Sabres turn down offer for Tkachuk, trade Eichel to Vegas instead

Early this morning the Buffalo Sabres finally managed to pull the trigger on a long-awaited Jack Eichel trade, shipping their former captain to the Vegas Golden Knights along with a 3rd round pick in exchange for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, a 1st round pick and a 2nd round pick.

While the teams have yet to confirm the deal, multiple insiders have reported and confirmed it.

Check it out:

This trade officially brings an end to months and months of trade speculation and it finally, mercifully enables Eichel to get surgery on his neck and begin the rehab process. It's expected that he'll be out of Vegas' lineup for at least four months while he recovers from disc replacement surgery in his neck. And if you're sitting there wondering how Vegas is making this happen when they have about a nickel in cap space well... so am I...

It's expected that the Golden Knights will put Eichel on long-term injury reserve, but when he's ready to return to action in about March they'll need to do some serious shuffling in order to accommodate his $10 million annual salary. It's worth noting that Tuch and his $4.75 million annual salary is heading out the door in this trade, but the Golden Knights will need to clear up over $5 million in cap space. Look for Evgeni Dadonov and his $5 million annual salary to get shopped on the trade market.

As for the Sabres... well... they can finally move on. Did they "win" this trade? We won't know for years frankly, but at first blush they did well to acquire several future assets in Krebs and the draft picks, but those are mostly unknown quantities right now. Tuch though is a bonafide NHLer who has shown the ability to put points on the board and use his size and physicality well. He's a Syracuse, New York native who grew up just about 2 hours from Buffalo so this is a homecoming of sorts for the big winger. While he hasn't suited up this season yet due to injury, he put up an impressive 18 goals and 33 points in 55 games for the Golden Knights last season.