Eichel's injury not yet considered ''season-ending'', but it certainly doesn't look good
Not that the Buffalo Sabres need any more deflating news, but according to Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger, team captain Jack Eichel's original 7-10 day recovery timeline could be considerably longer, though it is too early to call the upper-body injury one of the "season-ending" variety.
«An injury of this nature needs more assessment and more time to understand it,» Krueger said on Saturday. «We just know that it will be some time here from shorter all the way to what you've already mentioned (season-ending), but it's somewhere in between that.»
The news could not be worse for the Sabres, who are dead last in the East Division and dead last in the league. The silver-lining here is that they are the most-likely candidate to enter the NHL Draft Lottery with the best statistical chance to win and draft a potential franchise player in American forward Matthew Beniers or Swedish sensation William Eklund, the two likely frontrunners to go 1st overall at this point.
Eichel recently received a second opinion on the injury, which confirmed a longer timeline than was expected. Due to the travel required, Eichel must now quarantine for the next 7 days, ruling him out for at least four more games, though it sounds like it might be longer.
Though there is no confirmation on what, exactly, is ailing Eichel, it is believed to be a neck issue, which he may have suffered in a collision with Islanders forward Casey Cizikas last week.
Update: Eichel's injury believed to be a lower cervical spine injury. The timeline for recovery is believed to be approximately 8 weeks. Very rough news indeed.
Source: apnews.com
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Conor Garland | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Dylan Guenther | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Nick Schmaltz | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jake Debrusk | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack McBain | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikhail Sergachev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jayden Struble | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Cooley | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Christian Dvorak | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Barrett Hayton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Quinn Hughes | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Clayton Keller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| David Savard | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Pius Suter | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Arber Xhekaj | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Joel Armia | - | - | - | |
| Arshdeep Bains | - | - | - | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 22 | 18 | 4 | - | 36 | |
Devils | 24 | 15 | 7 | 2 | 32 | |
Hurricanes | 21 | 15 | 5 | 1 | 31 | |
Wild | 21 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 30 | |
Golden Knights | 22 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 30 | |
Capitals | 21 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 29 | |
Maple Leafs | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Flames | 22 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 20 | 13 | 7 | - | 26 | |
Rangers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||