The brief answer is what it always is: both sides.

Where the Sabres went wrong:

1. Let Eichel get the artificial disk replacement. Is it risky? Hell yes. Does the CBA allow you to dictate the surgery as the team? Sort of. Will Eichel win medical arbitration? Hell no. Still, it's not so outrageous a demand that, with the right liability waivers, Eichel shouldn't be allowed to make this call. Really bad move by the team even though Eichel's position is a bit crazy considering the lack of information.

2. If you insist on not letting him get the surgery and want him out of town, trade him by the draft. If the deals weren't there, just come out and state that you're not trading him and he'll have to deal with it or get suspended. Unless...the publicity is what you want (see below).

Eichel:

1. Grow up and act like an adult or at the very least like a rational person who doesn't sabotage his pwn way out of town. His agents can't be this stupid. Their statement and his twitter antics scream drunk, petulent idiot (remember his coming for you Buffalo drunk video from 2015 - clearly still the same guy) so he must have insisted over their objections. He's clearly going off the rails. All this means a trade is almost certainly further away than ever. The lower his value and the worse his public image, the more likely it is that the Sabres only option is to keep him. Having an easy villain for the fans is exactly what the Sabres PR team needs right now. Any coverage is good coverage in a rapidly dying hockey market. At least some Sabres fans feel something about the team...maybe?

So who has leverage? The question idiots on here debate with compelling and well thought out points like: "The Sabres have no leverage cause I say so!" and "Eichel has no leverage because I believe it!"

Let's look at some actual arguments...

Normally, the player but in this instance the team clearly has more.

1. Contract with conduct clauses - team wins. See below why suspending him doesn't matter and could be a good thing for the team.

2. Contract term - team wins. Self Explanatory. Don't have to trade him.

3. Medical arbitration - team almost certainly wins. Fusion is the proven, "safer" (from a tort perspective) option. This is not debatable at this point since the necessary data just doesn't exist on the disk replacement.

4. Bad publicity preventing players from signing in Buffalo? - team "wins". No one wants to be in Buffalo already.

5. Need the player as contending? - Team "wins".
Could not have lower expections. Eichel can sit out all year and no one cares.

6. Fans on the player's side? - Team wins. Eichel has been a PR disaster, Buffalo is a very pro-city, defensive town. Eichel is the villain. Especially looks bad in comparison to Josh Allen which is important in the market.

7. Bad publicity hurting fan base (ticket sales/ratings)? - Team "wins". Can't get much lower and at least some people are talking about the Sabres again.

8. Value proposition - Team "wins" now. Value doesn't appear to be there and appears to be getting farther away so might as well keep him.

9. NMC clause - his alternative to waiving is staying in Buffalo longer - team clearly wins in a catastrophic blowout. Anyone who argues that the NMC matters is an idiot. It takes maybe the Ducks out of it if they get back in. Probably not.

10. Some moron said Eichel could retire and just come back to another team. Not how contracts work - Stop being stupid, people. No need to declare who wins. Absolutely profound idiocy.

11. Eichel can go rogue and get his own surgery - suspend him and don't pay him - cheap team owners win, Eichel walks away from $10M minimum. (No, they won't terminate his contract. He'll just be suspended without pay until he's healthy enough to prove he can play.)

12. Eichel is toxic to the team - Eichel probably "wins". Bad for the young kids, also bad for Eichel in future contract negotiations (and Bruins are excellent hardnosed negotiators).

So what did I get wrong/forget? Saying "I disagree" is an opinion, not a fact. Support opinions with substantive rationale to be taken seriously (well, maybe). Otherwise, you're an idiot. I'm sure some of you can manage...

So what does Buffalo need to just get this over with? Minimums below.

Massively overpay a remaining UFA center and flip 50% retained at the TDL.

The fusion surgery has been around for 20 years and has been done on numerous professional athletes, just not in the NFL or NHL. There is plenty of information on it though and realistically is not any more risky than an ACDF

The Sabres pass on from the Rangers. First, Luukkonen will be in Buffalo for 2022-2023. I do not see a need for Georgiev. Second, the Sabres could use a quality defenseman. Fox can be that defenseman. Third, the Sabres will need a 1C if Eichel is traded. Cozens is not ready to promote from 2C to 1C yet. That could play out this season.

I agree that Georgiev adds very little here, but it's just that average goalies don't have crazy value, they don't, but he wants a chance at a starting job, and it gives the rangers a chance to pretend that he has more value than he does. Adams dropped the ball last season- it was painfully obvious that entering the season with oft injured ullmark and washed up Carter Hutton was just an awful idea. He chose to do just that and we got to see what actual bad goaltending looks like, but that is not a reason to overvalue goaltending. You just need to be average, its the smart play, spend assets on skaters in front of the goalie. Also, nobody has mentioned fox, the rangers have 2 young good right shot d in Schneider and lundkvist, one of those makes sense, but it won't be fox. As for eichel, he's tremendously talented, I expect the adr to be performed at some point, and him to play at a world class level again. As far as being a good guy goes, not sure if it matters at all, seems like eichel is no Josh Allen, but hes no Evander kane either. And speaking of guys named kane, Patrick kane has made some poor choices away from the rink, he's made better choices as time has gone by, and he won 3 cups despite it all.

Now that's how intelligent feedback is done. Thank you!

Eichel reminds me of Dylan Strome where he was treated horribly by the coyotes management where he demanded a trade

The artificial disc replacement surgery is not "unproven." His own doctor went on the Spitten chiclets podcast and said that it is likely the best option. If it works as it should, he will be healthier in the short and long term and won't need surgery to re-do it every twenty years or so. And if it fails, they can still go and do the fusion anyway. I'm not a doctor, so don't ask me the reasons behind any of this, but stating that the replacement surgery is unheard of and "too risky" is blatantly not true.\

I should also say that Eichel is vilified for pretty much no reason. You tell him to grow up, but from his perspective, he has no control over his own health and he is frustrated by it. Is that difficult to understand? I don't know how he is as a captain, but a certain former player for the Sabres, I forgot who it was, said he wasn't a good captain. Great. Go make Okposo the captain then. The Sabres suck and the pressure of being the face of the franchise, the captain, and every win or loss being directed onto him is extremely stressful. That can make anyone want out of that situation. It's not fun to play hockey under those situations and it is probably making his passion for the game deplete.

Blame everything on the Sabres organization they might as well sell the team