Jack Eichel has finally been traded! In case you missed it, Buffalo finally traded the disgruntled center along with a 2023 third-round pick to Vegas for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, a 2022 first-round pick, and a 2023 second-round pick. Mike Clifford wrote about the trade from a fantasy perspective, which you can read about here.

To take stock of everything from a Vegas perspective, Vegas currently has their entire future first line sidelined in Eichel, Max Pacioretty, and Mark Stone, as well as another top-6 forward in William Karlsson. If they can weather the storm between now and when all of these players return, they have to be considered a strong Stanley Cup favorite. That might take a while, given Kelly McCrimmon's comments that they are expecting a 3-5-month timeline for surgery and recovery for Eichel. Getting to the playoffs won't be a small feat. The Pacific Division might be weak on paper, but several teams (Edmonton, Calgary, San Jose) might be better than we thought they were given their strong early-season play.

In the end, Vegas's situation lends itself better for an Eichel trade than Calgary's. The only current asset that Vegas loses is Krebs, who has not registered a single point in nine games anyway (Buffalo has subsequently sent him to the AHL). The rumored trade with Calgary could have involved the Flames potentially losing Matthew Tkachuk and even Sean Monahan. Calgary would lose considerably in the short term, which matters if they have playoff ambitions. If I'm Buffalo, I'm taking that Calgary offer in a heartbeat! But we really don't know if that was a true offer, given the conflicting reports.

As for Eichel, someone in your league likely has him on IR in the hopes that he will return at some point this season. The worst-case scenario above would place a Vegas debut in early April, which would give you nearly a month of usage. The best-case scenario would be right after the Olympics in late February, which would give you just over two months because the Olympic break. So really this could be more like a 4-5-month absence. On top of that, keeping Eichel on IR for 3+ months might not be that easy given the number of injuries and COVID-related absences. But if you can, do it. IR needs are always fluid, but if you have an abundance of spots that you figure you won't use, you could consider acquiring him at a discount.

Getting back to the current state of the Golden Knights, these are the line combinations they used for their 5-1 win over Ottawa. Not exactly the Knights that you're used to. They actually look like an expansion team now!

REILLY SMITH – JONATHAN MARCHESSAULT – NICOLAS ROY

BRETT HOWDEN – JAKE LESCHYSHYN – JONAS RONDBJERG

EVGENII DADONOV – CHANDLER STEPHENSON – WILLIAM CARRIER

KEEGAN KOLESAR – MATTIAS JANMARK – MICHAEL AMADIO

Jonathan Marchessault led the way with two goals, while his linemate Nicolas Roy recorded two assists. No Knights forward reached the 19-minute mark or fell below the 11-minute mark in this game, so Peter DeBoer seems to be evening out the icetime to handle all the injuries. That's probably not a terrible strategy.

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Thursday was the night of the four-goal game, as not one, but two players reached this total. Seems like it's been a while since that happened.

That's 4️⃣ goals for Patrice Bergeron and Brock Nelson 🚨🚨🚨🚨

The last time two players from different teams scored 4+ goals on the same day was March 26, 1996, when Mario Lemieux (PIT) and Keith Tkachuk (WIN) both did so. #NHLStats: https://t.co/6xV3Nt5lec pic.twitter.com/oqsfH7yXSh

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 5, 2021

Let's start with Patrice Bergeron. Four goals on five shots, as well as an 84% faceoff success rate (16 for 19). Three of those goals were on the power play, giving you your fill of fantasy hockey's equivalent of the Scrabble double word score. Surprisingly, the goals were Bergeron's first of the season in his eighth game. In his defense, the Bruins are among a small group of teams that have played the fewest number of games, for what it's worth.

Brad Marchand was right there as well, assisting on all four of Bergeron's goals. That means even-strength and power-play linemate David Pastrnak must have had an incredible night too, right? Ha. Nope. The Bruins sniper is now without a point in his last four games after recording at least a point in each of his first four games. Don't expect that slump to last much longer.

The other four-goal game came from a lesser-rostered player (21% in Yahoo, 50% in Fantrax) in Brock Nelson, who now has six goals on the season. The Islanders center was also a plus-4 while firing seven shots. Chances are you probably would have been happy with a goal and 2-3 shots from Nelson. Hopefully you didn't leave him on your bench.

Maybe there was some lucky person out there who started both Bergeron and Nelson. I wasn't that guy, but I was fortunate enough to have both of their linemates on one team in both Marchand (mentioned earlier) and Anthony Beauvillier (assisted on three of Nelson's goals). Those two players singlehandedly rescued my assist total in my head-to-head matchup. The moral of the story here is to keep sending your players out there, no matter the odds.

And because there's a stat for everything, here's one more on the two four-goal scorers. Remember that over-30 doesn’t mean over the hill.

Today marks the first time two NHL players 30 or older (Patrice Bergeron, Brock Nelson) had 4-goal games on the same day since Odie Cleghorn and Joe Malone did so on January 18, 1922.

— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) November 5, 2021

One other weird stat from the Islanders/Canadiens game: Both Christian Dvorak and Mike Hoffman were a minus-five in this game. It's been a long season in Montreal.

Fresh off a shutout against Detroit on Tuesday, Jake Allen allowed five goals over two periods before getting the hook. Sam Montembeault entered the game in relief.

Okay, time for a positive Montreal stat. Ben Chiarot doesn't offer much in the scoring department. But because of the heavy minutes he logs on the Habs blueline, he'll help your peripheral stats. Chiarot is a top-15 option in both hits (2.67 Hits/GP) and blocked shots (2 BkS/GP).

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Prospect callup alert: The Devils have recalled Alexander Holtz. It might have taken Scott Wedgewood being claimed on waivers by Arizona to allow the move, but at least Holtz is in the show now. You could say he has earned that spot, scoring five goals in four AHL games. New Jersey plays on Friday night, when he'll likely play his first NHL game.

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Sergei Bobrovsky has had an amazing start to the season, but now there's a bit of cause for concern. The Panthers goalie left Thursday's game after the first period with an upper-body injury. According to Panthers coach Andrew Brunette, Bob is considered day-to-day and will be re-evaluated on Friday. The injury doesn't sound serious, but Spencer Knight could be the starter for Saturday's showdown with Carolina. Should Bob miss time, Knight would be a must-start in both weekly and daily leagues. Prior to Thursday, Knight had been averaging about one start per week.

The Panthers have earned points in all ten of their games (including an OT win on Thursday), while the Hurricanes are undefeated in nine games. Looks like that will be Saturday's game of the night, although the two teams play too far south for Hockey Night in Canada to pick it up.

Aleksander Barkov scored a pair of goals, which gives him five goals over his past three games along with a five-game point streak. Barkov also took five shots.

Alex Ovechkin had another day at the office, scoring a goal and adding two assists along with six shots. At the time of this writing, Ovechkin leads the league in both goals (10) and shots (48). He's now only one goal away from tying Brett Hull on the all-time list. That doesn't seem too bad.

Alex Ovechkin's second period goal was his first career goal scored on goaltender Spencer Knight, the 150th different goaltender Ovechkin has scored on in his career. There have been 6,598 skaters in NHL history who have scored 150 or fewer goals in their career.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 5, 2021

Anthony Mantha left this game in the second period with an undisclosed injury after colliding with John Carlson. Mantha played in 56 games last season but before that had struggled with injuries.

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The Penguins were without coach Mike Sullivan and Sidney Crosby on Thursday because both are in COVID protocol. But hey, Kris Letang returned from COVID protocol himself and scored the overtime winner over Philly! Letang also logged 28:54 in this game, which was the highest total for both teams. Get him back into your lineup ASAP.

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Jordan Eberle scored three goals, giving the Seattle Kraken their first hat trick in team history. Do the fine folks in Seattle know how that works? Yep, I guess they're learning.

JORDAN EBERLE GETS THE FIRST HATTY IN SEATTLE KRAKEN HISTORY! 🧢🧢🧢 pic.twitter.com/r9EcJCDrdt

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 5, 2021

Eberle also finished the game with a plus-3 and four shots. He now has five goals over his last five games, but he has not recorded an assist in his last nine games.

Jaden Schwartz had his best game as a member of the Kraken, scoring a goal while adding two assists with a plus-4. Schwartz is currently riding a five-game point streak as well. He has a team-leading eight points in 11 games, none of which have been on the power play.

Alex Wennberg finished the game with two assists and a plus-5.

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With Jordan Binnington needing a day off after back-to-backs and Ville Husso in COVID protocol, Joel Hofer received his first-ever NHL start on Thursday against San Jose. He managed to get the job done, making 23 saves in a 5-3 Blues victory. He even chipped in an assist for good measure. For more on the one-time Team Canada World Junior goalie, see his Dobber Prospects page. I don't expect Hofer to be in the NHL for long, assuming Husso is out of COVID protocol soon. He might have a more regular role one day, though.

Brayden Schenn left Thursday's game with an upper-body injury. Coach Craig Berube said after the game that Schenn is day-to-day.  

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For more fantasy hockey discussion, or to reach out to me, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding