Buffalo probably tells you to stuff your conditions at least for this season. Chances are the trade does not happen right away, and even if the kings let him get surgery right away he probably still does not play this year.

The expected recovery time of the surgery is supposedly 4 months. If he gets the surgery immediately, that would have him return after the Olympic break. The Kings have 32 games after the Olympics. Should be plenty of time to get the surgery and finish out the year.

If Eichel is out the entire season, then the Kings will likely not have done well during the season, making that 2nd a high one. Either way, 12 months should be plenty of time for him to heal, meaning that Buffalo would get a 1st, a 2nd, a quality young roster player in Kempe, and a blue chip center prospect in Turcotte. If his rehab results in him missing over half of the 2022-23 season as well, then it's not unreasonable for the Kings to retain their 1st round picks.

good analys but recovery time is 6 weeks so we could see him at olympics hope he gets traded

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.

The thing people keep fixating on is the idea that he isn’t going to play right away. It’s not like he’s on a one-year deal, and it’s not the upcoming season that you are trading for him for. You are acquiring a point per game player that will change your franchise, and probably be the face of your franchise for the next four years. you’re paying for the cost certainty of a franchise player for the next four seasons after this year. Considering that players get off the rookie contracts lately and then demand deals between 8 and $11 million per season, cost certainty is a pretty good deal. That’s what you’re paying for.

He wouldn't even be the best center on the Kings after the trade. That honor goes to Kopitar. It remains to be seen if Eichel will surpass Kopitar if he gets traded away from the Buffalo dumpster fire.

Again, Adams has already acknowledged that the trade return will have to include conditional picks based on his recovery. I didn't just make that part up. Read LeBrun's article from this morning.

I'm not sure if you noticed, but the 2023 1st round pick I proposed is conditional based on how many games he plays in 2022-23. So if Eichel is able to play "the next four seasons after this year," then he'll satisfy the conditional requirement for the 2023 pick and Buffalo gets the 1st. The only way they don't get any 1st round picks is if he's out for the entirety of this coming season and more than half of the following season as well.