SPITEFUL SABRES MAKE IT CLEAR THEY INTEND TO PUNISH EICHEL

Organization talks a good game on trust, culture, but seems unwilling to back it up

Jack Eichel hasn't been traded. But his time with the Buffalo Sabres is definitely over.

The team made that point abundantly clear at the start of training camp on Thursday, when general manager Kevyn Adams announced the 24-yearold had been stripped of his captaincy — mostly because Eichel and the Sabres differ on the surgical approach in repairing a herniated disc in his neck — and then took an unnecessary jab at the player's heart for good measure.

All that was missing was the ceremonial burning of Eichel's jersey in effigy. Then again, perhaps the team is saving that for another day.

“Jack Eichel is no longer the captain of the Buffalo Sabres,” said Adams. “From our perspective, the captain is your heartbeat of your team, and we're in a situation where we felt we needed to address that and make that decision.”

It was a decision that seemed motivated by spite — if not selfishness. After all, there was no reason to publicly strip Eichel of the captaincy. Whether he sits out or gets traded, there are no plans to name a successor this season. This was about sending a message.

The Sabres aren't happy that Eichel, who switched agents in the summer, had asked for a change of scenery after having missed the playoffs in his first six seasons in the league.

They are even less happy that he refuses to go along with the team's doctors and get spinal fusion surgery, which would have made the prospect of trading him a lot easier.

So they're prepared to make his life miserable, first by publicly stripping him of the captaincy and then by threatening to sit him out indefinitely for the remaining five years of his contract.

“It's a challenging situation,” said Adams, whose experience as an NHL general manager is limited to just 15 months on the job. “This is so critical how we move forward with this franchise, with building the culture and engaging with our fan base in getting this group of fans to trust this organization. We have to earn it. We have to prove that. And that's the message that went to the team yesterday. We need people who want to be here for the right reasons.”

To be fair, Eichel wanted to be in Buffalo. He believed in the team. So much so that he signed an eight-year contract worth US$80 million in 2017.

But somewhere along the way, things started to change.

It started when Ryan O'reilly was traded to St. Louis, followed by Evander Kane and goaltender Robin Lehner. Then, every year it seemed like the Sabres had a new coach or a new GM.

This summer, things finally reached their breaking point when Buffalo traded Taylor Hall and Eric Staal at the deadline and then moved Eichel's longtime teammates Sam Reinhart and Rasmus Ristolainen — signalling the team was heading down the long road to rebuilding.

For Eichel, who has never experienced a playoff game in his six-year career, the thought of enduring another five more years of losing was too much to handle.

“This is tough for Jack,” said Sabres head coach Don Granato, who previously coached a teenage Eichel at the U.S. National Team Development Camp. “I do believe he cares. He goes hard. He carries probably a lot more burden than any of us in this room, certainly over the last five years, and I don't know that I can relate to that. So I do have some compassion for that.”

That level of compassion seemed to be missing during Thursday's news conference. Instead of talking about the longterm fears Eichel has in undergoing spinal fusion surgery, which could result in additional surgeries later in life, and the reasons why Eichel prefers artificial disc replacement surgery, the team treated him as a commodity who has lessened his trade value by not going under the knife.

“Teams want clarity,” said Adams. “And over the course of the summer, there wasn't much clarity. We have clarity now ... This is a franchise player in his prime under contract. These types of situations don't come up very often where these players are moved. We believe there's value on Jack Eichel.”

There was no talk of what Eichel has sacrificed during his first six years in Buffalo. How he had led the team in scoring in four of those six years and was often the lone bright spot for an organization that has continually spun its wheels and made misstep over misstep and essentially wasted the prime years of a player who deserved so much more than the Sabres have given him.

No, it was all about what Eichel should do for the good of the Sabres. And how he was unwilling to do it. And how that made him less of a leader and unworthy of wearing the `C.' And how if things didn't change, what the next five years could look like for him and his career.

For an organization that spoke about the importance of culture, earning trust and doing the right thing, it sure doesn't seem like they're willing to take their own advice.

“We will stick to our plan and we won't cave or back down because of pressure or because people are saying you have to do this,” said Adams. “We're going to do what's right.”

And yet, they're going about it the wrong way.