Did Vegas bust by trading for Eichel?

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Jay Tup
March 16, 2022 (1:29 PM)

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The Vegas Golden Knights acquired Jack Eichel in November from the Buffalo Sabres, many people thought this would help Vegas to win the Pacific Division and challenge the Avalanche for the Western Conference. Once Eichel finally healed from his neck surgery, the Knights should have had a dangerous first line of Max Pacioretty, Jack Eichel and Mark Stone.

But, none of the three all-star forwards have been healthy at the same time.

Jack Eichel returned on February 16th and has notched 9 points in 14 games. Patches has only played 29 games this season and has been on and off the injured list, while Mark Stone has been hurt since February 8th.

Since then, the Vegas Golden Knights have gone 4-10-1 and have been outscored by 20 goals (55-35). They now barely hold onto the final Wildcard spot. Not many people saw this coming at the beginning of the season.

The Vegas Golden Knights currently have only $1,200,000 in cap space. While they have Mark Stone with a $9,500,000 million cap hit and Alec Martinez, one of their top defensemen, with a $5,250,000 million cap hit, on Long Term Injured Reserve. That means to activate one of these players, Vegas would need to move someone to LTIR or trade away a roster player for essentially nothing to make the cap space work.

The Knights won't be able to add any support at the trade deadline and will have to keep one of their big 3 forwards on LTIR until the playoffs if they want to keep this roster intact for the season.

If Stone remains on LTIR for the remainder of the season, the dream first line will have zero experience playing together.

The Knights also risk missing the playoffs completely. The Dallas Stars are 1 point behind the Golden Knights with 4 games in hand. The Winnipeg Jets, who just beat Vegas on Tuesday night, are 2 points back with 1 game in hand.

And if the playoffs started today? The Knights draw the unfortunate matchup against the Avalanche.

And things don't get easier, because if they miss the playoffs...they don't have their own 1st round pick unless they finish in the bottom 10. So while Vegas gambled, it seems like they may have busted on Jack Eichel.

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