Grading the Sabres' and Golden Knights' Returns in the Jack Eichel Trade
Our long, international nightmare is finally over. The Jack Eichel trade saga, which many anticipated would conclude by the start of free agency in July—including the player's agents—instead bled a month into the regular season.
Mercifully, Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams traded him to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. No more trade proposals. No more exasperated insiders going on television to say nothing has changed. No more drama.
Vegas acquired Eichel and a 2023 third-round pick, and the Buffalo Sabres received forward Alex Tuch, prospects Peyton Krebs, a top-10-protected 2022 first-round pick and a 2023 second-round pick in return. Let's analyze the trade hauls and what they mean for both teams going forward.
Vegas Golden Knights
Jack Eichel
As big of a success story as the Vegas Golden Knights have been since coming into the NHL in 2017, at some point, the novelty of making the playoffs but coming up short will wear off. The team has been built impressively over the years, but the one Achilles heel has always been the lack of a true No. 1 center.
Jack Eichel changes that, to say the least. Eichel is not only a first-line center but one of the best in the game. The way he shoots in motion without barely moving a muscle fools goaltenders frequently. He has the dexterity to maneuver around defenders and create his own shooting opportunities. He's a high-end passer who can quarterback play from the left-faceoff circle, particularly on the power play.
There are simply few players in the NHL who have his combination of hands and vision in the offensive zone. His record of 178 points in 166 games over the past three seasons is impressive enough on its own, but it's incredible when considered in the context of how toothless the Buffalo Sabres were. His hands are elite.
He'll have all the help he needs in Las Vegas, with at least one of Mark Stone, one of the best all-around wingers in the NHL, and Max Pacioretty, one of the best goal-scoring wingers in the NHL, on his line. The expectation should be that Eichel is, at minimum, an 82-point center.
As we've explained previously, there's more to Eichel's game than just scoring. Particularly as part of a well-coached Vegas team, Eichel will do his part in the defensive end as well as in winning puck battles. For the first time in franchise history, Vegas has a true first-line center, and it's hard to think of many who are better suited for the role than Jack Eichel.
Vegas Grade: A+
A good rule of thumb in the NHL is that in a multi-player trade such as this one, quality wins over quantity. There are few prices that wouldn't be worth paying for a top-five NHL center who only just turned 25 and is under contract for five seasons. Vegas gave up some good assets, but assuming Eichel's neck holds up, it won't matter. This is a team built to win now.
One of the tricky aspects of figuring out an Eichel trade midseason was that his injury meant he wouldn't be able to have an on-ice impact for a while. The Golden Knights cleverly skirt this issue by moving Tuch, also injured, as well as future pieces. They keep their NHL roster intact short term and, with Eichel, should be a contender for years to come.
Buffalo Sabres
Alex Tuch
Tuch is a true modern NHL power forward. At 6'4" and 217 pounds, he's one of the biggest players in the league, but he has the skill needed to make an impact.
He skates well for his size, mostly maintaining a north-south trajectory, and is a major rush presence in the neural zone. He has the speed to beat defenders wide but also the size to hold them off if he pushes through the middle of the ice. Despite that rugged profile, he has soft hands and can stick-handle around defenders and carefully place wrist shots past goaltenders.
Tuch mostly scores his goals on rush chances or by shooting from the slot from low-to-high passing plays. Last season, he scored 18 goals in 55 games, and that 25-goal pace over 82 games seems like a fair expectation for him going forward.
Beyond that, though, Tuch is a major needle-mover in terms of the flow of the game. Because of his size and comfort carrying the puck, he's a zone-entry machine. If it's a dump-and-chase game, he gets his share of recoveries while also forcing an impressive number of turnovers using his reach and also leveraging his size.
Perhaps because he played on the West Coast and was behind a number of great wingers on the Vegas depth chart, it's possible that Tuch is one of the more underrated players in the league. He's a good point-producer who is phenomenal at driving play for his team. Per Evolving-Hockey, Tuch ranks 45th among all NHL forwards in Goals Above Replacement over the previous three seasons.
He's not going to be the face of the franchise, but Tuch is a first-line winger who, at 25 and under contract for five seasons, can be a long-term difference-maker for the Sabres.
Peyton Krebs
A young center with upside was the bare minimum expectation in a return package for Eichel, and Peyton Krebs comfortably fits that profile.
Drafted 17th overall in 2019, Krebs was a prospect some had pegged as a top-10 player in that draft class before he suffered an Achilles injury. The setback hasn't proved to be particularly problematic. He was dominant in the WHL, putting up 13 goals and 30 assists in 24 games last season. He also has a goal and nine assists in seven career AHL games and made his NHL debut last season.
Krebs is a versatile center who influences the game in a number of ways. He's primarily a playmaker in the offensive zone, as the numbers indicate. He's adept at finding passing lanes for the medium- and high-percentage types of shots, in particular the cross-slot feed. He's an extremely honest player who gets involved every shift, and despite his 6'0", 185-pound frame, he will battle physically with anyone. He's a worker bee in the defensive zone.
His lack of goal-scoring ability prevents him from having first-line upside, but Krebs is a first-rate prospect who isn't far off being NHL-ready. Skill aside, he has the makeup of a player Buffalo could use right now. He played valiantly in a leadership role for some brutal WHL teams and had to overcome a serious injury at a young age. Krebs has proved his resiliency and ability to remain upbeat during dire circumstances.
It's as delicate of a situation as ever in Buffalo, but Krebs will go in with the right attitude. He'll be a middle-six center in Buffalo, with the scale tipping more toward the second line than third.
2022 1st-Round Pick
Particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic limiting much of the 2020-21 hockey season, it's too early to know how good the 2022 NHL draft class will be. The early indication is that it's a reasonably good crop of players with difference-makers leaking outside of the top 10.
It's also too soon to know where this pick will land on the draft board. In theory, Vegas should be a contender, and this pick should be in the mid-20s at best. However, they have started the season with a 5-5-0 record, are managing injuries and won't have Eichel available anytime soon. Is it possible things could go haywire in Vegas?
The draft pick is top-10-protected, meaning Vegas will keep it and instead trade Buffalo their 2023 first-round pick if their season busts and they are on the clock any sooner than 11th overall. A realistic best-case scenario for Buffalo might be Vegas regaining some form but still struggling overall, with the pick landing somewhere in the late teens.
Grade: C+
There are so many layers to this deal that make grading it practically impossible. There's virtually no scenario in which trading a 25-year-old franchise center under a long-term contract is a good idea, but Buffalo's hand was forced. Even more so by a severe neck injury that made getting full value for him more difficult. It's also difficult to see how this return is substantially better than anything they would have received in the summer during a more competitive trade market. Was this long wait really worth it?
But in the circumstances—of their own doing, of course—Buffalo probably got about as good of a return as could have been anticipated. The Sabres got a solid young center and some future lottery tickets in the draft picks, though probably one less than they had hoped for.
The moral victory for Buffalo is the acquisition of Tuch. There were a number of potential versions of an Eichel trade where the NHLer acquired was someone with an expiring contract (Ryan Strome from the New York Rangers, Rickard Rakell from the Anaheim Ducks) who would be most likely swapped for more picks and prospects at the trade deadline.
To get a player of Tuch's caliber under contract for five years gives them a legitimate building block for the present and future. He's a serious player, and Adams can present him to the Buffalo faithful as not yet another teenager the team hopes figures it out five years from now, but as a meaningful piece of the puzzle who is a sure bet to contribute as soon as he returns to the ice.
Giving Buffalo a good grade here would seem inappropriate. Devoid of context, they lose this trade massively on value. Within context, it's possibly the lowest point in franchise history, one that encapsulates a decade of abject failure. Once one moves past all of that, though, the Sabres did get some worthwhile pieces that can hopefully become part of a more constructive rebuild.
