Buffalo Sabres: Revisiting initial reactions from the Jack Eichel trade

It has been over nine months since the Buffalo Sabres traded former star player Jack Eichel to the Vegas Golden Knights and initial grades have shifted. 

As of August 2022, the Buffalo Sabres are enjoying a commanding lead over the Vegas Golden Knights in the Jack Eichel trade. But when you go back to November 4th, 2022, and the days that followed, you will see that pundits around the NHL carried a different opinion.

Initially, just about everyone did what they grew used to doing over the last decade: Praising the Knights and castigating the Sabres. Here is what Sabre Noise’s sister site, Puck Prose, stated after the trade occurred:

“But who “won” the trade? If you ask me, it was Vegas. Anyone who gets Jack Eichel in a trade is the winner in my opinion, especially because, as I mentioned, Buffalo can’t use Alex Tuch right away as he’s on LTIR. When Jack Eichel is healed and ready to play, he’ll be a much better player than Tuch and make the Vegas Golden Knights a Stanley Cup contending team.” – Molly Kate Tracy, via Puck Prose.

When the Jack Eichel trade first occurred, several pundits believed the Buffalo Sabres got the worse end of the deal.

Fast-forward to August 2022, and Eichel is now leading a flailing Vegas Golden Knights team that, on paper, appears to be less stable than the Sabres. Vegas missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, they fired their coach, and found themselves in cap trouble.

Meanwhile, Tuch became a viable member of the Sabres when he was healthy enough to debut for the organization. And while the winger wasn’t a great goal scorer, he made his mark in assists and by playing a two-way game. Tuch also narrowly beat out Eichel in points per game last season, at 0.76 to 0.74, respectively.

Further, Peyton Krebs also arrived in the trade and played far better than anyone initially would have given him credit for. Krebs found a permanent spot on the Sabres, and he has since made cameo appearances in the AHL, one of which occurred following the conclusion of the NHL’s regular season.

But Puck Prose wasn’t the only outlet critical of the Sabres returns. Justin Emerson of the Las Vegas Sun also gave the Golden Knights a “massive win” here. Emerson believed the Sabres would demand more compensation from the Knights.

Instead, Emerson stated the Knights got a top five center, or top fifteen hockey player, for what he called a, “paltry price.” It just so happens that “paltry price” got the most recent laugh on March 10th, 2022. So in case you missed it, check out the video below.

Anything can happen, but the Buffalo Sabres have the upper hand both as a franchise and as a result of this trade.

The Jack Eichel trade directly contributed to the Sabres status as one of the NHL’s faster rising franchises. No, odds are, they won’t make the playoffs in 2022-23, though wild card contention is certainly a realistic expectation.

But both Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs have become solid building blocks for the franchise, and they have given the Sabres far more in return than Eichel had given the Golden Knights. The Knights may have won the trade on paper back on November 4th, but as I have stated time and again, the Buffalo Sabres have dominated the Knights in this trade.

And now that Vegas has been in so much cap trouble they gave Max Pacioretty and Dylan Coghlan away for virtually nothing, general manager Kevyn Adams and company made a good deal. So far, anyway…

Article Source: Why Vegas Golden Knights won the Jack Eichel trade by Molly Kate Tracy

Video Source: Who won the Jack Eichel trade by CBC Sports