WGR 550 Radio: Elliotte Friedman was on The Instigators show with Andrew Peters and Craig Rivet. Friedman was asked if it would ever see it as a possibility that the Buffalo Sabres would trade Jack Eichel.
“Yes”
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“Obviously the way the Sabres came back out of the break with two really rough losses has started a lot of talk about what could be happening here. We know that this is something that came up last summer, okay, and I don’t know if it was ever close. The feeling I’ve always had is that Buffalo knew that Eichel was unhappy. They asked Eichel to take a step last year and he really did. We talked about how much of a step Eichel took last year, and still when it came to team success, it just didn’t really go anywhere.
And now you look at where it is this year and you know he’s going to be frustrated and there were conversations last year about, what I was told the Sabres just said, ‘we are not ready to do this. We are not ready.’
Teams made offers. It was communicated that he was restless. I don’t think he ever asked for a trade. I don’t think it ever got that far. But he was restless and teams knew it. The Sabres took some offers and said, ‘No, we’re not ready to do this.'”
Friedman was asked what kind of offers were they getting? What would be the market for him?
“It would be big. It would be big.”
Would it be unmoveable big, maybe too many assets that a team wouldn’t want to give up that much?
“That’s not true.
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“The reason I disagree with Marty on this one is that, maybe Buffalo would look at it like that. Like ‘we need a billion assets’ okay. The thing is, what’s the market? I think the market would be robust for Eichel. He’s a top player. He’s a good player. That’s all you need to say. He’s a good player. He’s a center who can play a number one center. How many, like look at Dubois, those guys don’t become available.
Here’s the problem guys. Number one is if Buffalo is trading him this offseason, it’s because he wants a change and they want a change. It’s not an easy position to deal from. Number two, okay there is going to be a lot of interest, but how many teams are really going to be able to do what the Sabres want? It will be a bit more limited. Do you get three or four teams that really want Jack Eichel? I think yes but I don’t think, I think Marty’s right in that in that the Sabres will ask for a lot, but I don’t think it’s prohibitive in the sense that there isn’t anyone that can do it.
I think you can make, the team I would look at first is the Rangers. I think the Rangers can make {host overtalks Friedman – “Rangers and LA for me would make the most sense”]. Well, there you go. I think both those teams could make deals with Buffalo that would make you say, ‘maybe we didn’t get the best player in return’ cause Eichel is probably the best player in the deal but you get something, and probably more than one thing that you’re excited about.
You’re not trading an unrestricted free agent. You’re trading a guy who’s got several years on his contract.”
Friedman notes that it’s an offsesaon deal, a draft deal.
“To be honest. If you the Rangers, and you’re the Kings and you want to do it, you probably could do it now.”
Host mentions there’s one more team that might work – the Chicago Blackhawks. Friedman responds.
“The Hawks aren’t as deep as those other two teams are.” Ahh, that would be something.”
Host adds not one-for-one, getting more for Eichel, but taking Kane is one the things that will ease the pain a little bit.
“I gotta tell you, weird things have happened in the world, I just don’t see Chicago trading Patrick Kane. He’s having a great year.”
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“I do think if Buffalo wanted to do it, and the Rangers wanted to do it … if Buffalo wanted to do it and the Kings wanted to do it … they could do it now.”