Why the Ottawa Senators Should NOT Trade for Jack Eichel

I feel like Jack Eichel’s name has been in trade rumors ever since he signed his contract extension a few years ago. I’ve tried to discuss it with people, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Jack Eichel should NOT come to Ottawa.

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To start, I’d like to remind everyone that Eichel is expressing a poor attitude with his current club. Sure, he’s playing in Buffalo, which is the joke of the NHL, but Ottawa was the joke just a few years ago and still trying to reach relevancy. Who says his attitude will get better? I know he’s upset because of his organization, but I would not jump the gun on him.

Now for those who look past that and say “What about Ryan O’Reilly? He was in a similar situation and look how happy he is now!” I’ll counter with Ottawa is NOT winning the cup in a year. With or without Eichel. Beside that, I still hear some people arguing that a change of scenery would do him good, and to that I agree. However I do not want him in Ottawa.

When it comes to Eichel, he is a top 5 center in the league, those are not given away. I can guarantee you that EVERY general manager will call with an offer. Only 10 GMs will admit to it, but they will ALL call. This means the Sens will have to outbid EVERY team in the NHL in order to secure Eichel’s services. That means, overpaying. Below, you will see a tweet containing some analytics to show how good he is.

I have a feeling some teams might have interest in Jack Eichel this summer. #LetsGoBuffalo #LetMeGoBuffalo pic.twitter.com/BjX0uMiehO

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) May 10, 2021

Normally, I’m all for doing whatever it takes to make the team better. But in this case I don’t think it will, simply because of the asking price. I see a lot of people posting mock-trades on Twitter, but to me they are ALL far off.

Now, what WILL Eichel cost? That, I’m not exactly sure, but I can guarantee it is a lot. I’ve seen a lot of “Logan Brown, Vitaly Abramov and a third for Eichel” or other trades like that being mentioned. I’m sorry but that’s not even CLOSE to being enough. To acquire Eichel, Ottawa is going to need to offer something significant.

For the purpose of this article, I’ll offer this trade package:

Erik Brannstrom, One of Shane Pinto/Josh Norris, One of Filip Gustavsson/Joey Daccord, Jake Sanderson, first round pick + more

I know that is a LOT going the other way, but if you want to have Jack Eichel on your team you’re going to have to offer a lot more than just table scraps. Buffalo isn’t going to trade him at a loss. This is literally going to be a bidding war. As much as Eichel would ameliorate this team on paper, the lost assets would actually make the team weaker in my opinion.

If Eichel IS traded to Ottawa, the top 6 would look something like this next year

Tkachuk – Eichel – Batherson

Stützle – Norris/Pinto – Brown

With our defense looking like

Chabot – Zaitsev

Mete* – Zub

x – Brown

*IF Victor Mete re signs, which is NOT guaranteed.

The forward core looks good, but the defense would be very weak. In my opinion, trading for Eichel would be a step back defensively, and given that defense is our “weakness” already, I don’t want to lose any quality defenseman.

Closing Thoughs

Jack Eichel would no doubt be the best player on the Ottawa Senators should they acquire him, it would be one step forward for the forwards, but two steps back on defense. I don’t think it’s worth the price, but hey, that’s just my opinion.

I want to see Jack Eichel traded out of Buffalo. He deserves a fresh start, but for the love of god – please not in Ottawa.

For more of my content, feel free to follow me on Twitter @JacobLarivire