Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
Yeah, I know how good Eichel is. I also know how bad Eichel is. Eichel is a very talented player, but he has some weaknesses that are concerning that most people are overlooking. You are not getting a generational talent. Full stop. Eichel is a talented player, but he is not in the same class of the players you mentioned. Close. A very talented player. But he's not as good as those other guys and definitely NOT a generational talent (neither are the players you mentioned). You also have to take into consideration his injury, potential for recovery, and his salary to determine how much you are willing to cough up. Considering his salary, you can kiss one of Gaudreau or Tkachuk goodbye, which is why we need as many talented young players we can keep our hands on to support our top end players.
This could be a deal where we sell the farm, trade away two of the three prospects and our next two 1st rounders, only to find out that Eichel's surgery was not successful and he can't play any more, or at best a diminished capacity. What we have is a $10M a season albatross. We have then removed all hope of filling the gaps in the team with cheap high skilled talent and will be relying on the Trevor Lewis level players to fill out the roster. That is the risk that must be considered. The other side of that coin is Eichel's surgery is successful, but because of how many good young players we gave up we have nothing in the pipe to support Eichel and we become Buffalo west. Again, you have to weigh risk and have a plan for filling holes in the roster. Eichel is a talented player, but he isn't your go to guy. He needs bodies around him to make him better.
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He absolutely is in the same class of players I mentioned. Matthews has world class players in Marner and Tavares, Nylander. MacKinnon has guys like Rantanen and Landeskog. Who the hell did Eichel have playing in that tire fire Buffalo? Jeff Skinner? Eichel elevated him to a 40 goal player and he got PAID. He's been Buffalo's go to guy for 5 years now, and they never, ever supported him. This is false.