OH SH*T LIKE HOLY, Buffalo done did got fleeced they did

The biggest loser in this trade is not Buffalo or Vegas. The biggest losers are Tuck and Krebs, for sure. The first is a very good underrated player which always gives 100% when he's on the ice. The other have a great upside to become an elite player. Both don't deserve to play for a franchise like Buffalo. Poor guys.

Tuch over the last 3yrs averaged just over 16 minutes a night. He should easily see 18-19 minutes a night in Buffalo. Buffalo (as much as I like to make fun of them) have played well to start the year. Granato is a very good coach and they have some good young talent in the system. Not to mention, Tuch is from Syracuse which is 2hrs east of Buffalo.

I'm not sure if I'm alone on this but I dont think Chicago paid more for Jones, let alone "so much more". Boqvist and Krebs are both high end prospects and could cancel out. Both teams gave up a 2nd along with a 2022 first.

That leaves you with Alex Tuch vs a 2021 first round pick swap going from 32nd to 12th. I'd say Tuch is worth a lot more than whatever it would cost to move up those 20 places, especially considering the 2021 draft was such a crapshoot. I didnt even mention the fact that Vegas also had to give up an additional 3rd round pick when Chicago only gave up a 6th.

Chicago 100% paid less for Jones and they also have him under team control for 4 more years than Vegas has with Eichel.

Genuinely curious to know why you think Jones was more expensive?

At this point, what's the point of me guessing who won the trade ... I always end up being wrong lol.

This trade will go down as one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history. A superstar #1 C in exchange for a decent middle six Forward, a B prospect and a late 1st rounder.

A top 6 winger who's been a 20/45 guy (that's his average per 82 gp) who is good but not special two way signed through prime and a fair deal is good but frankly not special. Plus he's injured too.

2 years? It's been like 8 months

They pay someone a second or third to take dadonov in the summer. Done.

They don't have any bad contracts beside him. Everyone else has value. If they choose to trade anyone else they'll get value.

Still can't get over calling this happening today.

THANK GOD ITS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buffalo should got more out of that trade. More than Krebs and Tuch calibre. Oh well.

Vegas has only 2 players that they have ever drafted in the first round that haven't been traded. Expect Brendan Brisson and Zach Dean to get traded soon.

As for the trade itself, I voted fair deal. Eichel was hurt, Buffalo did a terrible job managing him with his injury, and I expect to see him do very well in Vegas. Tuch is a good player who I'd imagine being a top 6 forward for a team like Buffalo. Krebs is a good prospect, but didn't get the minutes in Vegas for him to thrive. A top 10 protected 1st is a fair addition, then a 2nd for a 3rd downgrade is fair as well.

Overall, This isn't a terrible trade for both sides. Vegas gets a true 1st line center, while Buffalo gets a good return and rips the Band-aid off.

But, we all win for not having to see anymore Eichel trade ACGMs.

I agree being able to finally get past Eichel played a part in this trade.

I think it's fair right now.

But in 5-10 years looking back on this deal, I am quite sure that one of 2 things will happen

Option a) Eichel recovers beautifily and is the missing piece on the golden knights, as they finally secure that cup.

Option b) Eichel either does not recover or completely ruins the team chemistry is becomes negative value, while Krebs and Tuch help turn Buffalo back into a playoff team.

As a die-hard Sabres fan, I'm definitely not a huge fan of this trade. It's really unfortunate that Eichel got injured in the way he did. I truly hope he comes back and is able to play a long career. He'll probably win the Conn Smythe this year, ROR-style. You never want to give that up. But, that was the Sabres downfall in the 1st place, giving up ROR.

All that being said, depending how the 2022 draft pick turns out and how Krebs turned out, the Sabres may have just traded 1 player for an entire top-6 line...3 years from now, lol.

Tuch-Krebs-2022 1st pick. At a cost of roughly $8mm or something like that.

Sabres fans remain patient, again...still.

We're still waiting on the ROR trade that eventually has become ROR <> T.Thompson and R. Johnson.

Perpetual rebuild / farm team.

it's been over a year since he last played, but pointlessly. He played pointlessly when getting injured again last year and he's been out for the first part of this season and he hasn't had surgery yet so it could be another few months.

What does "pointlessly" mean? Stop backtracking. He last played March 7th, 2021.

Last season didn't even start a year ago... How could he have not played for a year.

His last game was March 7th. That was 3 days less than 8 months ago. So nothing near 2 years...

Are Buffalo fans ok? This seems like a big underpay relative to the asking price last June. I mean the equivalent from the Wild would be

Greenway, Boldy, a protected 1st and a second.

That looks like nothing for Eichel to me relative to where we were talking this summer

I think its a fair deal. Adams got what was available on the market. Obviously, yes I was hoping for a little more but it's in the ballpark. In the moment yes, LVK won this trade. We won't know the full answer until we see were Tuch develops with more ice time. I love how he's the NY boy, grew up a Sabres fan a truly seems happy to be a Sabre. Krebs potential is unknown but looks good, and of course the picks well honestly that's a crap shoot. In my mind I see 3 top six forwards eventually for one exceptional player. And if that's the case I'm Ok with that. Jack didn't want to play here, the team plays better without him and from what you can gather from sources of unknown reliability, which I've heard for years, he's a cancer in the room. He's not a leader. Buffalo doesn't need a savior they want to build a culture of hard work, family, pride and teamwork something Eichel couldn't deliver. Personally, I wish him the best but I'm glad he's moved on and excited for what the organization got in return even though it's not immediately measurable.

From a hockey perspective this looks like a great deal for Vegas, even taking Eichel’s health risk into consideration. They only gave up one proven NHL player, who isn’t even a top-6 forward for them unless somebody’s hurt, and Krebs isn’t someone they were counting on for the future, so even if they don’t get a single game out of Eichel their core would still be intact. That seems like a good gamble to take for a team that’s in win-now mode. However, cap space is a valuable commodity. I wonder what they’re going to have to give up to get under the cap if Eichel, Stone and Paccioretty all come back before the playoffs. Whatever they have to do to make that happen will have to be considered part of the cost to acquire Eichel, but the nice thing is they’ll only have to incur that cost if Eichel is healthy. If he doesn’t come back they can leave him on LTIR and they won’t need to make another move to clear cap space, so again, no harm done – their core stays intact. So while this is a bit of a gamble for Vegas, it’s not as big a gamble as it seems. The upside is high, and there’s not much downside if the surgery isn’t successful and Eichel is not able to play. The only thing that could hurt them would be if Eichel comes back and they ship a couple of guys out to clear cap space for him, but he turns out to be only a shadow of his former self.

From Buffalo’s perspective, there’s no way they were going to get back assets equivalent in value to a healthy Jack Eichel. They had to look at it as if they were trading a pending UFA and had to take whatever they could get for him. (I know he’s not a pending UFA; I’m just saying that’s the kind of position they were in.) That being said, I like Alex Tuch but it seems to me that they should have been able to get more for Eichel. Krebs still has to be considered a prospect – I don’t think you can call him a can’t-miss prospect at this point – and the first-round draft pick will most likely be no better than the late 20s. The 3rd round to 2nd round upgrade is of negligible value based on where these teams finished last season, though by deferring it to 2023 I guess there’s a better chance it’ll be worth something, but that means the Sabres will have to wait an extra year to benefit from it. Maybe I’m under-valuing Krebs because he only has one point in 13 NHL games so far, but it seems to me that what they got was three small parts, none of which are going to turn out to be anything close to the player Jack Eichel was. That sounds a bit like the Ryan O’Reilly deal. I think I’d have wanted to try to get something with more potential upside.

So - Tuch actually comes close to Eichel by a lot of the metrics I look at. I'm usually a big Eichel fan on here, but I actually think Buffalo got more out of this trade. Even if you have Eichel clearly above Tuch, you have to factor in the 5 million left over to spend on another player. I'm typically lower on the upside of a late first, second, and a 20 year old prospect with no measurable NHL impact so far, but I actually don't think Buffalo needs to get too much out of that to walk away as a winner. The issue I guess would be if Tuch was later traded after one or two years of no success, and as he is more underrated, the return might be underwhelming.

You make some good points, but also fail to recognize that having Jones for more years is bad, actually

I agree with you but I dont think Chicago or Vegas would. No doubt in my mind Vegas would've loved to have Eichel locked up longer than what's left on his contract and I'm sure that if Chicago wanted Jones on some sort of bridge contract then they wouldve pushed for that. Years under team control seem to be something they prioritized despite the fact that we can both see how much Jones has been struggling even before the trade and contract.