Quoting: Tjm220
I’m pretty sure even doctors consider the six week timeframe to be overly optimistic. I would expect it’s more like two maybe 2 1/2 months, but that doesn’t mean he’s back at 100%. It all depends on when the trade is consummated, and how quickly the Kings doctors can evaluate Eichel themselves, and then schedule the surgery. Realistically I don’t see Eichel playing much this season if at all.
Only Kempe is really much of a loss off of their immediate roster, the others are more addition by subtraction. But I wasn’t sure how much playing time Turcotte was already getting. Turcotte is the only player that actually excites me as a Sabres fan coming back in this deal. Otherwise it looks a lot like the garbage pile the Blues handed us in favor of Ryan O’Reilly, unless the picks end up being worth something.
Turcotte is the prize of the deal for sure. The other prizes are obviously the draft picks.
However the premise behind this trade is that if Eichel is out for an extended period of time, how much of a return do they really deserve? LA would be paying him $10M/year to not play. If his surgery goes well and he can return after the Olympics, then Buffalo gets a top-tier guy in Turcotte, a quality young roster player in Kempe (on a good contract), and two 1st round picks, which lines up with the four 1st round pick return that Buffalo was supposedly asking for.
If not and Eichel is out indefinitely, they still get Turcotte, Kempe, and a 2nd round pick. Not a bad haul for a guy that isn't going to be playing hockey anytime in the foreseeable future.
Quote from LeBrun's article in
The Athletic that came out this morning.
Quoting: LeBrun
Eichel is going to get the ADR surgery with his new team and then be out four months or so, with no guarantee he will be fully fixed up. So the Sabres are going to have to alter their trade demands.
What I’ve heard from some teams around the league is that if this deal gets done, it’s going to have to have a conditional aspect to the trade, Eichel’s recovery and health very much affecting the final payout to the Sabres. And according to sources, Adams has acknowledged in trade talks that there may have to be a conditional aspect to the deal (likely games played, etc.)