To everyone's surprise, the Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 on Thursday night in their first game of the season. However, all is not well behind the scenes in this organization, as the Jack Eichel file is still pending.
Despite the fact that the season has started, the former Sabres captain is still not operated on and has not yet found a way out. If the price to acquire him has dropped, analyst and informer Elliotte Friedman has identified a team that would have, according to him, all the reasons in the world to get hold of Eichel: the Vegas Golden Knights.
As Friedman explains, there are several connections to be made between the Golden Knights and Jack Eichel. First of all, the Nevada organization has already proven, in the past, that it has no problem making a move to get a big fish. The acquisitions of Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone via the trade market, and Alex Pietrangelo as a free agent, are good examples.
Second, the Golden Knights are already a powerhouse on paper and on the ice in the National Hockey League. The only small weakness that could be attributed to them is their center line. Even if players like Chandler Stephenson and William Karlsson fill their role wonderfully on the top-6 of the team, it's still a bit thin if you compare it to the last teams to have won the Stanley Cup.
There is no doubt that general manager Kelly McCrimmon must be interested in acquiring Jack Eichel, who is one of the ten, or maybe even five best center players in the league when he manages to stay healthy. So it all depends on the price, but with the depth the Golden Knights have, and with the way the relationship between Eichel and the Sabres is going, there's no reason why such a trade can't happen.
