"SIX. YEARS. WASTED." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdRX910Rk68
Back in 2015, those were the words Leafs' fan Steve Dangle echoed throughout his video, Phil Kessel: An Era Wasted. In it, he expressed the frustrations he had over the previous six years where Kessel was on the Leafs' roster and how he felt that Kessel's talents were squandered by years of mismanagement by the Toronto Maple Leafs' organization.
Dangle recalled the many complaints people had about Kessel as a player: he had a bad attitude, he was too lazy, he didn't like the media, he took shifts off, etc. While in the background, management couldn't put together a legitimate roster, clueless fans were blaming their best player for the team's woes.
He sees right through the arguments of these fans, looking at every other factor that led to the Leafs' failures during those six years.
"How many fat, lazy, bad attitude players get to be the best player on their team for SIX YEARS?! It's almost like he wasn't the problem!"
Above all else, this is what stood out the most. He was a superstar talent that was never given the proper tools around him to compete for a Stanley Cup. Instead of seeing him succeed in a Leafs' uniform for years to come, fans were always going to be left wondering "What if?" about his days as a Leaf. "What if management was better?", "What if he was given the pieces to contend?"
In the end, Kessel would be traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he would go on to be instrumental in the team's back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 & 2017. Kessel's days of constant criticism were finished after that, as he'd proven to the doubters that he was always an elite player who could win. All that it took was being a part of an organization that recognized his value.
In case you haven't caught on to what I'm getting at, Phil Kessel is a near surrogate for Jack Eichel, even down to the same amount of years. Both unbelievable American talents that have been put with failing teams and have received the brunt of the blame for organizational woes that go way beyond themselves.
Back in November, a long and drawn-out saga was finally laid to rest. Jack Eichel was traded to the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The last loose end of the previous rebuild had been tied up, and the Sabres could finally take their first step into a new era, an Eichel-less era. These last four months I've been able to clear my mind of the war zone that took place last summer and enjoy this next chapter in Sabres' hockey. I think I can now reflect on the Eichel Era as a whole and be able to finally say goodbye.
Believe it or not, I had a much different version of this written way back in August when the drama was still fresh in everyone's minds. It was much more angry and bitter which definitely reflected the overall vibe of the time. It went deep into my criticisms of the Sabres organization over the past six years and just how frustrating it was to see it all come crumbling down. However, with some given time to sit on the trade itself and the years that came before it, I think I can give a much more collected summation of my thoughts.
To start, I should say that Jack Eichel made me fall in love with hockey. While personally I grew up with the Vanek, Pominville, and Miller led Sabres (I just missed out on Drury and Briere), once the team began their rebuild in 2013 it was difficult to keep up with them. I know I wasn't the only one; it was a long waiting period for that next guy to come and "save" the franchise.
Well Jack Eichel was that guy. Two full seasons of absolute suffering were committed to ensure that the future of the franchise could be placed onto the shoulders of an 18 year old center. It was a flawed plan from the start, but we all bought in.
Into town comes this young, Boston-grown kid ready to take on the league and bring back the fans that had tuned out the last few years, and to make a whole new generation of them. The franchise was never the same again.
"Buffalo, I'm comin' for ya!"
I was there at his first game when he sniped his first goal top left on Craig Anderson, making the arena pop louder than it had in years. His goal against Columbus a few games later was one that I rewatched on YouTube over and over again because I just couldn't get over how insane it was, and how insane he was going to be. I watched as he and Sam slowly developed into a duo that always played their best hockey when together, rather than apart. I remember staying up late on a school night to watch him dance through the Nashville defense and bury an unbelievable OT winner to complete an unreal comeback. I saw him slowly grow into the role of the team's leader and fully backing the decision to eventually reward him with the "C" being put onto his chest. Every single time he would feed Jeff Skinner for one of his 40 goals, I was smiling as just as much as Jeff. When he scored the OT winner against Pittsburgh during the 10-game win streak, my personal favorite goal of his, he was the happiest guy on the ice. Not because he scored, but because he thought they'd finally turned the corner. I watched him dominate the Maple Leafs for six years like it was a personal vendetta. I jumped out of my seat when he dangled his way through the entire Tampa Bay defense on New Year's Eve 2019. I was on the edge of my seat each and every game of his 17-game point streak. When Taylor Hall was signed, I was drooling at the thought of the damage they were gonna do to the league. And then...
And then.
There was a point during the process where we all just wanted it all to end. We just wanted Jack gone so we could put this behind us and move forward as a franchise, and I was one of those people. Yet, when the news finally broke that Eichel was shipped off to Vegas, it really hit me that a chapter of my fandom was over. When the dust was settled, it didn't matter that I ended up liking the Sabres' return, it didn't matter at all. Eichel was gone and it felt like I had wasted six years of rooting for the team. Every jersey, poster, and piece of merchandise that I bought with his name on it were all for nothing, they'll forever just be a memory of a different time.
Among all the struggles that the team endured over the years, the silver lining of being a fan was being able to watch Jack night in and night out. He was the only player that was worth watching even at the worst times. Nothing was more rewarding than seeing him reach that superstar status and gain the ability to take over games. It had me salivating at the idea of watching a playoff Jack Eichel, his play-style was bred for those games.
I'm just gonna throw out some stats for you. In his six seasons with the team, Eichel was the leader in points 5 times and goals 4 times. He ranks 19th in Sabres goals all-time, 22nd in assists, and 18th in points. He's 16th in game-winning goals, 19th in power-play goals, 15th in power-play assists. I could go on and on, but the point is, in just six years with the team he was climbing the all-time leaderboards like it was nothing. Even in a season from hell, with a broken rib and an eventual injured neck, he still managed to put up 18 points in 21 games.
The promises of Alumni Plaza being packed for a playoff game in April won't happen with Jack Eichel as a Sabre. Rick Jeanneret won't ever call a Jack Eichel playoff goal. We won't be able to tune into the Olympics or the All-Star Game and see him representing as a member of the Sabres, it'll be as a member of the Golden Knights.
There's no other way to describe this feeling, it sucks. It sucks that all the pain and the frustration that us diehard fans had to go through each and every season eventually amounted to an ugly breakup.
We all saw it coming, each offseason we all identified the many problems the roster had and what the organization had to do about it. How many times did we recite the say problems? "No forward depth beyond the 1st line", "the defense can't defend", "the goaltending isn't good enough", "the coaching makes questionable decisions", "the prospect pool is shallow", you name it. We all knew that at some point, Jack was not going to waste his prime years waiting and waiting... and our predictions came true.
Never before has an NHL player's talent been so sorely wasted in recent memory. Matt Duchene appeared in the postseason twice before his long and drawn out breakup with the Avalanche ended. John Tavares had multiple playoff appearances and a series win prior to his ugly exit from Long Island. Heck, even the aforementioned Phil Kessel, he had a single playoff appearance with the Leafs.
The Sabres? Not a single winning season with Jack Eichel. Forget playoffs, they couldn't even maintain an above .500 record while he was here. Even in a year where 24 of the 31 teams in the league made the playoffs and Jack Eichel was a borderline MVP candidate, it wasn't enough to drag the franchise to the postseason.
A player of his caliber doesn't come by a franchise so easily. Prior to him being drafted, who was the closest player in Sabres history to his caliber? Prime Vanek? Maybe. Many would probably think Briere, but I'd still say Eichel is on another level compared to him. That means that the most recent person before that was Lafontaine, over 25 years ago! You don't realize how much you'll miss someone as good as Eichel until they're gone.
Don't get me wrong, the Sabres this season have been a ton of fun to watch, but man do they miss him in a lot of ways. No one on the team controls the pace of play like he did, the power play doesn't have the lethal threat it did when he was on the ice, and man does overtime now suck without him. Those heart-pumping, out-of-your-seat players now come few and far between compared to when #9 took the ice.
Every time he touched the puck and readied himself to carry it up the ice you could feel the crowd's anticipation of what was going to happen. The game was always his to take over, it was just a matter of when he felt like it. He was a game breaker, something that every team wishes they had and the Sabres had him.
All the losing surrounding the franchise has forever tainted how a majority of Buffalo fans will see Jack Eichel. He'll be looked at and called a quitter who didn't want to be here for years on end; and I'll admit, it infuriates me. I don't know how the Buffalo faithful is going to react tomorrow night, it could be lukewarm, they could give him a Bronx cheer, or it could be akin to Tavares' return to Long Island.
Nevertheless, it's time to close the book on an era of Sabres history. No matter what has been said or what will be said, that time is over. It's time to move on from it, to learn from the mistakes of the past. Like we've said before, let the Jack Eichel saga be a cautionary tale of not putting all your eggs in one basket. One man can't single handedly save a franchise. You can't prop up an 18 year-old kid to save your franchise all by himself, you are going to fail.
For some, like myself, tomorrow will be an emotional sendoff. For others, it'll be one last time to jeer a player they think was responsible for six years of losing. Whatever the case may be, I know where I stand. When I head to KeyBank Center tomorrow, it'll be in my Eichel jersey, and I'll be cheering.
But no matter what, it's always...
Go Sabres.
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