TRAIKOS: Who’s the big winner in the Vegas-Buffalo trade? Jack Eichel

Article content material

The large winner within the Jack Eichel commerce shouldn’t be the Vegas Golden Knights, who lastly added a top-line centre to a championship-contending crew that’s overflowing with top-line wingers, top-pairing defencemen and top-end goalies. And it’s not the Buffalo Sabres, who have been lastly in a position to shut a chapter and begin model 2.0 of their rebuild.

Article content material

Fairly, it’s Jack Eichel, who lastly will get to maneuver on together with his life.

That may sound a bit too cute or tacky, but it surely’s 100% true.

Eichel is free. Lastly.

After sitting out for greater than half a 12 months with a neck harm, he’s lastly getting the surgical procedure he wished, the one the Sabres had prevented, however which he believes will result in his long-term well being and well-being. Having by no means skilled the playoffs, he’s now becoming a member of a crew that has by no means missed the playoffs, doubtless on a star-studded line that features injured wingers Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty.

The man who wasted too a lot of his prime years taking part in for a crew that wasn’t ok, who had his captaincy stripped from him as a result of he supposedly didn’t care sufficient, is formally carried out with Buffalo. And he couldn’t be happier.

Article content material

Inside hours of the completion of the blockbuster commerce, Eichel tweeted out a Photoshopped picture of himself in a Golden Knights jersey, palms raised to the sky with the caption: “VEGAS BABY, VEGAS.”

The Sabres, in the meantime, need to be simply as completely happy to maneuver on from this mess.

“It was by no means private,” mentioned GM Kevyn Adams, who packaged Eichel and a future third-round decide to the Golden Knights in trade for energy ahead Alex Tuch, 20-year-old centre Peyton Krebs, a (top-10 protected) first-round decide in 2022 and a future second-rounder.

It wasn’t private. And but it felt extraordinarily private. How might it really feel in any other case after the Sabres blocked Eichel’s most popular method to repairing his injured neck? After which stripped him of his captaincy when he refused to bend to their will.

Article content material

“We’re respectful about what they wish to do,” Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon mentioned of Eichel’s want to bear disc alternative surgical procedure. “Why wouldn’t his folks need what’s greatest for him? None of us on this room have the extent of experience that might be required for an opinion.”

Chances are high that Eichel would have been traded anyway. He beforehand instructed administration he didn’t have the abdomen to undergo one other rebuild. Nor did he belief that the Sabres, who’ve employed 4 totally different head coaches and three totally different basic managers throughout his six years, would get it proper this time.

So a Vegas crew that previously two years has acquired Stone, Pacioretty and Alex Pietrangelo as soon as once more went big-game looking.

Article content material

“We weren’t out there for an additional centreman. However this isn’t simply one other centre man,” mentioned McCrimmon.

“These guys are by no means accessible,” added head coach Peter DeBoer.

With that in thoughts, some will clearly cringe on the considerably underwhelming return for a top-10 centre who is just 25 years previous. However bear in mind no commerce was going to make Sabres followers completely happy. And it’s not like Adams was dealing from a place of power.

A part of the issue was Eichel remains to be injured and should not play this 12 months. The synthetic disc alternative surgical procedure he needs — which includes changing his injured disc with a synthetic one — is a more recent and considerably controversial process. Nobody is aware of when Eichel will return or whether or not he would be the participant he as soon as was. An excellent greater roadblock concerned his wage. The Sabres wished Eichel fully off the books, which means that retaining any a part of his $10-million wage, in keeping with Adams, was an “absolute non-starter that we might not compromise on.”

Article content material

That severely restricted the groups who have been . Regardless of the rumours that Calgary had provided Matthew Tkachuk, the truth was that Buffalo was fortunate to even get what it obtained from Vegas. In spite of everything, it was higher than what Adams’ predecessor received in return for Ryan O’Reilly.

“We talked to everybody within the league,” mentioned Adams, who denied there was ever a deal that included Tkachuk.

Krebs, a two-way centre who was chosen with the Seventeenth-overall decide within the 2019 draft, figures to be the centrepiece of the commerce. However don’t low cost Tuch, who could possibly be the crew’s subsequent captain. For one, he scored 18 objectives and 33 factors in 55 video games final 12 months. Extra importantly, the Syracuse, N.Y., native really needs to be in Buffalo — one thing the franchise hopes is contagious because it continues to construct round Rasmus Dahlin, Dylan Cozens and 2021 No. 1 general decide Owen Energy.

Article content material

“He instructed me it is a dream come true for him,” Adams mentioned of Tuch. “That’s precisely the kind of particular person and expertise on the ice we’d like and precisely the kind of persona we’d like off the ice to drive our tradition shifting ahead.”

As for Eichel, we don’t know what the long run goes to appear like for him. Nobody does. McCrimmon put Eichel’s restoration time at between three to 5 months, although it was a guess. The longer it takes, the higher, contemplating Vegas may not have the cap room so as to add him till the playoffs start.

Hopefully, for Eichel, Vegas is ready to qualify with out him.

mtraikos@postmedia.com

twitter.com/Michael_Traikos