Quote:
Originally Posted by djsFlames
He's the sort of centerpiece you need to compete though.
If he's here long enough to build around him then, long term, he may very well be worth the subtractions. If you're thinking right now, short term, then yeah I can see why you may perceive it that way.
You have to give up to get the right foundation for a winning team. We have the goalie but not the game changer up front.
As it stands, its unlikely that we have the bones at forward to push for a cup. After building for 3 years with Eichel in the middle, we might have everything we need to make a run.
The problem is every one here is looking for the shortcut there.
There is no shortcut.
|
I understand that, but this doesn't just cost us short-term pieces, it will cost us long-term pieces that hurt our ability to build a team around him.
So the key word there is "might."
Losing young guys outside of the center position plus top prospects and 1st rounders makes the road to building around Eichel very difficult. Plus, the salary. Let's say we keep Gaudreau and Tkachuk. It's realistic that those three will cost us $27M-30M alone. Just quick math, in three years with the addition of Eichel and the subtraction of Monahan and a defenceman worth about 4.5M, we're spending $58M on 5 forwards (3 c, 2 w), 3 defencemen, and a goalie. Top 6 and top 4 guys pull around 4.5 on average, so filling out the top 6 and top 4 that leaves us with about $8M (if the cap doesn't go up, which it should, but maybe not much) for 5-6 forwards (4 w, 1 c, an extra), 3-4 defencemen, and a backup.
This is really just to illustrate that this requires some fantasy to wrap your head around. If we lose Monahan and Valimaki for Eichel, for example, and re-sign Tkachuk and Gaudreau, in three years we will also be without Gio, Lucic, Dube, Mangiapane, and Bennett. If you want to keep one of the forwards, you are moving Lindholm, or Backlund. If you want to keep two, you're moving Gaudreau or Tkachuk. And that still leaves you with bargain basement contracts filling out nearly half the roster. And when you move a top prospect and a 1st, it makes it harder to fill those spots with high-performing ELCs within that time. You also, of course, can't retain any salary on the guys you move.
So really, I'm not entirely against moving for Eichel. But people should understand that A) it is unlikely it will provide an immediate improvement, but he's a fantastic building block and B) building around him will mean saying goodbye to more great players than those included in the trade and will leave major holes in the lineup for 5+ years.
Look at Buffalo and Edmonton. Hell, look at Chicago. Your window with elite talent exists for the most part when they are on entry-level and sweetheart deals. Once these guys are clocking in at $10M it's pretty freakin hard to build a successful team around them. More so when you have 2-3 guys making over $8M. It's debilitating. It's possible to do it and to win, but don't expect to do it with even 2/3 of the players on the team right now. Most of the team is going bye bye in 3 years. Which is fine, but it does not mean we are ahead of where we are today.
People hoping for Eichel are hoping for a big improvement. The only thing they are guaranteed is a different situation with different holes, doesn't mean it'll be a better one.