After months of waiting, forward Jack Eichel was finally traded by the Buffalo Sabres, heading to the Vegas Golden Knights for a package of players and picks.
In exchange for Eichel, along with a third-round pick in 2023, the Sabres received forwards Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch, as well as a first-round pick in next year's NHL Draft and a second-round pick in 2023. There are conditions on the first-round pick though: if Vegas' pick next year is a top-10 selection, the picks get pushed back by a year and the Golden Knights would then transfer their first-round pick in 2023 and second-round pick in 2024, while the Sabres would send Vegas their third-round pick in 2024.
So let's get right into how this trade looks for each team.
Jack Eichel Trade Grades
Golden Knights' Trade Grade: A-
With Eichel, the Golden Knights are getting a legitimate star center, who could be capable of scoring 40 goals and 90 points per year, given the pace he set with the Sabres in 68 games during the 2019-20 season. Plus, that was with Buffalo – in Vegas, he'll have much more talent around him.
He's also still just 25 years old and is under contract until 2026. While some salary retention on his $10 million cap hit would've been great, it's still fair value when he's healthy.
The Golden Knights did part with forwards Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch, along with two high draft picks (though they will get a third-round pick in return). The first-round pick is also top-10 protected, so should disaster strike this season, they could retain a top pick. For what the Golden Knights are getting, they got a pretty excellent deal.
The potential red flag on the trade for Vegas would obviously be Eichel's health. With every injury and surgery, there's always a risk and we can't be completely sure that Eichel will return to form. He also hasn't played since March so even when he does return, it's highly likely he's going to take a bit of time to get back to the same level, if he does get there again. There's also the fact that the Golden Knights are now facing a very difficult cap situation with Eichel's contract added to the books.
That said, Vegas is in win-now mode and a main area of weakness has been that they've lacked a true top-tier center. Given the timeline on Eichel's recovery, he should be back before the end of the season and could be around to help with a playoff run. This was a risk worth taking for Vegas.
Sabres' Trade Grade: C
I've said this before but to an extent, you do have to give some credit to Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams for being willing to hold out in order to try to get a deal he's comfortable with.
That said, how much credit does he really deserve if he held out and still didn't get a package he should be comfortable with? We saw it with the Taylor Hall trade and now we've seen it with the Jack Eichel trade, where Adams held out but still couldn't get a fair deal. Especially in this case, it seems like the longer Adams waited, the fewer trading partners he had to negotiate with and as a result, the potential return almost surely went down from what it could have been over the summer.
In terms of the return, it's not great. The Sabres didn't get enough quality or quantity to come away from this deal looking good. In my opinion, they're missing at least one key piece from this being an adequate return– whether that be another key prospect, first-round pick or young roster player. We saw what the return for Erik Karlsson was and while that's not necessarily a direct comparable, the return for Eichel wasn't really what it should've been.
That said, the Sabres did get two quality players. Peyton Krebs was selected 17th overall in 2019 and at 20 years old, he's already getting into NHL games and does seem like a safe bet to become a top-six forward. Then Alex Tuch is still relatively young, he's signed long-term and he can be good for 20 goals and 40-50 points. Despite being a big player at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, he's a strong skater who plays with a lot of intensity and is also good defensively. The Sabres also picked up a first-round pick (though there's a pretty decent chance it ends up being a late one) and will get a slightly higher pick in 2023 as well.
The reality is that this was always going to be a very difficult trade for the Sabres to win. Between Eichel's cap hit and injury, there were very few potential trade partners right from the beginning. Plus with how public the stalemate became, Buffalo didn't have much leverage whatsoever.
So while the Sabres didn't get enough in return, they did add some good pieces and can finally move on from the situation.
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