How will the Jack Eichel trade affect the Edmonton Oilers?
By Phil Gretzky
In case you missed it, the Jack Eichel saga in Buffalo is over as of a couple of weeks ago. He was traded to Vegas, one of the Edmonton Oilers divisional rivals, in exchange for a player (Alex Tuch, injured right now), Peyton Krebs (prospect), and various conditional draft picks changing hands both ways.
When it comes to this blog, the million dollar question is this – how will the trade affect us?
The answer is complicated.
In the short term, it will have no effect on the Oilers. After all, Jack Eichel is due to be out 3-4 months on LTIR. How they’re going to afford Eichel when he gets back is another story. Yes they have Pacioretty on LTIR as well as Jake Bischoff, but that’s still only $7.7 million, $2.3 million short of Eichel’s cap hit. For this season they’re fine, as Eichel’s cap hit will be in their favour for most of the season, but beyond this season is another question entirely.
Eichel hadn’t been happy in Buffalo for a long time, seeing as how they made the playoffs exactly zero times while he was a Sabre. They never really surrounded him with a good enough supporting cast while he was there (one thing the Oilers have succeeded in doing with Connor McDavid). The surgery conflict was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.
If he is the same player as pre-surgery, then look out. Eichel will come back and set the league on fire in the latter quarter of the season. That being said, I don’t think Eichel moves the needle much for the Knights this season.
After all, even as good as he is, Eichel still needs to get used to playing in the playoffs. The Knights might not be in the playoffs right now, but IMO there’s still no doubt at all they’ll be there by the end of the season (they have too much depth not to be, despite the injuries they have right now). Standings don’t count until the end of the season, remember?
Eichel will be entering his first playoffs with the Knights this season and if history is any indication he’ll have some success but it will be limited. He’ll need to adjust to the quicker pace and more physical game of the playoffs, so he won’t be much of a threat to the Oilers this season.
But…..
After this season this makes Vegas a much more dangerous team in the playoffs two seasons from now, when Eichel will have some playoff experience under his belt. After all, the only thing that has prevented Vegas from going over the top is a lack of top end talent.
For the defence corps, they remedied that prior to this season when they signed Alex Pietrangelo as a free agent. With the trade for Eichel, if all the dominoes fall then they’ve got the top end talent they’ve needed at first line center since their start as a franchise. They haven’t had the chance to draft these types of players due to their early existence success, which while it has endeared itself to the city it’s been a bit of a double edged sword in terms of it’s long term viability going forward.
Goal has been set for awhile with Robin Lehner, so that’s not an issue. They had to let Fleury go for cap reasons.
If the Oilers do meet this team in the playoffs two seasons from now, they’ll be a formidable opponent and whether the Oilers win the series or not, it’ll go down to the wire. The Oilers hopefully go on a playoff run this season so the Goliath that is awaiting them in the future in Vegas won’t seem so big when the face them in the playoffs (whenever that is).