Jack Eichel ready for 'awkward' Buffalo Sabres reunion but hoping for warm welcome

Jack Eichel knows his return to Buffalo will be «awkward» and says he doesn't know how Sabres fans will react — though he hopes they focus on some positives.

«I think about my time in Buffalo, it obviously ended a little bit messy,» Eichel, the former Sabres captain, told ESPN ahead of his first game in Buffalo (7 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN+) since getting traded to the Vegas Golden Knights in November. «But I hope [fans] can look past some of the things that happened maybe in the last year and think about the previous five and a half, six years that I was there and everything that I tried to do for the community, everything that I feel like I put forth on the ice as a hockey player, and know I just tried to do as much as I could for the city.»

Eichel, 25, was the No. 2 overall pick by the Sabres in 2015 and was in the middle of an eight-year, $80 million contract — the largest in team history — when he entered a dispute with management over how to treat a herniated disk in his neck. Sabres doctors wanted Eichel to undergo a fusion surgery, while Eichel wanted to follow his second opinion doctor and get an artificial disk replacement surgery — which had never been performed on an NHL player before. Under the NHL collective bargaining agreement, teams have the final say over how to treat injuries.

The Sabres stripped Eichel of his captaincy and facilitated a trade to the Golden Knights, who allowed the center to undergo the artificial disk replacement surgery in November.

Eichel said he was sitting in his driveway when Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams called and delivered the news about his captaincy being removed.

«I was frustrated,» Eichel said. «If you think about the reason why you took the captaincy away from me, it