Report: Jack Eichel and Sabres agree to eight-year extension
It had been talked about all summer, and it has finally happened: the Buffalo Sabres and Jack Eichel have agreed to an eight-year contract extension that will see Eichel paid $10 million per year.
The Buffalo Sabres have reportedly locked up their star forward Jack Eichel.
The deal is said to be an eight-year extension that will see Eichel make $10 million per year. The two most comparable contracts are both from the Edmonton Oilers in Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.
Eichel still has one year remaining on his entry-level contract he signed with the Sabres before the 2015-16 season. His current contract carries a $925,000 cap hit, but with bonuses he makes $3.775 million per season.
8 year contract extension for Jack Eichel in Buffalo is complete. Aav of $10 million per year.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) October 3, 2017
According to CapFriendly, the Sabres currently have $5.44 million in cap space. However, they have the contracts of Evander Kane, Benoit Pouliot, Jordan Nolan, Sam Reinhart, Seth Griffith, Josh Gorges, Victor Anitipin, Justin Falk and both of their goalies running out at the end of the 2017-18 season.
This all adds up to another $21.569 million in cap space at the end of the season, $10 million of which will be going to Eichel. This will leave the Sabres with $11.569 million (if current roster is in place) to re-sign names like Reinhart, Kane, Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson.
While they surely won’t be reuniting with all of those players, it does mean that they will have to be creative in filling out a suitable roster around Eichel. This could mean that the Sabres could be a significantly different looking team heading into 2018-19.
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Eichel has made progressions in both traditional stat lines and analytically. Last season he finished with a 0.6 Relative Corsi-For%, 1.19 goals per 60, 2.12 primary points per 60 and a 21.13 Individual Corsi-For per 60.
His progression in these numbers shows that Eichel is trending in the right direction. And with Eichel coming into the season fully healthy, there is every reason to believe he will easily improve on his 24 goals and 33 assists from 2016-17.