NHL Insider confirms with Sabres that Eichel is not playing hurt; trade could happen at the deadline

The Buffalo Sabres were certainly banking on a much better fate than 8th in the NHL's East Division and third-last in the overall standings a third of the way through the 2020-21 campaign, especially after trading for center Eric Staal and signing prized UFA Taylor Hall during the offseason.

Add to that the fact that the Sabres' franchise center, Jack Eichel has not looked like himself this season and the struggles that the team has endured with COVID-19 and you have a lot of unhappy people within both the Sabres organization and their fanbase.

Though Eichel has managed to still produce at a decent rate, with 14 points through 16 games this season, something just seems off, leading many to speculate that the 2nd-overall pick back in 2015 might be playing through an injury.

According to TSN's Darren Dreger, during an appearance on TSN1050, Sabres coach Ralph Kruger and the management group in Buffalo maintains that Eichel is not dealing with any sort of an injury, but points out that his body language really does not look good this season.

"Prior to the start of this season," Dreger started, "going back into the summer, it's believed that Eichel had a conversation. And part of that conversation was wanting a change. Wanting out of Buffalo. Now they find a way to talk him into changing from that mindset. They brought in Taylor Hall at $8M and thought that with a real good year, maybe things would settle down. It's gone the exact opposite way. It's almost unbelievable how bad things have gotten."

It's obvious that Eichel is fed up with the losing culture in Buffalo and would not mind a change in scenery in the very least - a suggestion that Dreger seemed to agree with in his concluding sentence.

"If this team continues to plod along here the way that they are, I can't imagine this situation isn't revisited at around the trade deadline or in the offseason."

With April 12th now less than 2 months away, it appears as though the Sabres (6-8-2) are going to have to find a way to right the ship in a real hurry if they want to have any hope of keeping Eichel in Buffalo past this season.

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