I don't think this is short-sighted. I put this together after taking a serious look at the future of our squad. I don't think we have the pieces necessary to win a cup. We need a number one center. Full stop. I think we have two opportunities to fix this, but by this time next year, we will most likely have missed the boat on both of them. There's Eichel, and there's finishing bottom 10 and hoping to win the lottery. I outlined in a post earlier in this thread that even the "low offence" 1st line centers that have won the cup weren't that low offense, and were selkie candidates/winners to boot. Norris is good, but I don't think he has 70-90 point potential. Pinto is good, but it's the same thing with him. The last 21 cup winner had a center with that kind of ability on their team. I didn't bother looking back further than 21 years, but I imagine it would be much the same.
The surgery Eichel wants has a short recovery time, and if he had it today, the doctors expect he will be fully healthy and ready to participate in training camp. Worst case (barring complete surgical failure), he should be back and fully healthy long before the end of 2021. Listening to the doctor whom Eichel has been in contact with speak on both of the surgery types available to him alleviated a lot of doubts for me regarding his health both short and long term. The chance he never fully recovers is always there, but the chance he does seems to be much higher.
We're moving two roster centers for one. One of those guys most people want to get rid of anyway. Our bottom six centers in the short-term can be a mix of Brown, Tierney, and Paul. If Paul needs to move to center, we can move Brown or Tierney for a 3RW. I would say that is a realistic ask for either of those guys. I posted a potential bottom six in my post, but if a trade needs to be made, the bottom six could end up something like: Formenton - Paul/Tierney - xxx | Bishop - Paul/Tierney - Watson, which is fine. Tierney is more vanilla than vanilla, but he is a responsible player that won't hurt us when he's on the ice. I don't see the bottom six as an issue. Grieg plays both C and LW, but I think this is better use of his future value. If he projects to be a 2nd line player, we will be paying him second line money to be playing behind Norris and Pinto or Tkachuk and Stützle. Using a player in a position of strength (2nd liners) to address a need (1st liners) makes sense.
If Brannstrom is picked (someone many people here already have in their trade proposals for players much worse than Eichel), the defense for next season is as follows:
Chabot - Zaitzev
Del Zotto/Holden/Mete - Zub
Del Zotto/Holden/Mete - Holden/Mete/Brown
This defense is something we may be looking at, Eichel or no Eichel. For me, Mete performed at a similar level to Brannstrom to end off last season and would work as a suitable replacement for 2021-2022 (not beyond that). Zub looked like someone that could be the best guy on the second pairing for a good team. Holden is a good shut-down guy and would be a good option with him for a solid, mistake free second pair. The loss of Brannstrom is not so much felt next season, but in his potential. I expect him to turn into a pretty good Dman, but he is projected to be on our 3rd pairing in the future. I wouldn't normally consider him expendable until Sanderson is on the team, but his projected impact next season is replaceable internally, and Sanderson is projected to be much better in the near future. In my opinion, this better use of Brannstrom's future value.
The goaltending is absolutely a question mark in this scenario. I made sure to mention that out in my post. Goalies are traditionally cost the least to acquire of any position. They typically cost less money, and cost less assets to trade for. Two stellar goalies were moved this offseason for peanuts. I feel like worrying about this is putting the cart before the horse. Before using Lalime as an example of Sens goalie heartbreak, we were higher in the standings than the leafs a single time during our playoff battles with them. I would also like to point out that they had a true #1 center the whole time.
In conclusion and as a summary, I don't think it's short-sighted because I don't think we can win the cup with this core. This is the last year we have a shot at a good draft pick with the new lottery system, and the odds were lowered, making it less likely. After this draft, our core is our core unless we make big trades or signings, all of which will be for a player worse than Eichel. If you're happy with being a good team, or even a really good team that is never the favourite to win but has that "you never know!" vibe about winning, then I can understand not risking it for Eichel. I want to be a team that people are picking to win it.
