Not everything is about Eichel. Whether we have him, or not, I am sure that the UFA's will want to get their market value or they will look elsewhere. There is zero chance that if we don't have eichel we could go to them and say "look, we are being cheap, so cheap we wouldn't trade for eichel cuz $$$$. So, now take our super below market contract cuz we are poor."
The only consideration I could see the UFA's having, as it pertains to Eichel, is that if we have him we are closer to competing. They may be willing to give a slight discount if they feel this team is closer to being competitive.