You may remember Patrik Berglund once quit on the Buffalo Sabres. This past week, he once again was in the news, and it was for nothing good.
When you think of Jack Eichel, you get nothing but negativity in the eyes of the Buffalo Sabres fanbase. Eichel was a headache, and I’ve heard many refer to him as a “cancer,” among other adjectives.
But if there is one player capable of surpassing Eichel in levels of infamy among the Sabres, you can point to none other than Patrik Berglund. Because in case you’ve never known, Patrik Berglund did something Jack Eichel never did; he quit on his team after playing in a measly 23 games for the franchise.
Berglund arrived in Buffalo with Tage Thompson, as they were both part of the now-successful Ryan O’Reilly Trade, along with Vladimir Sobotka, a first, and a second round pick. During his 23 games for Buffalo, he scored just four points, and posted a career low 8.0% shooting percentage.
Patrik Berglund is the Buffalo Sabres most infamous player on many fronts
Of course, Berglund walking out on the Blue and Gold and over $13 million that came with it was bad enough. Then, on Cam & Stick Podcast, he also went on to insult Tage Thompson, who is now the Sabres star center. Ironic, considering Tage stayed, and Patrik quit. Finally, he also stated he had no regrets with his decision to quit, citing:
"“I started to spiral, I was not in a good place, I was alone,” – Patrik Berglund, via Cam & Stick Podcast, courtesy of WYRK."
And okay, fair enough. But we can also name dozens of pro athletes who’ve found themselves in similar situations and they didn’t feel the need to quit; especially with the sum of money they were making.
Take a leave for personal reasons? Absolutely. Just up and quit on a team that traded for and had you in its future plans? You can’t justify that, and at the end of the day, he’s making excuses.
Berglund quit, and that’s all there is to it. He had resources in Buffalo to help him get through the transition process; he chose not to use them. And he’s arguably the most infamous player in Sabres history.
Source: Former Sabre reveals why he quit the team, by Chris Owen, WYRK.com
(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)