Vegas’ Stephenson, Coghlan Land In COVID Protocol
As the Vegas Golden Knights take the ice in Tampa tonight to square off with the Lightning, the team will be without a pair of players. Vegas has announced that forward Chandler Stephenson and defenseman Dylan Coghlan have been placed in the NHL’s COVID Protocol. The team has only indicated that Stephenson and Coghlan would miss Saturday’s game, but like any COVID situation the absences could last longer.
An immediate impact will be felt on the Knights’ top line, where Stephenson will be replaced by Nolan Patrick for the time being. Though Patrick was once a top prospect, the No. 2 overall pick in 2017, while Stephenson was a role player for much of his early career, this is a significant drop-off for Vegas. Stephenson currently leads the team in scoring with 38 points and is tied for second with a dozen goals. He leads all forwards in ice time, plays on the top power play and penalty kill units, and is the go-to faceoff man. Patrick, on the other hand, is still trying to find his footing in Vegas (and the NHL overall). He has played in just 14 games and served in a limited role. There is hope though, should Stephenson miss extended time; Patrick’s underlying possession numbers are very strong – the best in Vegas – and he has managed five points and a team-best face-off mark despite his minor role. With more ice time and supporting talent, this could be the jolt that Patrick needs to get back on track.
As for the versatile Coghlan, Vegas will be missing a key cog in the wheel. Coghlan has played in 35 games and has recorded 11 points as well as some impressive possession numbers. The Golden Knights will miss their plug-and-play specialist, who can make a difference anywhere in the lineup and anywhere on the ice.
Though Vegas technically sits second in the Pacific Division, they in fact hold the best record in the division with a .602 points percentage. That is not to say that the Knights are comfortable though. Just .038 percentage points separate the top five teams in the Pacific, with the Flames, Ducks, Kings, and Oilers right behind the Knights. If the playoffs started today, only four teams would come out of the Pacific, so Vegas is that close to being outside the postseason picture entirely. The hope is that Stephenson and Coghlan, as well as Alec Martinez and Jack Eichel, can return sooner rather than later. Following match-ups with Tampa and the Buffalo Sabres, the Knights have a long break. However, that is followed by a critical stretch of games against Edmonton, Calgary, Colorado, and Los Angeles. It’s crunch time for Vegas.
Snapshots: Eichel, Jones, Stalock
Jack Eichel was on the ice at practice today for the Vegas Golden Knights, not even two months since undergoing artificial disk replacement surgery. At the time, Eichel was given a three-month recovery timeline and when speaking with the media today, he said he feels like everything is going well.
The recovery to be completely honest was pretty smooth. I was pretty fortunate to be in the hands of Dr. Mark Lindsay and I just let him do what he does best. We had a good plan all along and–knock-on-wood–there weren’t any setbacks. It felt like the first few weeks I was getting used to how I felt, the next few weeks it was like ‘okay I’m starting to feel better.’ The last few weeks I feel really good now, I basically feel back to normal.
With Max Pacioretty out, the Golden Knights have options for how to play the cap when Eichel is ready to return. It could still precipitate a trade of some sort, but suddenly a first-place Vegas squad appears to be close to adding a top-line center to the mix. Eichel hasn’t played since March 7, 2021, but scored 355 points in his first 375 games in the league.
- When Seth Jones was not available to the media following morning skate, a few eyebrows were raised given the situation. The star defenseman was set to play in Columbus tonight for the first time since the offseason trade, but that now is in jeopardy. Though the team hasn’t officially announced his placement in the COVID protocol yet, he is no longer listed on the Blackhawks official roster and Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that Jones tested positive for coronavirus. The team is likely waiting for the result to be confirmed, but it looks like Jones may not get to face his old mates after all. (UPDATE: The Blackhawks have officially announced Jones’ placement in the protocol, along with another staff member. He will not play tonight.)
- Alex Stalock, who has missed the entire season so far with a heart condition, is attempting a comeback according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. He will report to the Bakersfield Condors where he’ll take a physical, but he would need to clear waivers in order to be officially assigned to the minor league club (though a conditioning stint may be possible in this case). The Edmonton Oilers netminder was claimed off waivers last March but still hasn’t actually played for the club. In his career, he has a .909 save percentage in 151 appearances.
West Notes: Eichel, Davidson, Quick
Golden Knights center Jack Eichel is progressing well in his recovery from artificial disk replacement surgery and has started skating. Accordingly, the clock is starting to tick on how Vegas will be able to get cap compliant to activate him off LTIR. Speaking with David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, GM Kelly McCrimmon wasn’t giving away any hints towards how he plans to get there:
We’ve been compliant every game we’ve ever played, and we’ll continue to be as we move forward. What exactly that looks like, how exactly we get there, those are all things that we work at internally, and we’ll keep it that way.
McCrimmon also cautioned that Eichel will be further away from returning than it may seem at first glance as resuming on-ice activities is one thing but being able to do while taking full contact is another one altogether. Even so, it sure seems like the Golden Knights will get Eichel back well before the end of the season which means their cap crunch is starting to get closer.
More from the Western Conference:
- Kyle Davidson has only been the interim GM of the Blackhawks for two months but Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times feels that the 33-year-old has shown enough to take the job on a full-time basis. Davidson has already made one significant change with the dismissal of Jeremy Colliton behind the bench plus a handful of smaller moves but he has had his hands in other parts of this team having been with Chicago since 2011. Even with that longer-term connection, Pope believes that Davidson should be able to evaluate things without any pre-existing biases which would be critical if he retains the role but that the team would be wise to bring in a president of hockey operations to oversee things and provide some experience in the front office.
- This was supposed to be the season where Cal Petersen took over as the starter for the Kings. However, as Andrew Knoll of the LA Daily News highlights, that hasn’t exactly happened with Jonathan Quick playing like he did a decade ago. While that transition is still expected to happen at some point – Quick turns 36 next month and only has one year left on his contract after this one – Petersen will have to wait a little longer to become their undisputed starter.
Snapshots: Eichel, Ducks, Chychrun, Everberg
Though complete or accurate information is not always available, one of the best things about major trades can be comparing the actual exchange to the alleged offers made by those teams who could not complete the deal. The Jack Eichel trade was one of the more prolonged negotiations in recent memory resulting in a sizeable return for the Buffalo Sabres: Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, a first-round pick, and a second-round pick. While it is safe to assume that nearly every team in the NHL kicked the tires on Eichel at some point in time, the combination of the Sabres’ asking price, Eichel’s contract, and the conversation surrounding his neck injury and preferred treatment thinned the list of suitors considerably toward the end of the saga. However, one of the other teams believed to be in the mix right until the end were the Anaheim Ducks. So why didn’t they best the Vegas Golden Knights’ offer?
On Sportsnet’s “32 Thoughts” podcast, Elliotte Friedman spoke about what he heard was the Sabres’ asking price from the Ducks, and it explains why Anaheim didn’t pull the trigger. Friedman reports that Buffalo requested Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and two first-rounders to part with Eichel. Go back three years and that’s equivalent to asking for four first-round picks, including two top-ten picks. Zegras and Drysdale are already so much more than that, too. The super-skilled center, 20, and slick defenseman, 19, are already key pieces of a resurgent Ducks team, who hope to build around the duo and keep them in Southern California for years to come. Even for a player of Eichel’s caliber, giving up Zegras – who could end up being a younger version of Eichel – and Drysdale, not to mention two more first-round picks, is just too much and not nearly equal to what Buffalo eventually got from Vegas. Friedman also adds that the Ducks’ doctors were never quite comfortable with Eichel’s requested disc replacement surgery, which was of course a lynchpin in any potential trade. It just wasn’t a match for the star center and Anaheim, though they could both be better off for it.
- Jakob Chychrun‘s trade availability still exists, for whatever reason, and Friedman reports that a number of teams are interested in the talented, young Coyotes defenseman, as they should be. He notes that teams are starting to get serious as Arizona has not backed off of their willingness to move the 2016 first-round pick. However, one team that has fallen out of the running are the Edmonton Oilers, even though Friedman and colleague Jeff Marek both feel that he would be a great fit. Defense is a long-term need for the Oilers, but Friedman went so far as to say that Chychrun definitively will not end up in Edmonton. It is unclear if the asking price or cap complications forced the team’s hand or if they merely soured on him amidst a down year. Other teams continue to circle as the ‘Yotes dismal season wears on and Chychrun, forced into the No. 1 role on a blue line that was completely dismantled in the off-season, unsurprisingly struggles. Yet, the 23-year-old is just one season removed from recording 41 points in 56 games and is averaging almost 25 minutes per night, which are impressive enough to overcome his ugly -29 mark so far this year.
- Dennis Everberg burned bright but fast in the NHL. The Swedish forward was just an undrafted kid when he joined the Colorado Avalanche in 2014-15, quickly earned a roster spot, and recorded 12 points in 55 games as an unheralded rookie. Yet, as loudly as he made his entrance, Everberg quietly made his exit. He was held scoreless in 15 games with the Avs in his sophomore campaign and, though he was stellar in the AHL, opted to return overseas following the season. Everberg made a short-lived comeback attempt in 2018-19 with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, but left the team after just 11 games. Now back in Sweden, the 29-year-old Everberg is one of the more consistent scorers in the SHL. With back-to-back 32-point seasons, Everberg is playing at the same pace this year with 19 points in 26 games. The two-way forward also carries a +36 rating in his SHL career. Rather than try again in North America or elsewhere in Europe, Everberg has realized that he has a good thing going with the league leaders, Rogle BK. The team has announced a five-year extension for Everberg, keeping him under contract through the 2026-27 season and into his mid thirties. This likely means that the capable forward will play out his days at home in Sweden.
Jack Eichel Resumes Skating
If you doubted Jack Eichel‘s suggested three-month recovery timeline after his artificial disk replacement surgery, perhaps you should think again. The Vegas Golden Knights center was seen back on the ice today in North Carolina (at what appears to be the Extreme Ice Center just outside of Charlotte) by one of the scouts for Brandon Wong Hockey, just three weeks after going under the knife.
Obviously there is still a long way to go for the 25-year-old center, but seeing him back skating has to be encouraging for a Golden Knights squad that took a huge chance and acquired Eichel last month. The team sent Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and a package of draft picks to the Buffalo Sabres while taking on Eichel’s entire contract, one which pays him $10MM every season through 2025-26.
The last time Eichel played an injury-free season, he racked up 36 goals and 78 points. Unfortunately, that was in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season, which seems like a decade ago after the saga that has transpired since. His 2020-21 campaign ended after 21 games and a neck injury, leading to months and months of fighting with the Sabres over his preferred treatment. Even before that he had expressed a desire to potentially go elsewhere if the team was going to go through another rebuild, and he eventually got his wish on both, sent to the Golden Knights who allowed him to get the neck procedure his representatives had been pushing for.
Now, Vegas faces a massive cap crunch if Eichel is to return in the regular season, something that is still clearly up in the air despite his appearance on the ice. There is at least the possibility that he could return only for the playoffs where there is no salary cap–similar to what the Tampa Bay Lightning did with Nikita Kucherov last season–but if the three-month timeline is correct, he’ll be ready far sooner than that.
Trade Rumors: Kessel, Hertl, Girard
After months and months of speculation, the constant trade talk surrounding Jack Eichel is finally over after the star Buffalo Sabres center was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights earlier this month. So where does the trade market go from here? Though still early in the season, there is thought to be some trade chatter ongoing between teams who expected different results early on this year, whether that is a surprise contender looking to load up, a struggling preseason favorite in need of a shake-up, or a bottom-dweller looking to move talent as soon as possible to maximize the return. The Hockey News’ Ryan Kennedy and Matt Larkin recently broke down the trade market and believe the top available name could be the product of that latter scenario. The pair feel that Phil Kessel is set to step into Eichel’s shoes, not only as a major name on the block but also as a player that is guaranteed to be traded. The 1-13-1 Arizona Coyotes have all the makings of a last-place team and Kessel is an aging veteran and respected champion on an expiring deal; the fit is poor and should be resolved soon rather than waiting until the deadline whilst Kessel plays meaningless games and risks injury for the ‘Yotes. The scoring winger should be attractive to any number of teams and Arizona could take the first impressive futures package offered to them to further their rebuild.
- Though mentioned by Kennedy and Larkin as a top trade chip, piling on top of plenty of recent speculation, Tomas Hertl may not be as guaranteed to move as people have been led to believe. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz writes in a recent mailbag that Hertl seems be enjoying this season more than last. A winning record so far certainly helps, but Hertl is also appreciative of his growing role as a team leader amidst a culture turnaround in San Jose. Kurz believes that Hertl has a 50/50 chance of signing an extension with the Sharks, which doesn’t even speak to his likelihood of being traded. If the team continues to win and stays in the playoff picture all season and the possibility of a renewed deal between the two sides remains, Hertl may not move after all. There are some cap management factors working against a deal for both team and player, with the Sharks’ restrictions limiting Hertl’s contract potential and making such a move more risky for San Jose, but if the team is playing well and Hertl is happy, producing, and leading the young locker room, it will be difficult for the Sharks to opt for a trade instead of working toward an extension.
- Meanwhile, Kennedy and Larkin do not mention Colorado Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard as top trade bait, but his name has been a fixture on the rumor mill in recent days. According to Mike Chambers of The Denver Post, the Avs made a late run at Eichel and floated Girard as the centerpiece of the deal. Now, even with Eichel off the market, Chambers believes that GM Joe Sakic is still willing to part ways with Girard. Though young and offensively gifted, Girard has some glaring defensive weaknesses that Colorado would rather not deal with given his $5MM cap hit. Girard is still an elite defenseman, but the well-balanced Avs are looking to use that cap space in a different way, if at all possible, by landing another elite forward. With phenom Cale Makar locked up long-term, a number of reliable veterans in support, and other promising young defenders like Bowen Byram and Justin Barron, the team could survive the loss of Girard if it means adding another difference-maker to their top-heavy forward corps. If the Avalanche continue to fall short of expectations this season, it will only serve to fuel a potential shake-up with Girard as the most likely trade victim.
Jack Eichel Undergoes Surgery
After months and months of waiting, Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel has finally undergone surgery. The artificial disk replacement procedure was completed today by Dr. Chad Prusmack, according to Jeff Marek of Sportsnet, and early reports are that it went well.
Eichel now faces a rehabilitation timeline that he has suggested could be as short as three months but is uncertain at this point because of the surgery in question. The procedure had never been done on an NHL player before Eichel, which was part of the concern of the Buffalo Sabres who had blocked it through the offseason. The Sabres eventually found a package they liked enough to trade Eichel to Vegas last week, acquiring Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs along with draft picks for their former captain.
Currently on injured reserve, it will be a battle for the Golden Knights to get Eichel back onto the active roster before the end of the season. Not only does the injury timeline come with plenty of uncertainty, but so too does their cap situation. With Eichel, Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, and Jake Bischoff currently on LTIR, the team is exceeding the $81.5MM cap ceiling by more than $11MM. Activating the entire group would be impossible without making other transactions to open a good amount of cap space, ones that could not simply be waiving or sending down the fringe players on their roster.
So the work now begins for Eichel, to get back to full strength and ready to play hockey, but also the Golden Knights, if they want to have him play games ahead of the playoffs. Of course, the playoffs aren’t a guarantee in Vegas this year, given their uneven start. The team is currently fifth in the Pacific Division with an 8-6 record through 14 games, though they have won their last two and are 4-1 in their last five.
When he does eventually return, whether it’s this season or next, Eichel is expected to take up residence between Stone and Pacioretty on the team’s first line. It will be at that point the onus will be on him to prove he can still be the dynamic offensive player he was in Buffalo, one that set career-highs of 36 goals and 82 points in recent years.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Snapshots: Eichel, Rask, Hajek
It didn’t take long for new Golden Knight Jack Eichel to get his way in Vegas. The Associated Press reports that Eichel will undergo his preferred neck surgery, an artificial disc replacement, on Friday. Eichel’s surgical plans for his herniated disc was really the lynchpin topic of the crumbling relationship between Eichel and the Sabres that led to the Buffalo star requesting a trade after nearly a year out of action. While the disc replacement surgery has never been performed on an NHL player before, it is not an unheard of procedure and provides a number of potential benefits that the alternative fusion procedure. Eichel hopes that his saga with the Sabres will pave a path for players to have more input into their healthcare. “I think my situation shined light on maybe some things that could be changed, and I hope that they are in the future,” Eichel said. “I don’t necessarily agree with the team having the full say in what to do with medical treatment. I think it should be a collaboration.” Vegas was willing to acquire Eichel at a sizeable price and still allow him to have the surgery of his choice, an example of a team allowing a player to call the shots in his own rehabilitation.
- Tuukka Rask was back in action on Monday, skating with – who else – the Boston Bruins. The veteran goaltender is still recovering from offseason hip surgery, but the expectation has always that he would return to his team at some point this season. That return could come sooner rather than later with Rask at Bruins practice today (though still technically a free agent). Rookie Jeremy Swayman and substantial free agent addition Linus Ullmark have played well thus far, combining for a .911 save percentage and a 2.45 GAA, but Boston has maintained that Rask will be welcomed back if he is healthy and able to return. The team clearly feels that the future Hall of Famer has enough left in the tank to improve their play in net for another year.
- Even before the season began, there were reports that Libor Hajek had lost his starting job in New York and could be on his way out, either by trade or waivers. The first part of that assumption has proven true, as the 23-year-old has not played a game so far this season, yet Hajek is still a member of the Rangers. The team has opted not to test Hajek on waivers, protecting the once-promising blue liner from their competition, but wasting a roster spot and keeping the defenseman cold are not great strategies either. As a result, the team has announced today that Hajek will head down to the AHL’s Hartford Wolfpack on a conditioning stint. Whether this could be precursor to another move involving Hajek remains to be seen, but getting Hajek some game action certainly can’t hurt the Rangers.
Poll: Grading The Jack Eichel Trade
It was a saga that dragged on and on (and on) for months but on Thursday, Jack Eichel’s tenure in Buffalo officially came to an end as he was traded with a 2023 third-round pick to Vegas in exchange for winger Alex Tuch, center Peyton Krebs, a 2022 first-round pick, and a 2023 second-round pick.
The Golden Knights had long been speculated as a landing spot for Eichel. Their desire to add a number one center had been well-known and they’ve had a tendency to find ways to land impact players in the early years of the franchise including the acquisitions of wingers Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty plus the signing of Alex Pietrangelo in free agency. Now, they have a legitimate top middleman, or at least that’s the hope assuming all goes well with his upcoming surgery.
The fact that Vegas was able to land Eichel without giving up a player from their current roster is impressive but it also is going to create some other challenges down the road from a salary cap perspective. Eichel joins Pacioretty and Stone on LTIR which keeps them cap-compliant for the next few months at least. But when they’re all ready to return, they will be well over the Upper Limit and some other moves will need to be made. Even if one of them stays on LTIR for the rest of the regular season, there’s still 2022-23 and beyond to think about. They have $78.735MM committed to 11 players for 2022-23, per CapFriendly, with an expected Upper Limit of $82.5MM. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that more subtraction needs to come.
Whatever those moves ultimately wind up being will ultimately have to be factored into the cost of this deal for Vegas. They’ve given up Krebs, Tuch, and the two picks so far but what will the other ramifications be?
Meanwhile, Buffalo’s cap situation was at the exact opposite end to the point where they had to take on Johnny Boychuk’s injured contract from the Islanders merely to get back to the salary floor. But they were able to move Eichel without taking significant salary commitments back which appeared to be a goal when they started down this path last season.
In Krebs, they hope to have another center to build around alongside Dylan Cozens; the two were both first-rounders back in 2019 (seventh overall for Cozens while Krebs went ten spots later). The center spot has been the weakness of their quickly-expanding prospect pool and this certainly helps on that front although as is the case with all prospects, things may not go as planned.
As for Tuch, the Sabres add a power forward that has long been perceived as someone that could have another level in him if he had the chance to play a bigger role. He’ll get that chance with Buffalo and with five years of team control at a reasonable $4.75MM AAV, Tuch will be another long-term building block.
To get two potential top-six pieces plus a pair of draft picks (one being a first-rounder) is by no means a bad return but when you look at Eichel’s track record and how he was supposed to be the focal point of Buffalo’s rebuild, it’s understandable if it feels a little underwhelming as well. The Sabres are certainly a victim of circumstances here with his neck injury but it’s at least in part by their own design with their unwillingness to allow Eichel’s desired surgery, thereby delaying his return. Accordingly, there will be a ‘What If?’ element to this trade that will go on for years to come.
It only seems fitting that following all of the uncertainty for months leading up to the eventual trade, there’s still an awful lot of uncertainty even after it was made. Who else will need to leave Vegas to make the money work and what could have been the return had Sabres GM Kevyn Adams perhaps done things differently?
Of course, we can’t evaluate those scenarios but we can evaluate the trade itself. How do you feel both teams made out in this swap? Vote in the polls below to award your grades.
Pacific Notes: Athanasiou, Andersson, Eichel, Tkachuk
Kings winger Andreas Athanasiou is expected to be activated off injured reserve and make his season debut on Friday, notes Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider. The 27-year-old suffered an undisclosed injury late in September and while it was hoped that he wouldn’t be out long, he hasn’t played since, missing the first ten games of the season in the process. Athanasiou had 10 goals and 13 assists in 47 games with Los Angeles in 2020-21.
Meanwhile, Dooley adds that center Lias Andersson has been ruled out of Saturday’s contest due to his groin injury. Head coach Todd McLellan indicated that the plan is to “see how he is as the week goes on”.
More from the Pacific Division:
- Golden Knights center Jack Eichel will have his disk replacement surgery next Friday in Denver, relays David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. GM Kelly McCrimmon indicated yesterday that the hope is that the 25-year-old will be able to return three to five months after having the procedure. That would have Eichel returning sometime between February and April. While that is a bit of an extended timeline, the fact it hasn’t been performed on an NHL player before leads to some uncertainty.
- Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk has been fined $5K for his high sticking infraction on Stars defenseman John Klingberg on Thursday night, the league announced. The incident occurred in the third period of the game with a minor penalty being assessed on the play. The fine is the maximum allowable in the CBA.