Chicago and Tampa didn't activate Kane and Kucherov, respectively, until after the end of the regular season. There was some talk about how they could have possibly activated those players sooner, but there was enough gray area there that the league couldn't do anything. But in those cases, we are talking about a week or two, not a month or two.
It's totally possible that Eichel's recovery will take longer than expected, and maybe they will be able to keep him on LTIR until the playoffs. But I don't get the idea that they'd be too thrilled with that option. I think they'd prefer to get him playing sooner rather than later. He hasn't played in a long time. He's coming into a new team, with new systems. And unlike Tampa and Kucherov, I don't think Vegas is a lock to make the playoffs without Eichel.
We'll see how it plays out, but right now it's looking like they'll need to make a move to accommodate his cap hit at some point.
