I wouldn't take Eberle for free right now. It isn't that he is a terrible player, but he is terribly overpriced. You get a soft player who can put in a decent amount of offence. That offence isn't elite either - he is around a mid-20's goals per year scorer (he only finished with 20 this past year, even though it was his only full 82 game season, but I would say he continues to hit in the 20's).
That's about all you get out of him, however. He isn't physical. He doesn't add some blazing speed to give the opposition problems in coverage. He is awful defensively.
Would I take him on the Flames? Maybe... but I might be inclined to keep Brouwer over him. Brouwer is usually a high teens goal scorer, but is also much slower than Eberle. However, he at least brings a decent defensive game (he really isn't bad) and does bring some grittiness (though that aspect was exaggerated from reputation than anything I consistently saw).
Eberle has scored 20 total more goals than Brouwer over the last 4 seasons. That's an average of 5 a year. You have to really like Eberle as a player to figure he is worth 2 million more a season than Brouwer. Given their respective games away from the puck, I pick Brouwer every time, and I haven't liked Brouwer this season.
You would be acquiring a 6 million dollar whipping boy. That's about it. Long stretches of zero goals and next to nothing in terms of defence, intangibles, leadership (come on, he really wears an A up there?). I don't think you can bank on him changing his game or 'returning to form' - I would think the past 6 seasons are more indicative than the one season (7 seasons ago) in his 2nd year in the NHL. Who banks on players returning to form after 7 seasons away from their 'form'. That to me screams outlier now. A season or two - even three? Sure, I won't argue. But seven seasons is a very long time to expect a player to rebound from.
As for Jankowski, I definitely see him as a future 2nd line center on the team. I thought he was NHL ready for this year - at least halfway through if not earlier. He had one game, and sample sizes are incredibly small especially given he was playing on the 4th line, but I thought he created offence and played mistake free. That's essentially his game. Solid 2 way center with the ability to make the players around him better. Flames are adamant in trying to develop Bennett as a center - and rightfully so, as he does have a very high ceiling. Jankowski could really be a benefit there and just get him into the NHL playing wing for now. Bennett needs players with some skill to play with. Also interesting is that Jankowski has never really played with talent before this season - Mangiapane is probably the most gifted offensive player he has played with including prep school and through the NCAA.
Get those two playing together. I don't even care which one is a center and which one is a winger.
Also, re-sign Versteeg. He is good with Monahan. Hopefully find another RW winger (not named Eberle).
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