An Eichel-Reinhart Final shouldn’t bother Buffalo Sabres fans

Former Buffalo Sabres stars Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel appear to be on a collision course for the Stanley Cup Final, and that shouldn’t bother fans.

As I write this, two former would-be cornerstones for the Buffalo Sabres are on a collision course to faceoff in the Stanley Cup Final – Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights and Sam Reinhart of the Florida Panthers. So how should fans of the Blue and Gold feel about two players their general manager traded away who, barring any catastrophic meltdown, are poised to fight it out for the most coveted prize in hockey?

Honestly, we shouldn’t care less. It’s more than safe to say the Blue and Gold are in a much better place without Eichel and Reinhart than they ever were with them. And both respective trades yielded spectacular results that have more than helped set up the franchise for long-term success.

Thanks to trades Buffalo Sabres fans should be excited for team’s near-future

When you break down the Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart trades, you’ll find that the Sabres landed the following pieces:

• A potential long-term team captain (Alex Tuch)
• A gritty fourth-liner who is only going to get more physical (Peyton Krebs)
• A potential future asset (Noah Ostlund)
• A potential beneficiary of the Don Granato Effect (Jordan Greenway)
• A potential franchise goaltender (Devon Levi)
• Arguably the steal of the 2022 NHL Draft (Jiri Kulich)

That’s a decent haul, and it’s realistic to see all of the above players sticking to the organization for quite some time. Tuch, Kulich, and Levi appear to be headed that way, and if Krebs builds on the physical edge he developed this past season, he’s going to be in Buffalo for a while, too.

Ostlund spent some time in Rochester recently, and he could end up in North America next year if he decides to forgo another year in Sweden. Greenway has familiarity with Don Granato, and he can easily be to the Buffalo Sabres in 2023-24 what Casey Mittelstadt was this past season-the team’s breakout veteran.

Overall, the Blue and Gold’s return on investment was just too good for what was a rebuilding team back in 2021. So if you’re put out by the fact Eichel and Reinhart will most likely be facing off in the near-future, don’t be. The Sabres, when it’s all said and done, could evolve into the class of the NHL thanks to this pair of trades (plus the Ristolainen trade).

And they might just end up beating Vegas and Florida to get there. At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s exactly what will happen.