Friedman was on SN960 yesterday and said the Sabres solicited offers from teams over the summer on Eichel but decided not to act on them. They did it because he was unhappy. The situation is clearly deteriorating and the clock is ticking until his NMC kicks in and the Sabres will be facing their own Nash situation. If he asks for a trade and the league catches wind of it, Buffalo loses most of the leverage they have in negotiations.
Only a couple of teams can realistically make that sort of trade in season. Us and LA are the obvious ones. Calgary might be looking for that kind of massive shake up. The Rangers nor the Kings are going to surrender their elite prospects like Laf, Kakko, and Byfield. That leaves guys like Turcotte, Vilardi, Kupari, and Fagemo for LA. Lundkvist, Kravtsov, Robertson, and Schneider on the table from our side. In terms of potential I think the groups are similar and the decision would come down to need. The Rangers have some more 25-and-under NHL talent they could spare where LA is mostly veterans. So it really boils down to whether or not the Sabres want to nuke everything and start over, or if they're leaning more towards a retooling and hope they can get a combination of existing NHL talent and higher-potential kids who are right about to make the jump. For example, Turcotte might be the "sexier" prospect because he's a center, but he struggling in a pro league at 19 while Nils was quite literally a record setter at the same age in his pro league. He could step in next season and possibly be a 2nd pairing NHL D. Could Turcotte step in next year and center a scoring line in the NHL? Seems unlikely.
The Rangers also have something the Kings might not have: A youngish goalie that the Sabres have been linked to previously.
From the Rangers side of things, the argument against Eichel -- aside from the price -- is whether or not we need a center of his caliber with Panarin, Laf, Kakko, Kreider, Buch, and Kravtsov/etc as our group of wingers. Would we be better served with guys in the mold of Bergeron or Toews who can bring that defensive element and compliment those high-skill wingers? Could we pluck a guy off the reclamation pile like the Canes did with Vinny Trocheck last year? I was a big fan of going after Dvorak last season and he's taken that big step forward some of us were anticipating. Someone with 3 or 4 years left on a reasonable contract but they've fallen out of favor or are underperforming. That player might be a better fit not only financially but stylistically as well.
