Dear Twabaratus,
You can't just look at trades that happen and say, "We should have done that trade! Our GM sucks!"
The salary cap matters. NMCs matter. GMs are particular about trading in-division. Trading away a bucket of futures when you're a couple years away from serious turnover is a bad idea. And other teams get to make offers, too. You have to take ALL of those factors into account AND top every other offer to land a big-ticket player.
There's no way to prove Wilson wouldn't have had Buffalo on his no trade list? No one wants to go to Buffalo. Buffalo's top export is Buffalo residents. The whole reason we're discussing this at all is that their only star player was more desperate to escape a city than Snake Plissken ever was.
They rank #4 on the list of most miserable sports cities. They're more known for The Music City Miracle, Wide Right, and No Goal than for winning anything. The last time they won a championship of any note, that league shut down the following year.
"But it's close to Toronto!" Sure, but he's gonna take a plane, right? You think he's going to tie himself to the frozen armpit of the NHL just to spend a few less minutes suffering in first class when he goes to visit his mom?
A guy that doesn't want to be traded relies on his ridiculously expensive agent to block the most likely trades. That year Eichel was the top trade target and there was buzz about Scheifele (Winnipeg is the other frozen armpit of the NHL). Buffalo and Winnipeg were on everyone's no-trade list.
The #1 reason Vegas was able to swing that trade is that Tuch and Krebs' no-trade lists were fictional and therefore not recognized by the NHL.
The Capitals have not had the assets or cap space to get seriously involved in those types of trades for a long time now. The only 3 guys that could have given us the cap relief to maybe afford Eichel all had trade protection.
"What I want is the same thing I wanted for years. Top-6 players, especially centers, to be exchanged for better and younger players."
"Throwing the kitchen sink" at this idea, as you put it, is something A LOT of teams do when those types of players become available. Every team that thinks they might have a shot cobbles together their own kitchen sink and throws it. Every team.
This assumption so many people seem to make, that if a GM didn't land a trade then he must not have even tried, is preposterous. Every GM that thinks they could even remotely be in the mix for a player like Eichel puts together the offer they can live with, and our GM has never been shy about trades.
You're coming up with these Fantasyland proposals and then getting all mad when our GM can't pull them off. You ask Santa for a unicorn for Christmas and get butthurt when it doesn't happen even though unicorns don't exist. Santa isn't that powerful, guys.
Sincerely,
Everyone Else