What would you be willing to trade to acquire Jack Eichel?

[majormajor]

I proposed this on the main board in an Eichel thread, and seeing I’m not sure how many of you Jackets fans post there as opposed to just here on your team board, I figured I’d get your opinions here. I fully expect “no”, but at least try to humour me with counter offers if possible. I’m honestly not sure where the Jackets are heading, but from what I saw this off-season, they’re mostly tweaking instead of rebuilding or loading up. That being said, I should have made the first option a “OR” option like I did the fourth one.




Because I see them as a dark horse candidate, and I’m not sure what exactly direction they’re going, I can see Columbus being a dark horse candidate. A look at capfriendly shows they have the space, they have interesting young players, they have picks that won’t hurt to trade, and even though they’re in the same conference, they’re not divisional OR state rivals.

Just as a spitball, Columbus could do something like:

- Kent Johnson
- 2022 Columbus or Chicago 1st
- Stanislav Svozil
- Chinakhov or Foudy
- Korpisalo

and obviously it can be tweaked. Buffalo gets their young potential 1C (and logically pushes Roslovic down in the lineup, keeping him with Bjorkstrand who I noticed he has good chemistry with), gets another 1st (already conditions on the Chicago pick, but Columbus gets to keep the better pick), and Laine gets a set up guy. Buffalo also gets a younger forward prospect, but Columbus only gives up one of them.

More importantly, I get the guy on the Sabres that I wanted with one of the Sabres two 2nd rounders this past draft


That being said, it should say Johnson or Sillinger. That way Columbus keeps one of their future C prospects. I also realize it is most likely perceived as an overpayment currently, given Eichel’s injury status. But is there anything there to work with?

The value is obviously somewhere in between Eichel as [severely] damaged and Eichel as superstar. So that seems well done on your part. I'd give it to the doctors and ask them.

 

[Byrral]

Just as a spitball, Columbus could do something like

Yes the CBJ COULD do something like this. They are in a position to do it and if Jack was healthy they also have the assets to get it done. But he's not healthy and the risk of trading away the assets that will be needed to get him along with his salary makes it impossible for me to take that risk without knowing he will be 100% after his surgery.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

The value is obviously somewhere in between Eichel as permanently damaged and Eichel as superstar. So that seems well done on your part. I'd give it to the doctors and ask them.

Well obviously Eichel is gonna be permanently damaged regardless of whatever surgery happens. It’s just gonna depend on severity. He’s probably still a superstar after, but I guess it depends on if it’s a 90-100 point one or a 70-80 point one.

But yea, it would depend on the doctors. I just know Columbus has enough futures that they don’t sell the farm to acquire him, has the cap space, and isn’t the goddamn Rangers.

 

[majormajor]

Well obviously Eichel is gonna be permanently damaged regardless of whatever surgery happens. It’s just gonna depend on severity. He’s probably still a superstar after, but I guess it depends on if it’s a 90-100 point one or a 70-80 point one.

But yea, it would depend on the doctors. I just know Columbus has enough futures that they don’t sell the farm to acquire him, has the cap space, and isn’t the goddamn Rangers.

That's what I'm imagining. There will be some lasting damage but if he's still a 90 point player then it is worth the price you mentioned. If he's a 70 pt guy then no.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Yes the CBJ COULD do something like this. They are in a position to do it and if Jack was healthy they also have the assets to get it done. But he's not healthy and the risk of trading away the assets that will be needed to get him along with his salary makes it impossible for me to take that risk without knowing he will be 100% after his surgery.

The only thing I can see is that Eichel becomes less hesitant to go get the puck in the “dirty areas” after surgery. Even after it happened, he still did the things you expected him to do. Us Sabres fans complaint up to the injury was he didn’t shoot enough, but that was a rib injury (I assume wasn’t annoying enough to not play, but annoying enough that it hurt to take clappers from the dot, because that stretches those muscles). He still had everything except that. Which still made the Sabres PP #1 in the league up until he was shut down for the year.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

That's what I'm imagining. There will be some lasting damage but if he's still a 90 point player then it is worth the price you mentioned. If he's a 70 pt guy then no.

I imagine if he’s a 70 point guy then the price should come down. Out of what I proposed, I’d drop 2 of those pieces, and change it slightly.

Say for instance the Jackets team doctors decided he won’t be 100% effective, but would be 85-90%. I’d settle for:

- Johnson or Sillinger
- 1 of the 1sts
- Svozil
- Chinakhov or Foudy (if the 1sts are a no).

 

[majormajor]

I imagine if he’s a 70 point guy then the price should come down. Out of what I proposed, I’d drop 2 of those pieces, and change it slightly.

Say for instance the Jackets team doctors decided he won’t be 100% effective, but would be 85-90%. I’d settle for:

- Johnson or Sillinger
- 1 of the 1sts
- Svozil
- Chinakhov or Foudy (if the 1sts are a no).

If the doctors say he is only going to be a 70 pt guy then my interest goes from "will pay Johnson/Sillinger" to maybe not even interested in any deal. With that $10m price tag it is going to be hard to build a winner if we don't get at least a point per game guy out of it.

I wouldn't trade Johnson/Sillinger + for a 70 pt guy in general. That kind of production is not far off my median expectation for those two players (pretty lofty I know).

 

[MarkusKetterer]

If the doctors say he is only going to be a 70 pt guy then my interest goes from "will pay Johnson/Sillinger" to maybe not even interested in any deal. With that $10m price tag it is going to be hard to build a winner if we don't get at least a point per game guy out of it.

I wouldn't trade Johnson/Sillinger + for a 70 pt guy in general. That kind of production is not far off my median expectation for those two players (pretty lofty I know).

I picture Johnson higher than Sillinger, but I picture Sillinger as the more all around guy. But what the hell do I know? I missed on 92% of the Sabres picks this year (only hit I got was that it was Power or Beniers)

 

[jacketsnation]

No thanks

 

[KJ Dangler]

Wouldn’t trade for him at all . Stay the course

 

[I3LI3]

I proposed this on the main board in an Eichel thread, and seeing I’m not sure how many of you Jackets fans post there as opposed to just here on your team board, I figured I’d get your opinions here. I fully expect “no”, but at least try to humour me with counter offers if possible. I’m honestly not sure where the Jackets are heading, but from what I saw this off-season, they’re mostly tweaking instead of rebuilding or loading up. That being said, I should have made the first option a “OR” option like I did the fourth one.




Because I see them as a dark horse candidate, and I’m not sure what exactly direction they’re going, I can see Columbus being a dark horse candidate. A look at capfriendly shows they have the space, they have interesting young players, they have picks that won’t hurt to trade, and even though they’re in the same conference, they’re not divisional OR state rivals.

Just as a spitball, Columbus could do something like:

- Kent Johnson
- 2022 Columbus or Chicago 1st
- Stanislav Svozil
- Chinakhov or Foudy
- Korpisalo

and obviously it can be tweaked. Buffalo gets their young potential 1C (and logically pushes Roslovic down in the lineup, keeping him with Bjorkstrand who I noticed he has good chemistry with), gets another 1st (already conditions on the Chicago pick, but Columbus gets to keep the better pick), and Laine gets a set up guy. Buffalo also gets a younger forward prospect, but Columbus only gives up one of them.

More importantly, I get the guy on the Sabres that I wanted with one of the Sabres two 2nd rounders this past draft


That being said, it should say Johnson or Sillinger. That way Columbus keeps one of their future C prospects. I also realize it is most likely perceived as an overpayment currently, given Eichel’s injury status. But is there anything there to work with?

hard pass, emphasis on hard.

 

[Easternbull]

STAY AWAY!!!

 

[Ippenator]

I wouldn’t absolutely consider trading for Eichel in any situation. First of all his health issues are very serious, and even if he has the surgery and recovers well from it, he will have in the future a bigger risk of having to end his career prematurely, if he gets injured to the same area again. Also there is no guarantee that he will ever be the same player after the surgery.

Anyway I have to say that even if he would recover well and have a long career after the surgery, in my opinion he will not bring to the table as much as some people seem to think that he brings. He doesn’t make the other players or the team around him that much better really, and has been simply overrated as an adult player. I just don’t see him as worth the huge risk, simply because I believe that even if everything would go well healthwise, I don’t see his kind of a player as a true leader and winner which I hope that Columbus can still find somehow. I just don’t see Eichel as that player and definitely not worth of taking huge risks.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

hard pass, emphasis on hard.

Fair enough, but why? I understand not wanting to do a deal, but I prefer a reason why over “because”.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

I wouldn’t absolutely consider trading for Eichel in any situation. First of all his health issues are very serious, and even if he has the surgery and recovers well from it, he will have in the future a bigger risk of having to end his career prematurely, if he gets injured to the same area again. Also there is no guarantee that he will ever be the same player after the surgery.

Anyway I have to say that even if he would recover well and have a long career after the surgery, in my opinion he will not bring to the table as much as some people seem to think that he brings. He doesn’t make the other players or the team around him that much better really, and has been simply overrated as an adult player. I just don’t see him as worth the huge risk, simply because I believe that even if everything would go well healthwise, I don’t see his kind of a player as a true leader and winner which I hope that Columbus can still find somehow. I just don’t see Eichel as that player and definitely not worth of taking huge risks.

I agree that there’s no guarantee he returns to 100%. But that applies to any injury.

Now as far as not making any player better, I’ll give you he’s not a Gretzky or Lemieux or Crosby (maybe even a McDavid, but I see him as more selfish than the players I listed), but he did turn Skinner into a 40 goal guy. He also works better with someone that’s more of a trigger guy, instead of someone that needs the puck to create offense. Like, him with Laine works. Him with Bjorkstrand wouldn’t work so well.

 

[DoingItCoolKiwi]

I'm not against getting Eichel like many here are (and really not interested in debating about it again), but Johnson, Sillinger and our 1st are not on table for me either. Dont want to do a repeat of Karlsson or Duchene/Turris trade.

And everything that can be should be conditional depending on Eichel's health, just in case.

 

[pled]

for 1 first and 1 prospect max and protected.

 

[I3LI3]

Fair enough, but why? I understand not wanting to do a deal, but I prefer a reason why over “because”.

kent johnson.

I get it, Jack is Jack… but I am such a believer in what KJ brings to our prospect pool and what he will bring to our club. same with Sillinger to a lesser extent.

 

[Ippenator]

I agree that there’s no guarantee he returns to 100%. But that applies to any injury.

Now as far as not making any player better, I’ll give you he’s not a Gretzky or Lemieux or Crosby (maybe even a McDavid, but I see him as more selfish than the players I listed), but he did turn Skinner into a 40 goal guy. He also works better with someone that’s more of a trigger guy, instead of someone that needs the puck to create offense. Like, him with Laine works. Him with Bjorkstrand wouldn’t work so well.

Sure he could help some player or even players become better. But I just don’t see that he would be able to do it very substantially. And unfortunately he wasn’t able to make Buffalo much at all better as a team. Of course he can’t be the only person blamed for anything, but in my opinion true leaders can have a better influence on their team than he has had in Buffalo. He was that many years there already, that there should have been at least some clearly good influence.

Of course he is at his best a really good player, but I don’t still see that he would be worth the price that Columbus would have to pay to get him in any case. I definitely wouldn’t want to see Columbus lose neither Sillinger nor Johnson, and I don’t see a scenario where Columbus could get Eichel without losing at least one of them.

 

[MoeBartoli]

No thanks.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

I'm not against getting Eichel like many here are (and really not interested in debating about it again), but Johnson, Sillinger and our 1st are not on table for me either. Dont want to do a repeat of Karlsson or Duchene/Turris trade.

And everything that can be should be conditional depending on Eichel's health, just in case.

I'd be willing to do one of the three as part of a package, but not more than one. Maybe something like Johnson, Voronkov and Korpi. Maybe throw in a 2nd, too (at the risk of getting made fun of by doing the HF classic "throw in a mid-round pick in a superstar trade, as if that moves the needle at all"). Probably wouldn't go higher than that.

Doubt that'd be enough for Buffalo, but if this continues to go on for a long time and no one's really budging much given the $10M, health and/or concerns about Eichel's character (not saying those concerns about his character are legitimate, but there's definitely at least a "is this guy a team player?" vibe) then maybe in a few months that would get it done. Nash ended up hauling less than I originally anticipated he would (I think that package is probably roughly equal in value to Dubi + AA + Erixon + late 1st), although granted that was a decade ago and GM perception of trade value changes over time. But there are a lot of similarities to that situation.

I maintain I think it's funny when people talk about the Eichel "risk". Kent Johnson is a much bigger risk than Eichel to me. Sillinger is probably less of a risk, but I also don't think his ceiling is as high (as either Johnson or Eichel).

 

[CBJWerenski8]

With the rebuild in full swing, I wouldn’t give an arm and a leg for Eichel, and I certainly wouldn’t deal Johnson in a package for him (I don’t think I want to trade Sillinger either but I could relent there)

So the max deal I would give, with 100% expectation it would be turned down would be

1. one of Sillinger/Chinakhov
2. One of Bemstrom/Texier/Foudy
3. Columbus/Chicago’s first, top five protected (if one is in the top 5, the other goes to Buffalo. If both are in the top 5, the pick goes to CBJ pick next year unprotected)
4. Korpisalo

 

[majormajor]

I maintain I think it's funny when people talk about the Eichel "risk". Kent Johnson is a much bigger risk than Eichel to me. Sillinger is probably less of a risk, but I also don't think his ceiling is as high (as either Johnson or Eichel).

That's a good way to put it. For whatever reason folks around here tend to conceive of hard rebuilding as the safe option. As if Buffalo didn't have half the best prospects in hockey at one point.

 

[Finner]

Korpi + 1st + A prospect.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

kent johnson.

I get it, Jack is Jack… but I am such a believer in what KJ brings to our prospect pool and what he will bring to our club. same with Sillinger to a lesser extent.

Fair enough. Oddly I like Sillinger more, although Johnson has more skill. To me anyway.