If you recall last year around this time, everyone in Buffalo was talking about two things when it came to the sports landscape.

The potential new Bills stadium and when in the world would disgruntled star forward Jack Eichel get traded?

We thought it would come at the 2021 NHL Draft or free agency, but Eichel's battle with the Sabres on which neck surgery he should receive held that up from happening, along with compensation.

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Finally, in November of 2021, general manager Kevyn Adams dealt Eichel and a third-round pick to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for forwards Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs, along with a 2022 first-round pick and a 2023 second-round pick.

Eichel had decent numbers for Vegas when he came back from his neck surgery, scoring 14 goals and 25 points in 34 games, but Vegas collapsed down the stretch and missed the playoffs.

Now, it's evident that Vegas paid for the Eichel trade.

On Wednesday afternoon, Vegas traded star forward Max Pacioretty and young defenseman Dylan Coghlan to the Carolina Hurricanes for future considerations.; yes, Vegas traded away two roster players for essentially nothing.

The reason is that the Golden Knights are financially strapped, as they try and stay below the salary cap limit.

According to Cap Friendly, Vegas has no cap space at the moment. In fact, they are -$1.4 million in cap space, meaning that will have to make another move or two to get below the cap.

Eichel's salary is eating up $10 million per season and Vegas was already spending north of $70 million before they traded for Eichel.

They also needed to give forward Reilly Smith a new contract extension and felt they had no choice but to ship out Pacioretty and his $7 million cap hit with one year remaining.

Jesse Granger of The Athletic listed what the Eichel trade has cost Vegas.

That's not all Vegas has done in recent years.

The Golden Knights prioritized getting an elite player like Eichel and while they still have players like Reilly Smith, Chandler Stephenson, and Jonathan Marchessault to provide scoring with Eichel, questions remain if this trade was a disaster?

The team was disappointing last season after having Stanley Cup aspirations and now you take away Tuch, Krebs, Pacioretty, and Coghlan and hardly add anything?

Eichel has also yet to play in a playoff game and show he's capable of lifting a team past expectations. So far, this trade has not been a good one for the Golden Knights.

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