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Team: 2021-22 Montreal Canadiens

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 13, 2021

Published: Sep. 13, 2021

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

What if Montreal offered Buffalo 5 First Round Picks and a decent prospect (Poehling and/or Harris) for Eichel. The 5 First Round Picks happens to be the max compensation for the top RFA signings). I know that an initial reaction from Montreal fans MAY be: "That is way too much".
But what if you have Eichel for the next 5 years? I think I could easily make the argument that Montreal would finish in the top half of the league each of those years with Eichel on the team (see below), which means that the first round pick each year pick would be no higher than #16. If you look at Montreal's draft history in the first round over the last 20 years when the player they have drafted in the first round is picked no higher than slot #16 there is Kaiden Guhle and then a whole lot of nothing.
So if you have Eichel on the team without giving up current key roster players for him isn't that worth it?
The Habs have not been hurt by not having Ryan Poehling (to date), Noah Juulsen, NIkita Scherbak, MIchael McCarron, Nathan Beaulieu, Jarred Tinordi, Louis LeBlanc, David Fischer and Kyle Chipchura over the years (all of them were post #16 first round picks). I would trade all of those guys for Jack Eichel in a heartbeat.
Does Buffalo think that 5 first Rounders + Poehling + Harris (or other prospects) is not enough?
I don't know
Maybe the 5 first round picks is worth it to Buffalo so that they can use those picks in the next 2 drafts to get Shane Wright or Connor Bedard if they do not win the draft lottery in those years, which is really what the Sabres are shooting for short term.
If you are a team like Montreal that does not draft well in the latter half of the 1st round, then what are you really missing out on?
Is my logic far off the mark?
Is there a need for Poehling in the next 5 years if you have Eichel, Suzuki, Dvorak and Evans?
Does this give Carey Price the best shot at a Cup ring in Montreal?
And yes, I have thought about the cost of signing Suzuki, Romanov and Caufield in the future and it can be done with some cost cutting in the fringe areas.
I think that no risk equals no reward.
And unless there is a medical expert in these postings that can tell me that Eichel won't recover, then i am not super worried about it. Medical science is pretty advanced and I cannot think of any noteworthy player who has not had a big surgery and then never played again (yes injuries have derailed careers, but not surgeries).
This is perhaps unconventional thinking but it has been 28 years since the Cup has been in Montreal and I think this could get them much closer.

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