Ice Breakers: Updates On The Jack Eichel Situation And The 2022 All-Star Game Festivities In Vegas

On today’s episode of The Daily Faceoff Show, we talked about a pair of interesting Vegas-related stories in Ice Breakers.

There’s word that the Jack Eichel camp could be filing a grievance against the Buffalo Sabres and both sides are hoping a trade can happen before then. One team in the mix is the Vegas Golden Knights, who could be without captain Mark Stone for a significant amount of time.

Also, sticking with Vegas, the NHL is talking about adding a local flavour to the All-Star game this year, with players potentially doing some kind of skills showcase at popular tourist attractions.

The latest on Jack Eichel…

“The pressure is mounting a bit on the Sabres here.

There’s been lots of talk about the potential of the Jack Eichel camp filing a grievance over the next 10 days to two weeks because they’re hitting a wall. Eichel is hurt, he’s not getting any better, and they need to take some sort of path forward to resolve this injury that’s been lingering since way back in March.

The hope from everyone, both the Eichel side and the Sabres end, is that they’re able to make a trade before that step would become necessary. Everyone’s been holding their breath to this point, but I can tell you there’s been increased chatter between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Sabres about Jack Eichel over the last three to five days.

I think there’s been no question that these two sides have been in close communication throughout the process, wondering what’s going on with Jack Eichel, dealing with the medical situation and gathering some intelligence on that front.

But the Golden Knights are an interesting team to watch here. We just talked about their tough start to the season, the irony being that if you were to trade for a guy like Jack Eichel, he’s not exactly going to help right away because he needs the surgery and he could be out for three to four months.

I think the big thing to focus on here, if you’re the Golden Knights and you’re trying to make this work, is what’s the status of Mark Stone. That’s the real important factor here, Stone carrying a $9.5 million cap hit. There are lots of question marks around his injury, you can tell by the way the Golden Knights announced it, somewhere between day-to-day and week-to-week, I’ve never heard that before.

In this case, it tells you they’re waiting for some clarity on their end. I’m told they don’t know exactly what’s going on with Stone or how long he’ll be out. I think there’s the potential with this back injury that he could be out long-term and perhaps maybe they’re holding their cards close to the vest here trying to make an Eichel transaction work.

I think there’s been some talk about a third-party broker that could potentially be involved to make this work from a financial standpoint. But I think the Golden Knights are a team to watch on the Jack Eichel front, and, as we get closer to some sort of potential resolution with the grievance, I know that these two sides, Eichel and the Sabres, would like to get a trade worked out before then.”

An update on the All-Star game in Vegas…

“When the All-Star game was announced a few years back, before the pandemic, there was lots of talk about it having an international flavour the next time the game was conducted. Maybe a three-on-three tournament with guys from different countries, something like that.

I’m told that’s not going to be the case this year in Vegas. It’s going to be the typical three-on-three format by division that we’ve had for the past few years. But there is a wrinkle to this, and I think it can be one of the most interesting skills competitions that we have ever seen.

I’m told that the NHL is exploring doing some sort of skills competitions outdoors using the different highlights and amenities in Vegas, the different tourist attractions. When you’re thinking about Vegas, I think about Alex Ovechkin celebrating with the Stanley Cup at the Bellagio fountains.

Think top of the Stratosphere. I don’t know what you can do there, shooting pucks, something interesting. I know the NHL will be looking for some buy-in from the players. Maybe, especially for some guys who are headed to the Olympics, doing some stuff off the ice – especially in Vegas – might be a nice change of pace before the gruelling three-week tournament with the players scheduled to leave from Vegas and head to Beijing after that.”

You can watch the full episode here, with Ice Breakers starting at 16:00…