Jack Eichel Trade Must Be Judged in the Long Term Despite Golden Knights’ Struggles

Steph Chambers/Getty Images

The Vegas Golden Knights have never missed the playoffs in their storied history.

That storied postseason history dates back only four years, of course, but ever since the upstart Golden Knights reached the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, the expectations surrounding them have been as high as the stratosphere. The Golden Knights have played 11 playoff series in four years. It went from being invaluable postseason experience for a ragtag expansion group to being the expectation. The fact that the team has been a perennial contender since season No. 1 is nothing short of remarkable. 

All of that makes it somewhat surprising that the Golden Knights are a bubble team in danger of missing the Stanley Cup playoffs, especially considering the club’s acquisition of Jack Eichel earlier this season. 

The Eichel saga finally came to an end in November when the Buffalo Sabres traded him to the Golden Knights and he immediately underwent neck surgery—his preferred artificial disc replacement surgery—and it boosted Vegas’ stock. 

Eichel has been exactly as advertised with 10 goals and eight assists in 24 games.

The problem has been the injuries. Only two players have played at least 70 of the team’s 72 games: defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and winger Keegan Kolesar. For the last three weeks of March, the Knights were without goalie Robin Lehner, the netminder they opted to keep last summer when they dealt away Marc-Andre Fleury for salary-cap reasons, and they’re currently without Lehner’s No. 2, Laurent Brossoit. Defenseman Alec Martinez missed significant time, as did Zach Whitecloud, further depleting the blue line. The club is still without forward Reilly Smith and star wingers Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty. 

Skilled role players like Shea Theodore and William Carrier are having down seasons, though you could make the argument that those are partially the result of missing half the lineup. 

This team hasn’t had much of a chance to play together at full strength, and it may not if this trend continues. The Knights are running out of time with only 10 games left. They aren’t completely out of the Western Conference wild-card race—only two points behind the Dallas Stars and four points behind the Nashville Predators—but both of those Central Division teams have games in hand. 

So was the Eichel trade worth it? Peyton Krebs, Alex Tuch, a top-10-protected first-round draft pick and a conditional second-round pick was certainly a lot to give up for the center. Krebs and Tuch were expected to play big roles for Vegas in the future, and the organizational cabinets aren’t exactly stocked right now, which is sort of how it works when you’re a constant contender. Just ask the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

Plus, Tuch and Krebs have relatively affordable contracts, and Vegas is right up against the cap. The Evgenii Dadonov trade fiasco further complicated a tight situation. 

But the Eichel trade was a long game for the Golden Knights. Most teams are not built to withstand losing their top-tier players for long periods of time. The Golden Knights have lost players from every tier and still been able to fight for a playoff spot, and Eichel has helped with that. Dadonov has as well, despite the fact that he isn’t even supposed to be in Vegas, but his no-trade clause prevented him from going to the Anaheim Ducks.

AP Photo/David Becker

So let’s say the club does finish fourth or fifth in the Pacific Division and misses the postseason. It can hit pause, have an extended summer and get all of its top guys healthy. Vegas has its top-six forwards, top-four defensemen and two goalies locked up past this season. Forwards Eichel, Stone, Karlsson, Carrier, Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson are all signed for two or more seasons beyond this one. Pacioretty is the only one coming up to the end of his contract, signed through 2022-23. 

Pietrangelo, Martinez, Whitecloud, Theodore and Brayden McNabb are all signed through at least 2023-24, with Whitecloud’s new deal kicking in next season and going through 2027-28. Lehner has three more seasons as well. 

However, there are some concerns with age. Eichel is 25, but Marchessault (31), Dadonov (33), Pacioretty (33), McNabb (31), Pietrangelo (32), Martinez (34) and Lehner (30) could start to decline soon, and Karlsson and Stone are both 29. You could look at those numbers and see some elite players in their prime, but you could also look at those and see players with a lot of mileage.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Stanley Cup window has closed, but it does have an expiration date and it could be coming within the next few years if the club fails to get younger. 

Internal talent probably isn’t coming soon, with a prospect pool thinned from trades to try to stay in contention. Vegas is also without its first-, third- and fourth-round draft picks this year and its second-round pick next year. These next two draft classes are expected to be loaded. 

Zak Krill/NHLI via Getty Images

Though many of the same faces remain, this might not be the same scrappy underdog group that shocked the hockey world in 2018. This is a top team that intends to go all-in while these players are still producing. The Knights became a heavyweight favorite in their first year but didn’t get complacent, instead evolving after shrewd—but not always popular—moves from management.

Eichel himself added some prestige to an already-prestigious club. 

The Golden Knights went all-in with Eichel and soon enough they’ll have to go all-in with the talent around him. If they continue this downward spiral past this season and next, forcing them into a partial tear-down of sorts, then maybe we can look back and wonder if the Eichel trade, the Fleury trade and maybe even the Nick Suzuki trade (that brought Pacioretty to Vegas) were worth it.

Will owner Bill Foley get antsy and make more impulsive moves, like firing a coach—as he did with Gerard Gallant in 2020—or an executive? Will he ship another popular player like Fleury out of town? Those are still legitimate questions given the club’s history, but Eichel is in Sin City to stay with a no-movement clause that kicks in next year. 

But for now, it’s too soon to determine a winner in this trade. The window isn’t shut yet.