The Jack Eichel Saga Finally Comes To An End As Jacky Bright Lights Is Heading To Vegas
Sara Schmidle. Getty Images.Holy shit. It happened! It finally happened!
Jack Eichel has finally been freed from Buffalo. He's finally free from the greedy, slimy paws of the Pegula family. No offense to the Sabres or anything but holy shit, what a disaster it's been in Buffalo the past decade. Multiple 1st overall picks. Multiple coaches. Multiple GMs. They've cleaned house. And the only thing that has remained constant is that they've sucked. So after not being able to even sniff the playoffs his entire career, Jack Eichel is heading to play for a team that has been to at least the conference finals/stanley cup semifinals in 3 out of the 4 seasons they've been in existence.
The word was that Calgary was the other team trying to outbid Vegas for Eichel. And from what the rumored package was that Calgary would send to Buffalo for Eichel, I'd say this was pretty comparable. I think Tuch is an absolute stud who I wanted the Flyers to take in the 2014 Draft, and he provides a ton of grit and skill to a lineup the same way Matthew Tkachuk does. I don't really know anything about Peyton Krebs but I guess having a guy under contract making less than $1M for the next few seasons was big for Buffalo. Either way, what a kick in the dick that would have been for Eichel. Going from freezing cold Buffalo on a team that has no chance of winning the Cup to freezing cold Calgary on a better team that also has no chance of winning the Cup.
But getting to move to Vegas? Getting to play for that organization who have proven in less time than Eichel has even been in the league that they are perennial contenders? And, ya know, just getting to enjoy all that the city of Vegas has to offer? Holy shit, Jack Eichel is about to be reborn a new man with the Golden Knights and he's going off. Plus that means that we'll get Eichel and McDavid as division rivals now. What a move for the league. Obviously would have been great for the Battle of Alberta if Eichel landed in Calgary. But now the NHL can market the shit out of the Eichel vs McDavid rivalry in the US better.
Obviously the biggest thing we need to watch for now is what happens with Eichel's neck injury. I would imagine that Vegas gives him the greenlight to get the disc replacement surgery he prefers rather than the transfusion procedure. I don't know shit about the medical side of that but a quick Google search tells me that it takes an average of 3-5 weeks to recover from the disc replacement. So hopefully Eichel can get that procedure done before I even hit "submit" on this blog and we'll have Jack Eichel playing in the NHL again before Christmas? Again, not a doctor. You also have to hope that means he'll be available to play for USA at the Olympics this winter. I'm not sure how pumped Vegas would be to have him playing in Beijing. But unless Vegas is run by a bunch of corrupt commies, they'll make it happen.
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End of the day, you have to be pumped for Jack Eichel to finally have a legitimate shot to be a winner in this league. He couldn't have possibly done more with less in Buffalo. They tried, it didn't work, it was over and time to move on. I'm glad Buffalo finally caved and realized they'd only be screwing themselves the longer they hold out. Time for another rebuild in Buffalo, and time for Jack Eichel to finally get some Stanley Cup Playoff action on his resume.