It's an issue if you piss off and alienate your other supposed "franchise player" I think.
They might as well be brothers at this point.
What happens if such a deal backfires (which it very, very easily could?). Then you have Hall who's been here for 4 years, pissed off at the franchise already on top of dealing with Eberle being traded. How long until he asks to be dealt?
Whether people want to admit it or not there are huge logistical problems to dealing Eberle on top of it being something that very, very likely would come back to haunt us for many years.
I too am worried about this...but from another cause...perpetual losing, is that not something we should be worried about too?
Every time someone brings up the possibility of Hall demanding a trade if we suck next year too everyone goes
"lol, no way, 7 year contract blah blah blah"
Every time someone brings up trading Eberle
"you want to piss hall off and make him demand a trade?"
This is totally illogical, we should be much more concerned with winning than player friendships.
I would need to be offered Lucic AND Hamilton.
Or Tavares.
Or Stamkos.
The asking price would be very ... verrrrry high.
Not dealing him based on some "needs" like third line freaking center and an ok d-man, no way in hell. If you can't get those types of pieces from Gagner, Hemsky, Paajarvi, Petry, EDM 1st 2013, then you're simply a bad GM.
It's just classic Oiler fan mentality, if you're not playing well you can be traded, but that's the epitome of making a decision based on emotion rather than logic. If he has 10 hot games again I would bet $1000 you would back off even the suggestion of a trade and never mention it again quietly.
Nor would i, that is just ridiculous, but if you can get an equivalent talent for him, specifically on D, you have to take it, we need to address the need. After a year or two of "you have to take BPA, trade for need" how do people not see this being the appropriate action.
And don't try to tell me equivalent for Eberle is a #1D, theres no way he returns a #1, but a #2D is realistic and would help our team a ton.
Who replaces Eberle on RW?
This team isn't in a position to fill a massive hole by creating a massive hole. Trading Eberle weakens the top 6 considerably. This is a player who has succeeded at a very high level at every level and has that special ability to show up in the big moments, that's an inherent special ability that he has plus he loves playing here so no, i'm not thinking emotionally, i'm thinking rationally.
I'm frustrated by the trade Eberle talk because this fanbase is so incredibly reactionary to any slump by young players. There's even some trade RNH talk starting up, it's beyond ridiculous.
Everybody seems to think that Eberle has maxed out already (some Gagner fans think that too which i find incredibly hypocritical).
Dealing him simply because he's slumping and has some value is ridiculous.
He's a part of the core that is still in its infancy stage, they are all growing together and are just starting to develop on and off ice chemistry with each other, that's very valuable for a young team.
I also don't get how the new shiny toy Yakupov makes Eberle expendable. That's like saying that RNH made Gagner expendable after his rookie season. Yakupov hasn't proven nearly enough to have all this pressure placed on him so early in his career.
My point is that you build around players like Hall, RNH, Eberle, Yakupov and Schultz, not deal them.
Sure, if a team offers a legit #1D for Eberle who is signed long term then you probably have to make that deal but that's not realistic so any deal of Eberle is a losing deal.
A top 6 of The big 4, a 2 way center and a big, physical winger is plenty good enough to compete for Cups. If you take Eberle out of that equation, i'm not so sure. He's not easily replacable.
??????????????????????? RW is by far our deepest position, how many people want to trade Gagner only to have a rookie or horcoff take his spot, RW is the one position we can deal from and NOT create a massive hole. We still would possess 2 top-6 RW.
Trading Eberle does weaken the top-6, but considerably? Sure we lose talent, but we have excess talent, and we lack size, consistency, and two-way play. Why are these appropriate motives for moving Gagner/Hemsky but not Eberle? Yeah Eberle is the best of them, but guess what he would also return A LOT more than those two. What i think is really the reason is we all love him so much hes clutch, he was an oiler fan, hes a WJC hero, and hes BFF with hall, i don't think any of these are great reasons for not looking to upgrade your roster.
A top-6 you describe with one of Gagner/Hemsky kept over eberle in conjunction with 2 new players would be very close overall as a group to being as good, but guess what, if we can add a top-pairing defenseman, the team is a lot better.
