Eichel to debut for Golden Knights against Avalanche on Wednesday
Center hasn't played since March 7, was traded to Vegas by Sabres; Stone on long-term injured reserve
The center hasn't played an NHL game since March 7, 2021 for the Buffalo Sabres because of a herniated disk in his neck.
"I'm sure there will be a lot of emotions Wednesday," Eichel said Monday. "I already started feeling them. It's been a long time. (It's) been the biggest layoff I've ever had since I started playing hockey, so I'm trying to be realistic with myself and my expectations. I understand it's been 11 months, I didn't have any preseason games and having to jump in there against the best team in the League right now. But at the end of the day, it's hockey. I've been doing it since I was a kid, so I'll just try to find my game, get as comfortable as I can as quickly as possible, and I think I'll be all right."
The Golden Knights placed forward Mark Stone (back) on long-term injured reserve, which created room for Eichel under the NHL salary cap.
"Our No. 1 priority is Mark Stone's health," Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. "It's clearly not in a place where it needs to be for him to be successful. It's not in a place it needs to be for our team. He's our captain. The man wears his heart on his sleeve every time he puts on our uniform. He will be missed, but I genuinely believe we are doing the right thing with him."
Eichel was acquired by Vegas in a trade with Buffalo for a package including forwards Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs on Nov. 4 and had artificial disk replacement surgery Nov. 12. The 25-year-old began practicing with the Golden Knights on Jan. 11 and was cleared for full contact Feb. 7.
A timeline for when Eichel would make his Vegas debut was not provided until Monday.
"I always kind of had the date circled for a while, so I just kind of had to go through all the protocols," Eichel said. "Obviously it's a process, so you want everything to go pretty smoothly, and I just feel like we're at that point where I'm ready to play.
"You can practice as much as you want. Obviously the game is different. I just want to get back in there and start getting my confidence back playing games."
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The Golden Knights (28-17-3), who are first in the Pacific Division, haven't played since a 6-0 loss at the Calgary Flames on Feb. 9. They took Saturday and Sunday off before returning to practice Monday.
With owner Bill Foley watching from a balcony with McCrimmon and president of hockey operations George McPhee, Eichel skated on the top line with Max Pacioretty and Evgenii Dadonov for the first time.
"I think he's excited. Our group is excited," Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. "Unfortunately we still don't have our whole group together with Mark going out, but I think this has been a long time coming for him personally. For us not as long because, obviously, just from the trade day to now. But we're excited and I think when you see him in practice over the last three weeks, you see the potential he can add to our group and that's exciting."
Eichel scored 18 points (two goals, 16 assists) in 21 games for the Sabres last season. Selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, he scored 355 points (139 goals, 216 assists) in 375 games for Buffalo. He scored at least 24 goals in each of his first five NHL seasons, including a career-high 36 in 68 games in 2019-20.
"I think you consider yourself one of the better players in our league and you just kind of want to get back to that," Eichel said. "I feel like prior to the injury and last season, I was starting to establish myself where I wanted to be. Obviously you kind of have been derailed a little bit with injuries, but I just want to get back to where my game was and hopefully take it to the next level. That's it more than anything."
Eichel said he is looking forward to seeing what he can do playing with Pacioretty, a six-time 30-goal scorer who has scored 23 points (12 goals, 11 assists) in 21 games this season.
"He's obviously a superior goal scorer and somebody who can really shoot the puck," Eichel said. "I like to try and consider myself more of a set-up guy, so hopefully I can find him and he can use his shot. But there's a lot of really good players in that locker room. I just look forward to being on the ice with all of them."
Elliotte Friedman talks Jack Eichel, Mark Stone
Eichel said he also hopes to get the opportunity to play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time after the Sabres didn't qualify in each of his six seasons with them. The Golden Knights are well positioned to clinch a playoff berth for the fifth straight season since joining the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18.
They reached the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Washington Capitals in their inaugural season and advanced to the third round the past two. McCrimmon believes the Golden Knights' remaining 34 regular-season games will be enough for Eichel to find his top level after all the work he put in during his recovery.
"I give Jack and his medical team, our medical team a great deal of credit," McCrimmon said. "This is the first time this surgery had been done on an NHL player. When we made the trade, we didn't really know what that timeline would look like. We're excited there's 34 games for the regular season that still remain. This gives Jack a great opportunity to integrate with our hockey team.
"It gives, obviously, our team access to a great player. … It's been a long wait, but well worth it and we're excited to bring Jack back on Wednesday night."
McCrimmon said there is no timeline for Stone's recovery, other than he will be out for at least the 10 games and 24 days required for players who are placed on long-term injured reserve. Stone's back initially began bothering him during the playoffs last season and he's been in and out of the lineup this season because of it, including a stretch of 12 straight games from Oct. 20 to Nov. 11.
As a result, Stone, who also missed two games in NHL COVID-19 protocol in January, has scored 28 points (eight goals, 20 assists) in 28 games.
McCrimmon said Stone has seen six specialists from across North America, but they haven't been able to pinpoint the exact cause of his injury, which contributes to uncertainty about when the 29-year-old might return.
"He's had 10 or 12 sets of diagnostic exams performed," McCrimmon said. "Backs are tricky, and I wouldn't be able to relay it to you how it's been relayed to me other than to say they're still working through those things to find out exactly what it is. It's not a single issue. There's some challenges there that overlap and he's going to hopefully get through all this."
Although placing Stone on long-term injured reserve created space for the Golden Knights to activate Eichel, McCrimmon said that isn't the reason why the move was made.
"This had to happen to Mark Stone irrespective of our salary cap, irrespective of Jack Eichel returning to play," McCrimmon said. "Had Jack Eichel been able to return to play and Mark Stone was perfectly healthy, we would have made corresponding moves to fit him into our salary cap."
