2021/2022 Trade Speculation and Rumours

[Heavy Jack]

Gaudreau - Eichel - Tkachuk
Mangiapane - Lindholm - Coleman

… I really want our top 6 to have Eichel in it. Please Treliving just make it happen.

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by Heavy Jack

Gaudreau - Eichel - Tkachuk
Mangiapane - Lindholm - Coleman

… I really want our top 6 to have Eichel in it. Please Treliving just make it happen.

From my intuition and gut instinct which is usually wrong, I feel like we have about a 25% chance in landing him.

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by MrMike

From my intuition and gut instinct which is usually wrong, I feel like we have about a 25% chance in landing him.

Don’t tell those odds to Lloyd Christmas otherwise he’ll go out and buy an Eichel in flames colours themed Tuxedo!

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by MrMike

From my intuition and gut instinct which is usually wrong, I feel like we have about a 25% chance in landing him.

Well I’m glad to hear that after your hilarious Smith claim.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Well, he's 24 years old, he needs some sort of surgery to play again, one has a 90% chance of being normal, the other will leave him somewhat restrictive and most likely will require more future surgeries for a normal life.

All I'm saying is if he bet on himself and got the surgery that has a 90% chance of him returning to normal he wouldn't loose a dime and probably would have a long lasting career.

There's betting on yourself and then there's risking $50 million on a surgery. I see those as entirely different things.

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

Well I’m glad to hear that after your hilarious Smith claim.

It was pretty funny wasn’t it?

[Wish They Could Win]

Originally Posted by Heavy Jack

Gaudreau - Eichel - Tkachuk
Mangiapane - Lindholm - Coleman

… I really want our top 6 to have Eichel in it. Please Treliving just make it happen.

I think you have to keep Lindholm and Gaudreau together and let Tkachuk go back to the left.

I like this:

Tkachuk - Eichel - Mangiapane
Gaudreau - Lindholm - Coleman
Dube - Backlund - Pitlick
Lucic - Richardson - Lewis

You could always flip Coleman and Mangi as well.


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[MrMike]

But that powerplay though. Would be just a thing of beauty.

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Well, he's 24 years old, he needs some sort of surgery to play again, one has a 90% chance of being normal, the other will leave him somewhat restrictive and most likely will require more future surgeries for a normal life.

All I'm saying is if he bet on himself and got the surgery that has a 90% chance of him returning to normal he wouldn't loose a dime and probably would have a long lasting career.

Wouldn’t lose a dime, how so?

If Eichel went ahead and got the surgery he wanted, I would imagine that puts him in breach of contract. So what are the implications of that? Is it just his contract is terminated? Would the Sabres still own his rights? I would assume Eichel and his legal counsel/agent probably discussed these scenarios long ago, wouldn’t you? Or is this new territory that they have never contemplated?

Then there’s the $50M Eichel is owed. That’s a guaranteed $50M whether it is paid by the Sabres, an insurer, or another NHL team. Saying Eichel should ‘bet on himself’ and walk away from that contract and simply become a UFA seems pretty naive to me. Who in their right mind would walk away from $50M? Unless the Eichel family has a hundreds of millions or billions dollars, he probably intends to see every penny of that $50M. If he were to somehow escape his contract, I doubt he ever gets back to whole. He would have to rebound in a pretty convincing way to see another deal with a $10M/year salary. It might not be totally unrealistic, but if I’m Eichel, that’s not a bet I’m willing to take.

[shutout]

Originally Posted by TOfan

Wouldn’t lose a dime, how so?

If Eichel went ahead and got the surgery he wanted, I would imagine that puts him in breach of contract. So what are the implications of that? Is it just his contract is terminated? Would the Sabres still own his rights? I would assume Eichel and his legal counsel/agent probably discussed these scenarios long ago, wouldn’t you? Or is this new territory that they have never contemplated?

Then there’s the $50M Eichel is owed. That’s a guaranteed $50M whether it is paid by the Sabres, an insurer, or another NHL team. Saying Eichel should ‘bet on himself’ and walk away from that contract and simply become a UFA seems pretty naive to me. Who in their right mind would walk away from $50M? Unless the Eichel family has a hundreds of millions or billions dollars, he probably intends to see every penny of that $50M. If he were to somehow escape his contract, I doubt he ever gets back to whole. He would have to rebound in a pretty convincing way to see another deal with a $10M/year salary. It might not be totally unrealistic, but if I’m Eichel, that’s not a bet I’m willing to take.

If Eichel went and got the surgery without the Sabres consent he would have a breach of contract situation. Now if everything worked out with the surgury the team would keep him and they would either reconcile or the Sabres would trade him. Sabres are not going to release him if everything works out fine.

However, if the surgury does not go well or there are complications in recovery than the Sabres could determine then to terminate his contract if it looks like he will not play ever again.

Bigger picture is insurance. If he goes against the team he will not get any money while he is having the surgury or during recovery. If his three months become six months (or 9-24 months) in that recovery period he is not going to get paid. As well even if it does work out and in two or three years he has another issue with his neck and it can be traced back to the replacement disk the insurance companies will not pay him for any lost or down time and whatever team he is on would not have to pay him and could also walk away from his contract at that time.

Very big financial risk both now and in the future for Eichel to goes his own way.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Also, Marek suggesting that Seattle may raise a banner for their 1917 cup, when the Habs come to town

I think that would be awesome!

Has the NHL become the Troll League? Between Carolina's antics and this, it is amazing.

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[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Yeah Buffalo's doctor must be from the stone-age...

Buffalo's doctor is Beatle17.


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[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Which is why I said to bet on himself, if the surgery goes as expected he wouldn't be out anything, except that hole Buffalo

He is not "betting on himself," though. Eichel has no control over the outcome of the surgery. And I think there is a good chance that he would be out a full year's salary, since there are so few teams in a position right now to sign him.

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[Knightslayer]

Originally Posted by Poe969

Isn't there a way for Eichel to breach/terminate his contract, have the surgery, then become a UFA?

No unless team agrees to it, and that's not happening. 0 chance contract gets terminated.

Suspending him though is an option but that will start a huge legal challenge which I don't think Sabres want.

Trading him is best option.

[Flames1217]

The more I think about the entire Eichel situation I almost feel as if we should switch gears a bit.

Lindholm has been a beast at center so far, and is a legit 1C. We should maybe go out and get a top 6 RH RW.

Why not go out and get someone like Filip Forsberg. He is on an expiring deal, will likely be willing to resign here, has a game that would fit Sutter's system. He would also cost significantly less than Eichel.

I would much rather go after someone like that, we also need help as soon as possible. Eichel won't be playing for another 6 months at min.

[Vinny01]

Forsberg is a pending UFA so adds to the contract challenges of Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Mangiapane. Also if you have Eichel-Lindholm as your 1-2 that is cup contender center depth.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by MrMike

But that powerplay though. Would be just a thing of beauty.

Yeah, the skillsets are so complementary, it's essentially the Tampa Bay powerplay.

Stamkos <-> Eichel on the left side circle with his one-timer and vision. Eichel a bit more skilled so he could QB too.

Point <-> Lindholm at the bumper as a righthanded shot able to receive the short pass from the right side circle and make quick decisions

Kucherov <-> Gaudreau at the right side circle with the option of feeding Eichel on the seam pass or Lindholm on the short pass, or even one-time any feeds that come his way from Eichel or the point.

Killorn <-> Tkachuk as the netfront tips/screen/recovery option.

I'm sure you could figure out a point man for that unit. Maybe even bring back Gustafsson if none of the current guys can cut the mustard.

And still have the Eatbread show on PP2

[Flames1217]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Forsberg is a pending UFA so adds to the contract challenges of Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Mangiapane. Also if you have Eichel-Lindholm as your 1-2 that is cup contender center depth.

But gutting your entire team to achieve said center depth may equally harm the team.

I understand the impact he would have, but gutting your team now to get a player who will only play in 6 months is essentially kissing the playoffs for this year goodbye.

We need to not only add now but add for the future. If we can get Forsberg now, sign him to a solid deal we are not only helping our playoffs chances now but for the following seasons also.

Say we pay half for Forsberg than what we would for Eichel... Something to consider nonetheless.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Flames1217

But gutting your entire team to achieve said center depth may equally harm the team...

Who's gutting the entire team? The Eichel deal will be mostly futures.

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[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Who's gutting the entire team? The Eichel deal will be mostly futures.

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Yep.

From the Flames side of things there'd need to be some salary cap exchanged (unless they go Kucherov with the situation, which is also not crazy), but there's a clearly a deal to be made as almost every insider has the Flames as one of the teams still really in this.

Just to be able to see a 1-2 punch of Eichel-Lindholm down the middle..it'd be so magnificent.

Treliving has been big game hunting for a long time and now that he has Sutter and Markstrom in place I really hope the stars finally align and this gets done. Would be so damn exciting.