NHLI via Getty ImagesДЄssuming Eichel gets the disk replacement, he could be back on the ice in as soon as six weeks and practicing in eight weeks.

Jack Eichel was traded from the Sabres to the Golden Knights. EichelвЂ™s preferred option had never been done on an NHL player. The Sabres preferred an anterior cervical discectomy with fusion. EichelвЂ™s doctor has said that artificial disk replacement surgery would be better both to get him on the ice sooner, and later in life. How this trade will be judged depends on what happens with the herniated disk in EichelвЂ™s neck - the problem that created such a long standoff in the first place. Carolina and Calgary were also in the mix at the end, per TSNвЂ™s Pierre LeBrun. In the end, it was Eichel and a 2023 third-round pick for Peyton Krebs, Alex Tuch, a top-10 protected 2022 first-round pick and a 2023 second-round pick. Even before that, it didnвЂ™t help that Sabres owner Terry Pegula didnвЂ™t want to send Eichel to New York without an outsize return, per The PostвЂ™s Larry Brooks. Once the Rangers signed center Mika Zibanejad to an eight-year, $68 million contract extension in October, that ship had sailed. When the Jack Eichel sweepstakes finally ended on Thursday morning, the embattled star heading to Vegas, the Rangers had been long out of it. Ilya Sorokin bails out Islanders in critical win Sudden Olympics opportunity gives goalie Strauss Mann chance to prove he belongs in NHL

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