The Daily: Flames, Golden Knights Favored as Eichel Trade Talk Heating Up Yet Again

The Hockey Now Network reports the Jack Eichel Sweepstakes is coming down to Vegas Golden Knights vs. the Calgary Flames.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman originally reported the Golden Knights’ emergence as a frontrunner and then Vegas Hockey Now confirmed that and added that the Calgary Flames were in the mix.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now lays it out this morning in its daily briefing. Other reports have Eichel having disc replacement surgery as soon as the deal is completed, maybe as early as next week.

The Golden Knights are tight against the salary cap ceiling, but they have Alex Tuch and Max Pacioretty on Long-Term Injured Reserve. Based on that, the CapFriendly.com projects the Golden Knights to have about $5.7 million in available cap space.

Eichel is a $10 million cap hit, meaning the Sabres would probably take back some salaried players to make a deal work.

According to Capfriendly.com, the Flames only have $1.1 million in available cap space.  They would have even more work to do to make it work. However, keep in mind that whoever acquires Eichel would put him on LTIR. He wouldn’t be ready to play again for at least a couple of months after surgery.

The Sabres still want a king’s ransom for Eichel. According Hockey Now’s Steve MacFarlane,  Here’s what Calgary can afford to give up.  tg

Down on the Farm

Chase Pearson scored a pair of goals and Jonatan Berggren netted his first American Hockey League in the Grand Rapids Griffins’ 4-1 win against the Milwaukee Admirals.

The Red Wings see Pearson as a possible role player. Berggren is a future top six player whose hopes of making the team this season were undermined by an early training camp injury

Around the NHL

Pittsburgh: Jake Guentzel and Kasperi Kapanen are letting down the Penguins offense

Florida: Kyle Beach is affecting great change. He’s giving our Colby Guy, a new member of Florida Hockey Now, courage to speak hid truth. Colby was also assaulted at a previous job. And those people remain in power.

Detroit: Rookie Joe Veleno played well in his season debut and he’s carpooling with the boss, Steve Yzerman

San Jose: Seven players and two coaches entered COVID protocol.

Vancouver: The Canucks lost to fall to 3-5. The situation requires attention

Washington: Hockey Now’s Sammi Silber wrote a revealing piece on rookie Hendrix Lapierre, a 19-year-old who made the team and can’t wipe the smile off his face.