Quoting: NYR1983
You are missing the mark here. He doesn't want a fresh start, Skinner might want that... Eichel wants to compete, something that BUF has failed at for over a decade. For no good reason they have failed, like it's a curse. GREAT players, fail.... please read my previous statement... I never said he would go to DET/OTT, I said "he WON'T agree to leave BUF for DET/OTT. The reason being is if they made a trade they would lose all that good potential... Stutzle and Batherson would be 2 of the pieces to acquire him and then they are back to being a 1 trick pony of Eich/Tkack/Dady... after that it's not competitive.
Fwiw, the one team he's been rumored to is LA. And they're exactly in the same position as Ottawa. Namely, so filled with prospects that they might consider bringing a guy like Eichel in by using some of them.
I don't agree with your notion of "Eichel won't leave BUF." And I realize as I'm writing this that there's a typo in my previous text, my b for that. It should say "I don't see any realistic reason for him to NOT start again in a team like Ottawa...as long as the team has promise, because Buffalo certainly doesn't.
Also, maybe I'm a bit cynical, but I do think OTT is better off with having Eichel than they are with Stutzle and Batherson for instance. The reason is because OTT is already so filled with prospects that some of them are going to be left out without a spot simply because there isn't enough slots for all of them. If they could form a package of several great prospects to combine them into a franchise player, I absolutely think they should do it.
But as long as OTT is rebuilding, I don't think it's happening. Rebuilding teams in general want to sort their prospect pool first and then make choices about where to go next...or at least that's the picture I'm getting from Ottawa.
Regardless, the notion of Eichel's trade value diminish because his NMC is about to kick in a matter of year is wrong in my opinion. If he wants out, there's no reason for him to hinder that process. BUF won't hesitate with that decision.