I really don't know what's in for Vegas this year or in the future. They lose Smith this season, Tuch will return at some point. But will Eichel return this year.? Then there is the cap situation next season for Vegas. Plus they lose the best prospect.

Conveniently the players involved in the trade are the only ones Vegas has of any value that don’t have no trade clauses. Eichel would return to play sometime this season provided the trade is consummated by Christmas. Even if it took them a few weeks to actually schedule and perform the surgery, recovery is less than three months. Vegas would make the playoffs without any of the players they don’t have as a result of this trade, or Eichel playing. It’s certainly not buffalo’s fault that Vegas can’t seem to draft more than one useful prospect, but you can’t expect to acquire a young number 1 Caliber Center without paying for it.

The issue is nobody knows how that recovery will go or how he'll perform. Hence a lot of teams want conditions on the trade. The only way conditions are on the trade are if draft picks are involved. Because of this, I can't imagine teams are willing to risk prospects instead of picks. You can't make a prospect conditional.

PIT didn't bring Hextall in to trade out 1st round picks. He's here to rebuild the team.

Funny you say. " It’s certainly not buffalo’s fault that Vegas can’t seem to draft more than one useful prospect". All the number high picks the Sabres have had and where are they?
Really I think the point that is missed about all Eichel trades, is that teams don't want to take on a 10m player because it's disrupts their salary cap now, and the futures. And even this trade dismantles some of the Vegas team now and in the future. Teams just might want to hang to onto their prospects and spend Eichel's 10m in cap on a UFA next season,

Bingo. While VGK does need a true 1C, what they need more is their ELCs to contribute. We’re pushed against the cap, ELCs that can contribute is what’s needed, and what Buffalo is going to want for Eichel. I understand that.

My package would consist of firsts, Zach Dean, Elevenes, can even add Hague and then a Dadanov to make the cap work (still freaking clueless why they thought that was the move to make with Tuch out). If it doesn’t get it done, it doesn’t and we revisit next season.