichel thanked the city of Buffalo, and Sabres fans, for his time with the team.īut every now and then, you got a hint of the raw, very human feelings involved. He thanked the Golden Knights for allowing him to go with his preferred neck surgery option (disk replacement instead of fusion). Both with Sportsnet and ESPN, Eichel kept things pretty civil. After finally being traded to the Golden Knights, Jack Eichel made the media rounds, discussing his future - but also how things ended with the Sabres.įor the most part, Eichel stuck to the script.
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