Always the Bridesmaid: Eichel Traded to Vegas

After months and months of speculation we finally have a resolution to the Jack Eichel saga, and it’s not a good one for the Calgary Flames. After being rumored to be one of the final two teams in the hunt for his services, the Flames ended up losing out in the wee hours of this morning to the Vegas Golden Knights.

It is not the first time that Vegas has outbid Calgary for a star player with the 2019 trade deadline acquisition of Mark Stone being the other time Calgary couldn’t match what Vegas offered to a rebuilding Eastern Conference team.

Vegas ended up sending a package of Peyton Krebs, Alex Tuch, a 2022 1st round pick (with conditions) and a 2023 2nd round pick (with conditions) to Buffalo for Eichel. It was lesser than the rumored package thrown out yesterday by Kevin Weekes which was later deemed as incorrect by multiple other insiders as well as Sabres GM Kevyn Adams.

Eichel will be out for at least 3-4 months as finally gets to go ahead with surgery on his neck, but should be back into the lineup before the end of the season. He is certainly one of the Top 10 players in the league when fully healthy, so this is a tremendous addition for the Knights who continue to add stars to their roster.

For the Flames, it’s another opportunity missed to add truly game-changing talent to the roster, especially at the centre position. Of course things have started well this year, but acquiring Eichel would have been a great long-term play for the team as well. These players are only available on the rarest of occasions and to get this close but miss is extremely frustrating for the team and the fans.

We will see if the Flames have a Plan B or hold back until at least the trade deadline.

by Michael MacGillivray