Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: It’s obvious that there has been a breaking of trust with regards to Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres. It’s hard to see him back with the Sabres.
There will be a ton of interest in Eichel this offseason as he’s still only 24-years old and under contract for another five seasons. The New York Rangers were interested last year and could be again. The Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets are two others but do they have the pieces? The Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings have the pieces. The Ottawa Senators may not make sense to make the move. The Montreal Canadiens could be interested too.
TSN: Pierre LeBrun’s sources say that Sabres forward Jack Eichel hasn’t asked for a trade. Sabres GM Kevyn Adams is scheduled to speak with the media today. Teams around the league think that the Sabres will look to move him this offseason.
“One of the reasons they think that is that Eichel’s no-move clause kicks in a year from now on July 1, 2022 which really gives him the hammer at that point about where he could end up. So, this is the one offseason that Kevyn Adams has left to move Eichel wherever he wants if that is indeed what he wants to do.
Now, a couple teams come to mind for me as potential fits. One is the Minnesota Wild, obviously the idea of Eichel playing with Kirill Kaprizov on the same line certainly seems to be fun to think about. But the Wild have to sign Kaprizov, they also have to sign Joel Eriksson Ek this summer, so they would have to make the money work. The New York Rangers. Hardly a secret that last offseason the Rangers did have discussions with the Sabres about Eichel. Again, I think the Rangers want to be careful about their cap situation as well.”
TSN: Frank Seravalli notes that he’s not sure if the Sabres would want to trade him to a divisional rival and sending him out west would limit the number of times you would see your ‘franchise player.’
“Don’t sleep on two California teams: the Anaheim Ducks and their GM Bob Murray wants to make a splash and the Los Angeles Kings. The Los Angeles Kings have seven players on Craig Button’s Top 75 Affiliated Prospect List. They have the goods to bring in a guy like Jack Eichel to SoCal and more importantly they’ve had interest. I can tell you that the Kings have had a cursory conversation before the deadline with the Buffalo Sabres about acquiring Jack Eichel and I expect that to pick up in a big way this summer.”