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And just like that, smoke turns into fire. Jack Eichel has been traded to the Vegas Golden Knights after months of will they and won’t they.
TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report the trade, which shakes out like this:
The Golden Knights receive Eichel and a 2023 third-round pick. In return, the Buffalo Sabres add two high-end prospects and two draft selections in Peyton Krebs, Alex Tuch, a first-round pick in 2022 and a 3rd in 2023.
Dreger went on to clarify that the Sabres retained none of Eichel’s salary and that the first-rounder in 2022 is lotto protected. Neither of these points should be overlooked.
This could very well turn out to be a feather-in-the-cap trade for Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon. He hasn’t hesitated to add talent to his roster since the Golden Knights came into existence in 2017, and this move is no different.
And, to be honest, his previous moves pale in comparison to this one. Yes, going out and getting Max Pacioretty in 2018 has paid dividends. So has the acquisition of Mark Stone, which transpired in 2019. Inking Alex Pietrangelo as a free agent was another we’re here moment.
Yet Eichel is a borderline generational talent and Vegas didn’t have to give up any roster pieces to acquire him. Sure, he’s likely months out from making his Golden Knights debut, but there’s no question that this is a big moment for both franchises.
So who wins and who loses? Let’s take a look.
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Steve Marcus/Associated Press
Make no mistake about it: the Golden Knights want a Stanley Cup banner hanging in their rafters yesterday. Fans of other franchises might be sour about that because the franchise hasn’t been in the NHL all that long, but Vegas was also originally constructed from players that 30 other organizations deemed as unnecessary.
The Golden Knights took that band of misfits all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in their first year of existence, and they have not let up off of the gas since. Vegas has taken to hockey quite well, perhaps even better than expected. And they just keep adding talent.
Pacioretty and Stone are great players, but Eichel is something else entirely. Decent centers don’t grow on trees in the NHL; it’s even rarer for legit No.1 pivots to hit the trade market before the age of 30. Yet the Golden Knights have secured the services of Eichel.
There are clear questions about how he’ll bounce back from his preferred artificial disc replacement surgery. Yet trading for him now seems like a pretty legit buy-low opportunity for Vegas. And they are winners for taking this swing when no one else in the NHL seemed ready to trade a few futures for an elite goal-scoring center.
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There’s a universe that exists where the Anaheim Ducks were able to call Eichel and Trevor Zegras their top two centers. It wouldn’t have been a Sidney Crosby-Evgeni Malkin type of one-two punch, but there’s no question that this team would have been better by pulling the trigger on a deal with the Sabres.
If Buffalo wasn’t asking for Zegras or Jamie Drysdale as part of the return, what would the hold-up have been for Anaheim general manager Bob Murray?
Looking at the prospects that the Golden Knights gave up, we might be able to guess that Anaheim couldn’t have made the trade while hanging onto its two prized young prospects… but if the jam came up because of a few draft picks, then missing out on Eichel could come back to haunt the Ducks.
Players like Eichel don’t come along in the draft very often. Teams have to win the lottery to secure the services of forwards like him. They come along on the trade market even less often; if the Ducks had a shot at the former Sabres captain and it wouldn’t have cost them Zegrad or Drysdale, they’re clear-cut losers here.
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Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The Golden Knights somehow became one of the most consistent teams in the NHL despite not having a high-end center on the roster. They got it done via a score-by-committee approach. They got it done by forechecking the other team into the ice and by getting key stops from former goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
Put another way: Vegas has pushed into the realm of the top teams in the league with William Karlsson as their No. 1 center.
Now, we are absolutely not here to disrespect the 28-year-old and the level of game he’s discovered with Vegas. He didn’t get the chance to be a go-to forward during his time with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and he took his opportunity with the expansion club and crushed it out of the park.
Like, the ball is still going. For real.
But he’ll look a whole lot better as the team’s second-line pivot. Eichel will simply give the Golden Knights another level of attack that they just didn’t have before. And it’s tough not to like what Karlsson will be able to do against slightly lesser competition on any given night.
When he gets back from his broken foot and Eichel is fully healed, watch out.
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Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press
It’s tough to not feel bad for the Calgary Flames here. At least a little bit. Their offer to the Sabres was significant, to say the least. One could even argue that what they tried to trade for Eichel beat out what the Golden Knights tabled.
Yet the former second-overall pick is headed to Vegas, while the Flames are left with a few potentially awkward situations to deal with. Mostly because it became known that Calgary offered up Matthew Tkachuk as part of its offer to Eichel.
Again, Eichel is a generational goal scorer and would be an upgrade at center for all but three or four teams in the league, assuming he’s healthy. But this is the Flames’ possible future captain and a player they hesitated to sign to a long-term extension when they had the chance.
Will that have an impact on their negotiations moving forward? We aren’t sure, but we know that Eichel landed elsewhere and Tkachuk is a restricted free agent this summer. Going after Eichel makes sense, but your own 23-year-old forward knowing he was offered up might not be great for the Flames moving forward.
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Jared Silber/Getty Images
Good news for hockey fans everywhere: it sounds like we’ll be able to watch Jack Eichel shoot hockey pucks before the end of this season. It sounded like the Sabres were willing to play hardball for as long as it took to get numerous high-end assets for their star forward.
To the point where we weren’t sure when we’d see Eichel suit up for an NHL team at all this season. The deal is done now, though. The forward will be able to get his preferred surgery, and not presumably live in pain every day while awaiting a trade.
The hockey aspect of this move is almost secondary. We could go around in circles about whether or not a human should be “allowed” to pursue surgeries as they see fit, but it boiled down to a part of the CBA that the NHL and NHLPA have agreed upon.
We’ll file that under IS WHAT IT IS, however, and just be grateful that we’ll see Eichel filling up nets sooner rather than later.
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Ben Green/Getty Images
The Sabres eventually got what they wanted in return for Eichel. They got their prospects. They got their draft picks. They got their assets. Peyton Krebs was widely considered to be Vegas’ top prospect, while Tuch is a former first-round pick in his own right.
So yes, Buffalo eventually extracted four high-end futures for Eichel, and it was within general manager Kevyn Adams’ rights to take his time in making this trade. It’s already being argued on the interwebs that he won the deal, even though Eichel hasn’t suited up for Vegas yet.
We can’t help but feel a bit sorry for the Sabres and their fans, though. Eichel was the crown jewel of the tankiest of tank jobs. They missed out on Connor McDavid, but at least they landed the Massachusetts native. A center worth building around.
And Eichel was worth every drip of hype until he ended up in an impasse with Buffalo over how to proceed with his neck surgery. It then took eight months for the Sabres to finally move on from the forward. That’s asking a lot from any fanbase. Especially one that hasn’t seen a home playoff game since 2010-11.
They’ll say “we’ll be fine,” but the reality is that Eichel was brought in to be the savior but was shipped out because he wanted a surgery that differed from what the Sabres wanted. That’s a tough out, no matter how much sugar you roll it in.
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