Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
Which would pretty much force ownership to do a proper rebuild; the 2nd most desirable option to acquiring Eichel for many of us.
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But if you traded the next two 1st round draft picks and/or our top prospects as is expected to be required to get Eichel, you're in a terrible position to start a rebuild. I don't see there being any chance of it being a win/win situation if we obtain Eichel - either he is able to recover successfully from the surgery and it's a win, or he never recovers fully/worst case never plays again and the Flames have to start a rebuild with zero assets in the pipeline. I'm not sure what the probability is of Eichel never playing again is, but the sheer magnitude of that consequence probably has buyers wary, and probably explains why a deal hasn't been done yet.
I have a feeling that the deal will end up looking underwhelming when it's done, which will look bad for either Buffalo or the buyer when it's all said and done - either Eichel returns to form and the return that Buffalo gets is going to look paltry in comparison, or Eichel is done and the buyer spent a ton of assets for nothing. The only scenario where both sides come out happy is if a buyer pays a kings ransom for Eichel but he ends up being healthy and as good as ever. The worst case for Buffalo though is if they just hold on to him and then he never plays again, so I think they will manage to trade him even if the return is not as good as they'd like.