B/R NHL Roundtable: Sabres or Golden Knights - Which Team Won the Jack Eichel Trade?

There's nothing that gets fans more riled up than trade analysis.

One team has to be crowned the winner, and one team has to take the "L." But in the case of the Jack Eichel trade between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Buffalo Sabres, the argument can be made that both teams have made out well.

Powered by Eichel as the team's long-elusive No. 1 center, Vegas sits atop the Western Conference and appears to have put last year's playoff-less disappointment in the rearview mirror.

Meanwhile in Buffalo, the Sabres are off to an unexpectedly strong start to the season and building a young, competitive core behind the assets received in the deal for Eichel, including forwards Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch.

In honor of the one-year trade anniversary, the B/R NHL staff got together for a special roundtable to determine winners and losers a year into the deal.

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Don't you love it when things work out? The trade that brought former Sabres franchise cornerstone Jack Eichel to Vegas and Syracuse, New York, native Alex Tuch to Buffalo is shaping up quite well all around, even if it was the result of a difficult situation.

It was clear 26-year-old Eichel wanted out of Buffalo after spending his entire career on a middling-to-very-bad team. Then, there was the controversy surrounding the neck surgery Eichel stood firm in wanting (which was his absolute right). I loved seeing a star player stand by a decision that had huge implications not only for his career but for his life after hockey. He returned to the ice in February last season after successful surgery and had a decent run with 14 goals and 25 points in 34 games, but it wasn't enough to propel the Golden Knights to the playoffs.

Now, it's all coming together for Eichel, with his return and an offseason of training under his belt. He's got five goals and 12 points in 11 games for an almost shockingly good Vegas team (9-2-0) as the one-year mark of the trade approaches. I'm loving his overtime drama this week, too.

But speaking of shockingly good, the Sabres are 7-3-0 and Tuch is contributing to the fun at a point-per-game rate. Everyone won this trade so far, but the edge has to go to the Sabres, who squeezed out some impressive value for a player the entire world knew wanted out of Buffalo.

- Sara Civian

This one's a question of timing.

If you're answering based on which team is more likely to have prolonged success in the 2022-23 regular season, it seems a no-brainer to side with Vegas.

Yes, I'm aware the Sabres are tied for third overall in the league as I write this, but even the most dedicated fans of the Blue, White and Gold (BTW, their throwback 1970s uniforms are simply timeless) would be surprised if that were the case by Christmas, let alone springtime.

Not because they're not good. But because they're probably not that good.

The Golden Knights are that good. Because Eichel has been a transformative piece.

And while a lot of preseason Pacific watchers ceded the division to either Calgary or Edmonton, it's apparent after 11 games that coach Bruce Cassidy's bunch is a genuine threat and one that's likely to be there throughout the 82-game grind and beyond.

But Buffalo's time will come. And it won't be long before it does.

Prolific forward Tage Thompson is just 25 years old. Emerging Norris Trophy candidate Rasmus Dahlin is just 22. And the two main pieces they got from Vegas in exchange for Eichel—Tuch and Krebs—are only 26 and 21, respectively.

So while it's probable that the early-season breakout in the Atlantic Division will eventually be gathered in by the likes of Toronto and Tampa Bay, there's zero reason to believe the Sabres won't at least be in the lower-tier playoff race come the trade deadline and beyond.

And come next season and the years immediately following, their stay will be much longer.

As noted in the intro, one team is usually a winner and another a loser in NHL trades, especially when it involves a talented player such as Jack Eichel. A year after this deal went down, however, both clubs appear to be doing fine with what they received.

Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs are fitting in well with the Sabres since arriving from Vegas.

The 6'4", 219-pound Tuch is a big power forward whose size and offensive skills make him a welcome addition to the Sabres offense. The only downside is his long injury history, which includes appearing in 50 games last season.

Chosen in the first round (17th overall) by the Golden Knights in the 2019 draft, the 21-year-old Krebs has the potential to become a top-six playmaking center. He's currently seeing fourth-line minutes but had a respectable 22 points in 48 games as a rookie last season.

The Sabres also got a 2022 first-round pick out of the deal, which they used to select Noah Östlund of Djurgårdens IF in Sweden. Elite Prospects describes the promising 18-year-old center as "a dynamic, shifty playmaker," going on to call him "the most prolific setup man in the entire Swedish junior circuit."

As for the Golden Knights, they had to wait until Eichel recovered from last November's disk replacement surgery. He returned in February and had 25 points in 34 games but was hampered by a wrist injury down the stretch.

Now healthy, Eichel is scoring at his usual point-per-game pace, leading the Golden Knights with 12 points in 11 games. He's provided them with the established first-line center they were lacking since their inaugural season in 2017-18. Signed through 2025-26, he's the offensive engine that fuels their Stanley Cup dreams.

- Lyle Richardson

I graded the blockbuster Jack Eichel trade in the immediate aftermath of the move. Since then, not too much has changed.

The prize of the deal for Buffalo was, and still is, Alex Tuch. The Syracuse native has embraced his return to Upstate New York. Last season, he produced without much help around him. This season, the 26-year-old right-winger has produced at a point-per-game clip. But it’s not just that. Tuch, who is 6’4”, has great hands and is a possession driver in the NHL. He plays a two-way game. He gets the puck up the ice, creates offense off the rush and pressures the puck on the forecheck. Tuch is not a superstar, but he’s a very good, first-line winger who is still young enough to be a big part of a potential Sabres contender down the road.

Buffalo acquired two draft picks in the deal. They lucked out, as the Golden Knights imploded last season. What most expected to be a late draft pick turned into 16th overall. With that pick, the Sabres selected forward Noah Östlund. While I believe the Swede was better suited for a pick in the 20-25 range, he’s nonetheless an exciting prospect. Östlund is crafty with the puck and can turn on a dime. He already has eight points through 14 games in the Swedish second tier (Allsvenskan). He has a good chance to become a quality offensive creator on a future Sabres second or third line. The Sabres also acquired a 2023 second-round pick from Vegas.

If there has been one disappointment, it’s been Peyton Krebs. The 2019 17th overall pick did produce 22 points in 48 games for Buffalo last season, but he’s generally looked overwhelmed at the NHL level in terms of shift-by-shift flow of play. That could be partly due to overexposure on a bad Sabres team. He was a phenomenal player in the WHL and also played well in the AHL the past two seasons. Now 21, he’s probably going to stick as an NHL player of some sort and he still has room to grow into a quality bottom-six forward.

As I wrote at the time, those are good pieces to get back in a trade, but they don’t compare to Jack Eichel. It took him some time to adjust last season among the mess happening in Vegas, but he still produced 14 goals and 11 assists in 34 games. Now presumably at full fitness, he has taken off; Eichel has five goals and eight assists through 12 games and looks like the dominant two-way center everyone expected. Now a 26-year-old with four years left on his contract, Eichel is the type of franchise player teams spend years desperately searching for.

The Sabres did as well as they could to save face in a no-win situation. For the first time in a while, they have pieces at both the NHL and minor league levels that lend credibility to soon ending a playoff-less streak that goes back to 2012. But make no mistake. The Golden Knights, now cruising at the top of the Western Conference with a 10-2-0 record with Eichel at the forefront, remain the clear winners one year later.

- Adam Herman