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Jack Eichel

Jack Eichel Resumes Skating

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If you doubted Jack Eichel’s suggested three-month recovery timeline after his artificial disk replacement surgery, perhaps you should think again. The Vegas Golden Knights center was seen back on the ice today in North Carolina (at what appears to be the Extreme Ice Center just outside of Charlotte) by one of the scouts for Brandon Wong Hockey, just three weeks after going under the knife.

Obviously there is still a long way to go for the 25-year-old center, but seeing him back skating has to be encouraging for a Golden Knights squad that took a huge chance and acquired Eichel last month. The team sent Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and a package of draft picks to the Buffalo Sabres while taking on Eichel’s entire contract, one which pays him $10MM every season through 2025-26.

The last time Eichel played an injury-free season, he racked up 36 goals and 78 points. Unfortunately, that was in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season, which seems like a decade ago after the saga that has transpired since. His 2020-21 campaign ended after 21 games and a neck injury, leading to months and months of fighting with the Sabres over his preferred treatment. Even before that he had expressed a desire to potentially go elsewhere if the team was going to go through another rebuild, and he eventually got his wish on both, sent to the Golden Knights who allowed him to get the neck procedure his representatives had been pushing for.

Now, Vegas faces a massive cap crunch if Eichel is to return in the regular season, something that is still clearly up in the air despite his appearance on the ice. There is at least the possibility that he could return only for the playoffs where there is no salary cap–similar to what the Tampa Bay Lightning did with Nikita Kucherov last season–but if the three-month timeline is correct, he’ll be ready far sooner than that.

Trade Rumors: Kessel, Hertl, Girard

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After months and months of speculation, the constant trade talk surrounding Jack Eichel is finally over after the star Buffalo Sabres center was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights earlier this month. So where does the trade market go from here? Though still early in the season, there is thought to be some trade chatter ongoing between teams who expected different results early on this year, whether that is a surprise contender looking to load up, a struggling preseason favorite in need of a shake-up, or a bottom-dweller looking to move talent as soon as possible to maximize the return. The Hockey News’ Ryan Kennedy and Matt Larkin recently broke down the trade market and believe the top available name could be the product of that latter scenario. The pair feel that Phil Kessel is set to step into Eichel’s shoes, not only as a major name on the block but also as a player that is guaranteed to be traded. The 1-13-1 Arizona Coyotes have all the makings of a last-place team and Kessel is an aging veteran and respected champion on an expiring deal; the fit is poor and should be resolved soon rather than waiting until the deadline whilst Kessel plays meaningless games and risks injury for the ’Yotes. The scoring winger should be attractive to any number of teams and Arizona could take the first impressive futures package offered to them to further their rebuild.

  • Though mentioned by Kennedy and Larkin as a top trade chip, piling on top of plenty of recent speculation, Tomas Hertl may not be as guaranteed to move as people have been led to believe. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz writes in a recent mailbag that Hertl seems be enjoying this season more than last. A winning record so far certainly helps, but Hertl is also appreciative of his growing role as a team leader amidst a culture turnaround in San Jose. Kurz believes that Hertl has a 50/50 chance of signing an extension with the Sharks, which doesn’t even speak to his likelihood of being traded. If the team continues to win and stays in the playoff picture all season and the possibility of a renewed deal between the two sides remains, Hertl may not move after all. There are some cap management factors working against a deal for both team and player, with the Sharks’ restrictions limiting Hertl’s contract potential and making such a move more risky for San Jose, but if the team is playing well and Hertl is happy, producing, and leading the young locker room, it will be difficult for the Sharks to opt for a trade instead of working toward an extension.
  • Meanwhile, Kennedy and Larkin do not mention Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard as top trade bait, but his name has been a fixture on the rumor mill in recent days. According to Mike Chambers of The Denver Post, the Avs made a late run at Eichel and floated Girard as the centerpiece of the deal. Now, even with Eichel off the market, Chambers believes that GM Joe Sakic is still willing to part ways with Girard. Though young and offensively gifted, Girard has some glaring defensive weaknesses that Colorado would rather not deal with given his $5MM cap hit. Girard is still an elite defenseman, but the well-balanced Avs are looking to use that cap space in a different way, if at all possible, by landing another elite forward. With phenom Cale Makar locked up long-term, a number of reliable veterans in support, and other promising young defenders like Bowen Byram and Justin Barron, the team could survive the loss of Girard if it means adding another difference-maker to their top-heavy forward corps. If the Avalanche continue to fall short of expectations this season, it will only serve to fuel a potential shake-up with Girard as the most likely trade victim.

Jack Eichel Undergoes Surgery

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After months and months of waiting, Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel has finally undergone surgery. The artificial disk replacement procedure was completed today by Dr. Chad Prusmack, according to Jeff Marek of Sportsnet, and early reports are that it went well.

Eichel now faces a rehabilitation timeline that he has suggested could be as short as three months but is uncertain at this point because of the surgery in question. The procedure had never been done on an NHL player before Eichel, which was part of the concern of the Buffalo Sabres who had blocked it through the offseason. The Sabres eventually found a package they liked enough to trade Eichel to Vegas last week, acquiring Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs along with draft picks for their former captain.

Currently on injured reserve, it will be a battle for the Golden Knights to get Eichel back onto the active roster before the end of the season. Not only does the injury timeline come with plenty of uncertainty, but so too does their cap situation. With Eichel, Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, and Jake Bischoff currently on LTIR, the team is exceeding the $81.5MM cap ceiling by more than $11MM. Activating the entire group would be impossible without making other transactions to open a good amount of cap space, ones that could not simply be waiving or sending down the fringe players on their roster.

So the work now begins for Eichel, to get back to full strength and ready to play hockey, but also the Golden Knights, if they want to have him play games ahead of the playoffs. Of course, the playoffs aren’t a guarantee in Vegas this year, given their uneven start. The team is currently fifth in the Pacific Division with an 8-6 record through 14 games, though they have won their last two and are 4-1 in their last five.

When he does eventually return, whether it’s this season or next, Eichel is expected to take up residence between Stone and Pacioretty on the team’s first line. It will be at that point the onus will be on him to prove he can still be the dynamic offensive player he was in Buffalo, one that set career-highs of 36 goals and 82 points in recent years.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Eichel, Rask, Hajek

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It didn’t take long for new Golden Knight Jack Eichel to get his way in Vegas. The Associated Press reports that Eichel will undergo his preferred neck surgery, an artificial disc replacement, on Friday. Eichel’s surgical plans for his herniated disc was really the lynchpin topic of the crumbling relationship between Eichel and the Sabres that led to the Buffalo star requesting a trade after nearly a year out of action. While the disc replacement surgery has never been performed on an NHL player before, it is not an unheard of procedure and provides a number of potential benefits that the alternative fusion procedure. Eichel hopes that his saga with the Sabres will pave a path for players to have more input into their healthcare. “I think my situation shined light on maybe some things that could be changed, and I hope that they are in the future,” Eichel said. “I don’t necessarily agree with the team having the full say in what to do with medical treatment. I think it should be a collaboration.” Vegas was willing to acquire Eichel at a sizeable price and still allow him to have the surgery of his choice, an example of a team allowing a player to call the shots in his own rehabilitation.

  • Tuukka Rask was back in action on Monday, skating with – who else – the Boston Bruins. The veteran goaltender is still recovering from offseason hip surgery, but the expectation has always that he would return to his team at some point this season. That return could come sooner rather than later with Rask at Bruins practice today (though still technically a free agent). Rookie Jeremy Swayman and substantial free agent addition Linus Ullmark have played well thus far, combining for a .911 save percentage and a 2.45 GAA, but Boston has maintained that Rask will be welcomed back if he is healthy and able to return. The team clearly feels that the future Hall of Famer has enough left in the tank to improve their play in net for another year.
  • Even before the season began, there were reports that Libor Hajek had lost his starting job in New York and could be on his way out, either by trade or waivers. The first part of that assumption has proven true, as the 23-year-old has not played a game so far this season, yet Hajek is still a member of the Rangers. The team has opted not to test Hajek on waivers, protecting the once-promising blue liner from their competition, but wasting a roster spot and keeping the defenseman cold are not great strategies either. As a result, the team has announced today that Hajek will head down to the AHL’s Hartford Wolfpack on a conditioning stint. Whether this could be precursor to another move involving Hajek remains to be seen, but getting Hajek some game action certainly can’t hurt the Rangers.

Poll: Grading The Jack Eichel Trade

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It was a saga that dragged on and on (and on) for months but on Thursday, Jack Eichel’s tenure in Buffalo officially came to an end as he was traded with a 2023 third-round pick to Vegas in exchange for winger Alex Tuch, center Peyton Krebs, a 2022 first-round pick, and a 2023 second-round pick.

The Golden Knights had long been speculated as a landing spot for Eichel.  Their desire to add a number one center had been well-known and they’ve had a tendency to find ways to land impact players in the early years of the franchise including the acquisitions of wingers Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty plus the signing of Alex Pietrangelo in free agency.  Now, they have a legitimate top middleman, or at least that’s the hope assuming all goes well with his upcoming surgery.

The fact that Vegas was able to land Eichel without giving up a player from their current roster is impressive but it also is going to create some other challenges down the road from a salary cap perspective.  Eichel joins Pacioretty and Stone on LTIR which keeps them cap-compliant for the next few months at least.  But when they’re all ready to return, they will be well over the Upper Limit and some other moves will need to be made.  Even if one of them stays on LTIR for the rest of the regular season, there’s still 2022-23 and beyond to think about.  They have $78.735MM committed to 11 players for 2022-23, per CapFriendly, with an expected Upper Limit of $82.5MM.  It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that more subtraction needs to come.

Whatever those moves ultimately wind up being will ultimately have to be factored into the cost of this deal for Vegas.  They’ve given up Krebs, Tuch, and the two picks so far but what will the other ramifications be?

Meanwhile, Buffalo’s cap situation was at the exact opposite end to the point where they had to take on Johnny Boychuk’s injured contract from the Islanders merely to get back to the salary floor.  But they were able to move Eichel without taking significant salary commitments back which appeared to be a goal when they started down this path last season.

In Krebs, they hope to have another center to build around alongside Dylan Cozens; the two were both first-rounders back in 2019 (seventh overall for Cozens while Krebs went ten spots later).  The center spot has been the weakness of their quickly-expanding prospect pool and this certainly helps on that front although as is the case with all prospects, things may not go as planned.

As for Tuch, the Sabres add a power forward that has long been perceived as someone that could have another level in him if he had the chance to play a bigger role.  He’ll get that chance with Buffalo and with five years of team control at a reasonable $4.75MM AAV, Tuch will be another long-term building block.

To get two potential top-six pieces plus a pair of draft picks (one being a first-rounder) is by no means a bad return but when you look at Eichel’s track record and how he was supposed to be the focal point of Buffalo’s rebuild, it’s understandable if it feels a little underwhelming as well.  The Sabres are certainly a victim of circumstances here with his neck injury but it’s at least in part by their own design with their unwillingness to allow Eichel’s desired surgery, thereby delaying his return.  Accordingly, there will be a ‘What If?’ element to this trade that will go on for years to come.

It only seems fitting that following all of the uncertainty for months leading up to the eventual trade, there’s still an awful lot of uncertainty even after it was made.  Who else will need to leave Vegas to make the money work and what could have been the return had Sabres GM Kevyn Adams perhaps done things differently?

Of course, we can’t evaluate those scenarios but we can evaluate the trade itself.  How do you feel both teams made out in this swap?  Vote in the polls below to award your grades.

[Mobile links for Vegas and Buffalo]

Pacific Notes: Athanasiou, Andersson, Eichel, Tkachuk

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Kings winger Andreas Athanasiou is expected to be activated off injured reserve and make his season debut on Friday, notes Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider.  The 27-year-old suffered an undisclosed injury late in September and while it was hoped that he wouldn’t be out long, he hasn’t played since, missing the first ten games of the season in the process.  Athanasiou had 10 goals and 13 assists in 47 games with Los Angeles in 2020-21.

Meanwhile, Dooley adds that center Lias Andersson has been ruled out of Saturday’s contest due to his groin injury.  Head coach Todd McLellan indicated that the plan is to “see how he is as the week goes on”.

More from the Pacific Division:

  • Golden Knights center Jack Eichel will have his disk replacement surgery next Friday in Denver, relays David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. GM Kelly McCrimmon indicated yesterday that the hope is that the 25-year-old will be able to return three to five months after having the procedure.  That would have Eichel returning sometime between February and April.  While that is a bit of an extended timeline, the fact it hasn’t been performed on an NHL player before leads to some uncertainty.
  • Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk has been fined $5K for his high sticking infraction on Stars defenseman John Klingberg on Thursday night, the league announced. The incident occurred in the third period of the game with a minor penalty being assessed on the play.  The fine is the maximum allowable in the CBA.

More Moves Are Necessary For The Vegas Golden Knights

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Today was certainly a day to be happy for Vegas Golden Knights fans. The team acquired a top-ten center in the league in Jack Eichel while only losing one piece each from their prospect and draft pool.

However, the reality stands that Eichel isn’t free. He’s currently in the fourth year of an eight-year, $80MM deal that counts against the salary cap for $10M per year.

The Knights are doing a delicate dance with the salary cap’s Upper Limit, shifting both Eichel and Mark Stone to long-term injured reserve today to accommodate the transaction. They join Max Pacioretty on the list, meaning the entirety of what’s expected to be Vegas’ top line is on LTIR.

Now, this number is expected to decrease slightly as they send some players down as the team gets healthier, but CapFriendly lists the Golden Knights with a $91.8MM cap hit, just over $10M above the $81.5MM Upper Limit.

While the team should be able to activate Pacioretty and Stone without issue, it’ll be impossible as things currently stand to activate Eichel when he’s expected to return in February or March. The team will need to have a cap hit below the $81.5MM Upper Limit at that point in order to do so.

Needless to say, moves will need to happen for Vegas to shed enough salary to become cap-compliant. It’s no small amount of money, either, as they’ll likely need to offload $7-8MM in order to make things work.

Reilly Smith and the one year remaining on a deal paying him $5MM per season scream out as a likely candidate to be traded by the Knights. If Eichel is healthy prior to the trade deadline, it’s entirely feasible that Vegas could flip him to quite literally anyone. They could operate as a seller and trade Smith to a contender in the Eastern Conference, or trade him to a seller that could then flip him at the deadline.

If clearing that isn’t enough, the team could look at trading or waiving Brayden McNabb and his $2.5MM cap hit. He too is in the last year of his contract, and his role with the team is quickly being made expendable with the emergence of Nicolas Hague.

Regardless, it’s a surefire conclusion that the makeup of the team will need to be cheaper when Eichel is healthy and ready to play.

Snapshots: Tkachuk, Drouin, Coyotes

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While many fans will be eager to move on from the Jack Eichel trade saga that finally wrapped up Thursday after an early-morning deal to the Vegas Golden Knights, there were many rumors in the days leading up to the trade that deserves attention. While it was common knowledge in the week or so prior to Thursday that the Calgary Flames were potential suitors for the star forward, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes tweeted Wednesday that the team had offered winger Matthew Tkachuk in a potential package for Eichel. However, Tkachuk said today that he “had a hard time believing” that Calgary would have been willing to part with him, supporting other reports today that Tkachuk was not on the table. Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams also stated that the report “was not accurate.” It would’ve been shocking to see the Flames part with Tkachuk, who’s entering the final season of a $7MM contract. The 23-year-old has four goals and six points through nine games this season.

More from around the league:

  • Jonathan Drouin sits out tonight for the Montreal Canadiens, per Newsday’s Andrew Gross. Drouin left Montreal’s game on Tuesday night after taking a puck to the head and was actually transported to the hospital for further evaluation, but was discharged and was seen at the Bell Centre after the game. No timeline has been issued by the team on his injury, but it continues an unfortunate slew of health issues that have plagued the Canadiens this season.
  • The Arizona Coyotes tried to be a part of the Eichel trade, as mentioned in today’s episode of TSN’s Insider Trading. As a third-party member, the Coyotes likely could’ve taken on considerable value by offering to retain a small portion of Eichel’s salary in the deal. Salary retention in three-team deals has been an increasing trend in the league, with multiple low-spending teams gaining draft capital at last year’s Trade Deadline by helping facilitate deals.

Vegas Golden Knights Acquire Jack Eichel

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After months of speculation, negotiations, and public frustration, the Jack Eichel saga in Buffalo has come to an end. The Vegas Golden Knights and Buffalo Sabres have both officially announced a trade that will take Eichel to the desert. He will go to Vegas along with a 2023 third-round pick, in exchange for forwards Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, a 2022 first-round pick, and a 2023 second-round pick.

The first-round selection is top-10 protected and the Sabres did not retain any salary. Should the pick end up in the top 10 after this year’s lottery, the Golden Knights will send their 2023 first-round and 2024 second-round picks instead of the ones listed. In that case, the Sabres’ 2023 third-round selection that is included would also become a 2024 third-rounder. Basically, if it ends up in the top 10, all three picks bump forward a year.

For Buffalo fans, seeing a frustrated first-line center shipped out of town for a collection of assets is certainly familiar but this deal is not the same as the one that took Ryan O’Reilly from them a few years ago.

In that deal, the best young player the team received was Tage Thompson, as both Patrik Berglund and Vladimir Sobotka were established talents already on their way out of the league. This time in Tuch and Krebs, the Sabres have secured two players that are still improving and should be able to help the club for much longer.

Tuch, 25, is in the third season of a seven-year, $33.25MM contract that already appears to be one of the most reasonable deals in the league. The 6’4″ forward is a blend of size and skill that’s incredibly difficult to find, and has shown an ability to score at a high level even with limited opportunity. In 55 games last season he scored 18 goals and 33 points despite his most common linemates at even strength being Nicolas Roy and Keegan Kolesar.

In Buffalo, he very well could see much better offensive deployment and end up lining up in the top-six. That’ll have to wait a few months though, as Tuch is recovering from offseason surgery and isn’t expected back in the lineup until January.

Krebs meanwhile will likely step directly into the Sabres forward group, where he’ll take the next steps of his professional career. Still just 20, Krebs was the 17th overall pick in 2019 and has already reached the NHL. While he has yet to score a goal in his 13 career games, there are obvious signs that he can be a valuable contributor and adds another option at center ice for Buffalo.

Adding another first-round pick means the Sabres now have three selections this year after they had already acquired one from the Florida Panthers. Given how many top prospects they already have in the organization, there’s a real chance that Buffalo could have a very quick turnaround and start competing in the next few years.

The question now becomes whether that turnaround will be navigated properly. Buffalo has now seemingly run another star player out of town with poor management and coaching choices, resulting in a situation that could only be resolved by trade. The old adage “whoever gets the best player in the deal, wins” could apply here, as Eichel is certainly a level above Tuch or Krebs when healthy.

Healthy is the concern now for Vegas, but the Golden Knights must obviously believe in the disk replacement surgery that Eichel is after. Whenever he does go under the knife, he still faces a months-long recovery, meaning he won’t be on the ice at T-Mobile for quite some time.

When he does return though, Eichel is exactly the kind of first-line center that the Golden Knights have been looking for since they came into existence. The team has gotten by with the exceptional two-way play of William Karlsson and have worked to turn Chandler Stephenson into a legitimate top-six force, but have never had a player like Eichel that can drive offense at an elite level.

In 375 career games, Eichel has 355 points including breaking the point-per-game threshold in both 2018-19 and 2019-20. He can score at even-strength and on the powerplay–the latter of which is currently 0-18 for the Golden Knights–while logging huge minutes in the middle of the ice. In 2020, Eichel finished eighth in Hart Trophy voting, after scoring 36 goals and 78 points in 68 games.

Of course, to land Eichel the Golden Knights not only had to part with several assets, but will also have to carry his $10MM cap hit for this season and four more. A full no-movement clause also comes into effect next season, as does another $7.5MM signing bonus. The Golden Knights have continuously flirted with the salary cap upper limit, but will now be carrying three players who have a cap hit of at least $8.8MM for the next several years.

Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that there were actually three teams in the Eichel sweepstakes until the end. The Golden Knights, Calgary Flames and, perhaps surprisingly, Carolina Hurricanes all stayed in the talks. The NHL insider does admit that the Hurricanes weren’t close but doesn’t specify whether the Flames ever got near a deal. The report about Matthew Tkachuk yesterday was likely a way to make Vegas put their final offer on the table.

While the winner and loser of today’s deal will be discussed for years to come, one clear beneficiary of the deal is Eichel himself. While the Sabres were holding out for the biggest package possible, the 25-year-old center was dealing with a serious neck injury that needed surgery. Now, finally, he will be able to get his preferred treatment and hopefully resume his career.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Latest On Jack Eichel

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The Jack Eichel trade was “on the one-yard line” yesterday according to Emily Kaplan of ESPN, with the Vegas Golden Knights and Calgary Flames listed as finalists. Both clubs have agreed to allow Eichel to have the artificial disk replacement that he wants, but obviously, the Buffalo Sabres are trying to get the best package possible in return before accepting a trade.

If you were wondering what kind of package could get it done, Kevin Weekes of ESPN tweets that it is his understanding that the Flames have Matthew Tkachuk, an upcoming first-round selection, a player who was a first-round pick, and two prospects on the table. In any Eichel deal, a big-ticket salary (or several smaller ones) would have to be included, not only to open up cap space for the acquiring team but also to get the Sabres over the cap floor. Remember, Eichel is not yet on long-term injured reserve, meaning any acquiring team would need to have the space under the cap to land him before moving him off the roster.

Tkachuk of course would be that big-ticket, especially given his upcoming qualifying offer. When his current three-year, $21MM deal expires at the end of this season, whichever team has his rights will have to issue him a $9MM qualifying offer to retain them. At that point, given Tkachuk has already played in six seasons, he could simply accept the one-year, $9MM deal or go to arbitration to secure a contract that walks him right into unrestricted free agency in 2023.

Eichel isn’t expected to be ready to play for several months after the surgery is performed, meaning whoever does end up with him isn’t getting any help right away. The Golden Knights are dealing with quite a few injuries already, while the Flames are currently 6-1-2 and tied for first place in the Pacific Division. It’s hard to fathom either one making a huge splash right now, but reports have continued to indicate that a deal is on the horizon.

Flames head coach Darryl Sutter meanwhile isn’t giving up any information. When asked about the Eichel speculation today, he told reporters that he’s not aware of any talks and believes it is “just a media thing.”

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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