Report: NHL team and star player not likely to sign before season

First a deal was in place… now this. What’s going on here?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Report: NHL team and star player not likely to sign before season
Keystone Press

With the calendar having recently flipped to the month of September, the countdown is on for any player without a contract for the 2017-18 season. Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak and Vancouver Canucks forward Bo Horvat seem to be hogging all the headlines these days, but don’t forget about this offseason’s other major contract negotiation between the Buffalo Sabres and emerging superstar Jack Eichel.

In July, it looked as if both parties were working toward a long-term deal, but weeks later and everything is now up in the air. According to a recent report from TSN analyst and NHL insider Darren Dreger, Eichel and the Sabres may enter the 2017-18 season without a contract extension in place. Of course, Eichel would still be eligible to play given that his current deal doesn’t expire until July 1st, 2017, but it was thought that both sides would prefer to hammer out a deal before training camp to avoid making it a talking point.

From Dreger:

“My sense a week or even two weeks ago was that they were still very hopeful that they would get a settlement done here, they would reach an agreement prior to the start of the season. There’s still that possibility, but I’m now getting the sense that – certainly from the player’s perspective – he’s okay starting the season without this contract extension in place. I know that that’s not best case for a lot of guys because who wants to talk about it through training camp and obviously a good part of the regular season. And it’s not just the questions that you face in Buffalo. I mean, you face that in pretty much every city that you visit. Every reported wants to hear the same thing: ‘Is the contract negotiation a distraction?’

Eichel is just 20-years-old and has put up 20+ goal, 55+ point seasons and looked especially good last season by eclipsing his point total from a year prior, despite playing in 20 fewer games. The sky is the limit for Eichel and you get the sense that Sabres fans are nervous about the price he could command once the puck drops on the season. If he starts the season at the top of his ability, things could get expensive.