not comfotable trading JJ. Would rather move Thompson or Mitts

not comfotable trading JJ. Would rather move Thompson or Mitts

I think there is a catch here. Vrana surely has the right to arbitration and in a year he will be able to become an UFA?

Having Tage Thompson as the 2nd line center immediately discredited the rest of the AGM ngl. Vrana has more value anyways

Eli (op) has been around the block a few times. Pretty sure he wanted peterka specifically. I dont think he would swap mittelstadt or thompson here, but ive been wrong before. Peterka was considered a steal when he fell out of the first round, then he followed that up with a solid world juniors.

I would say it would have to be Hall or JJP.
If you take JJP
Hall would need to be traded to recoup that asset. I don't think buffalo could do both

The expansion draft is definitely changing the way everybody values everybody.



If he's good at saving, he's already earned, what, eight million dollars? So if he pushes to become a UFA in a way that could alienate a lot of potential teams, it wouldn't be about needing money to get by. It might be about how he fits with a team and whether he's finally getting some power play time. Buffalo has shown they can roll out the red carpet for Hall. I wouldn't worry about that being an issue, although another year of not deploying Skinner like a $9M goal scoring superstar could be rough on any hope of ever trading him, so it would make sense to package Skinner into an Eichel deal the same day this gets done.

1, We don't trade Eichel
2. We don't trade Skinner (because of the contract )
3. We will not trade for Vrana, so that he would go to UFA in a year, no thx

Okay. Thanks. That seems like a conversation the Sabres would have on the phone with the Capitals, asking for the number of Vrana's agent to work out an extension, if he's really available. As a fan on a couch in Flyover country, suggesting a fair trade based on the players' skills and abilities is the limit of what I can do. Making up other things to worry about is beyond my skillset.

Can I ask what it is that you like about Eichel enough to want to keep him after all of the trade offers all over this board?

This is the problem, few people want to play Buffalo. I don't see any serious motivation for Vrana. Moreover, why should we trade for Vrana, if you say us to trade Eichel and we will probably rebuild again, these are two opposite things. We won't need Vrana if we trade in Eichel.

He is our best player. He played amazingly in the last two seasons, but the team was too bad. Instead of trading Eichel, we just need to invite a good coach and improve the squad.

Imagine yourself as a Buffalo fan. Your team has not made the playoffs for 10 years in a row, this season we are the worst team in the league, before that we were constantly selected in the top 10 draft. Imagine the rage of Buffalo fans if they decide to trade Eichel, this is another resbuild, this is again years without a chance for the playoffs, the patience of the fans is running out for a long time, 10 years is a serious period, and if we are trading Eichel, how long do we have to wait for a good team and play- off, 15? 20 years? Moreover, our organization constantly has problems with the draft choices.

I agree. Fans want to see their teams succeed a little bit. They want to see moves that make sense to get the team winning. I think Buffalo has made some moves that make sense in terms of accumulating picks and prospects so that some guys should turn into players any day now. They've also made some moves that aren't as solid, like making Marcus Johansson and then the ghost of Eric Staal their #2 centers in consecutive seasons.

It sounds like you're saying you want to see the team add the talent to get them to the next level, but you're just afraid that if you get guys from winning teams, they might not be able to handle being on an underdog. I can tell you that the teams that Vrana helped take to the Finals in the WJHC, the AHL, and the NHL were not expected to make the Finals. At three different levels, Vrana helped lead decent but not great teams to at least 2nd place finishes in tournaments.

I can also tell you that constantly saying "no," and "not enough" to every single Eichel trade offer on here is not letting other teams know that Buffalo needs two top-six centers right away. Post some offers of your own and you will easily get a couple of top-six centers for Jack Eichel, whether or not you have to throw in Staal, and whether or not you get to dump Skinner into the deal. Of course, if Eichel as a captain leads Buffalo through the adversity they're having this year, and helps the team finish strong and feel like a team, maybe keep him. But at the moment one could make a case for new leadership, and Eichel's trade value seems strangely unaffected. NYR fans are happy offering their top two centers plus some stuff. San Jose probably feels the same. Nashville's top two centers aren't worth Eichel, put together. Calgary could be a fit.

But it also doesn't all have to get done with one team. There can be three different deals, one to convert Eichel into picks, one to add a proven #1C, and another to add a proven #2C. Will the fans rebel if Eichel goes on to score 90 points in another sweater while the two guys the Sabres traded him for each only get 70 in Buffalo and the Sabres make the playoffs? Some will. But winning brings in new fans.

The chance to trade Hall and basically two high 2nds for Vrana is only Buffalo's until the deadline. You can worry that Vrana might not turn a fourth underdog team into a contender, or you can mug the Caps and never look back.

The problem is not even entirely in the centers in the Eichel trade, but in the overall return. Of course, it is desirable to return the center in the deal with Eichel, but even on this site we see a lot of futures offers for Eichel, and it seems to me that if we end up trading Jack, it will be for futures, which means rebuild again, again a tank for such guys like Wright/Lambert and Bedard/Michkov. Again years of torment for the fans and a place at the bottom of the standings, again to hope that all these picks in the draft will be our salvation and maybe in 5-7 years we will reach the playoffs.

All of these centers from Nashville, San Jose and Calgary simply do not suit us for various reasons.

Even now Reinhart plays in the center again and looks good, he could be our 2C behind Jack. Mittelstadt or Cozens 3C next season. This is a decent center depth, but then we need to find 2-3 good wingers, find another goalie, extend Ullmark. The defense requires almost no changes, but it may still need a couple of experienced guys in defense, and the youth are looking good. But the main thing is to finally hire a competent coach, because the previous coach was not just bad, he simply destroyed our players, especially the youth and Skinner. Dahlin and Jokiharju struggling under Krueger, but he was fired and Dahlin and Jokiharju look great, and they also play in the same pair.

Boudreau, Gallant or Julien are now out of work, hire one of them, strengthen the squad in the offseason and go. Boudreau literally hints that he would not mind working in Buffalo and was always ready, but our GM is simply torn apart, he does not have an AGM, we have almost no scouts, we need to seriously strengthen the front office right now, a lot of work.

Yeah. In a draft year where all the sample sizes are tiny, I think scouts might be important. An AGM to help with the little decisions and bounce ideas off of sounds important, too. Reinhart at 2C could work, but yeah, I agree that leaves one more opening on the wings.

I've been a Caps fan since before they rebuilt from the Jagr/Bondra days, and I can relate to wondering why a team that seems like so many promising prospects would want an established player. I think someone once suggested the team try to acquire a young UFA defenseman out of Ottawa named Zdeno Chara and I thought they wouldn't need him, because they had just drafted Jeff Schultz and Sasha Pokulok, to say nothing of Joe Finley. Needless to say I'm really happy that Chara finally signed with the Caps.

So while I agree that Peterka could turn into something, Vrana is already a decent NHL wing who has helped a team make the playoffs a lot of years in a row. Is there a catch? I don't know. There's usually some reason a guy gets traded, sure, but under a flat cap, the Caps might just be tired of hearing teams pass on Panik and Jensen, and want to be sure they can make cap space to pay Ovechkin one last time. Would it be great for Buffalo if they could get a top six wing for a recent high 2nd round pick? Yeah. That would be great. I think WSH has three better offers on this board today than just Peterka, though.

Vrana has a ton of value in a vacuum. He's a 25 year old who's consistently top 30 in the NHL in even strength goals and any team that has him should try to keep him. Under a flat cap with Ovechkin approaching a raise as a UFA, I saw a rumor on here that Vrana could be available, and I'm having fun trying to be a part of that conversation. Thompson at 2C is just a chance for him to get some points, while the team tries to at least be fun to watch until it drafts top three. Eichel is on IR, not LTIR, and making a trade for a 2C would hurt draft position without getting this team to this year's playoffs, so I didn't see the point. I did briefly build a 2nd line of Panik, Eakin, and Okposo as a shutdown unit, but if you know you're gonna lose, you might as well be fun to watch.

edit: As far as "discredited," I am definitely nobody important. Just a hockey fan who likes making suggestions and talking to other fans. I think sometimes reporters and scouts and players post on here, and I try to stay out of their way. So I am in no way claiming that this offer comes from any NHL organization. It doesn't. It's just a Caps fan building off of suggestions from a Caps fan and a Sabres fan who both also post on here a lot, and trying to take into account some of what Sabres fans had commented on the earlier posts on the Caps side. As a personal aside, I don't think the Caps should trade Vrana, but other Caps fans shoot down all of my Ovechkin trade ideas, and now people are starting to post Vrana trades. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.



Very kind, and I know the IRL Caps seem to value WJC performance, as do a lot of teams, but credit for suggesting Peterka goes to CapitalFail67

Another guy who did pretty well at the WJC was Jakub Vrana. He and Vanecek led an underdog Czech team to a silver medal before they were drafted. If there's a way WSH can keep both, I think they should look into it, but if they want to trade Vrana, and not give him to an Eastern conference contender, Buffalo might be a good partner for that conversation.


more edits: here's the original suggestion: https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/2300933

Here's the funniest response: https://www.capfriendly.com/armchair-gm/team/2301083

I'm just trying to mediate between these two ideas of what Vrana is worth to Buffalo. My own idea would be "Eichel," but that is unpopular and doesn't fit the salary cap.