I think you lost when you added retention.

I think this is a real good deal.

Might have to happen.

But they wouldn’t retain for 5 years.

They would if the return was 5 strong assets. Competitiveness of the offer + salary restraints you may just have to take the hit.
Leafs retained 1.2m on Kessel when he was traded.

Maybe, guess we’ll have to wait and see cause it seems like the writing is on the wall for Eichel and the Sabres now.

Buffalo won't be retaining on Eichel. The talks stop there if it's even brought up. But I think Glass as a natural centre would be the centre piece in a deal. Vegas is high on Krebs, I doubt they include him in the deal. I also don't think they would include Tuch because he played with Eichel in his draft year for the USNDP and went from a third line, mid round prospect to a top line, first round pick. Vegas would likely wanna try that again.

I'd centre the deal around Glass, Hague, and a 2022 1st to start. Then go from there

And that retention was 6 years

Hard to make the salary come even close to working without Tuch.
Vegas likes Krebs sure, but if they are making a push for Jack Eichel you have to make sacrifices.

I personally don't think they hang up the phone on retention. There aren't enough teams who can take on 10 million that easily. The offer is 5 legit assets for one so the retention seems reasonable to me

Thats kinda why I don't think retention is out of the question. Of course Sabres would rather not retain $, but I think their goal is going to be to get the most quality assets possible rather than worry about salary when they aren't even in contention or close to the cap for 3+ years.

The big stress point though is that he kinda HAS to be traded

As well it effectively cues a rebuild so yeah 100% ✔

The deal doesn't have to be cap in, cap out in the off-season. Teams are allowed to go 10% over the upper limit of the cap in the off-season. Vegas could make a deal for Eichel without Tuch, and then make a deal with another team sometime in the off-season to be cap compliant. As long as they're under the cap by the first game of the regular season, they're fine.

Buffalo won't retain. You can argue there aren't many teams that can afford his cap hit, sure. To which Buffalo comes back with there aren't any players at all like Eichel that are available. Doesn't matter about his cap hit, if you want a player like him then you make the cap work yourself. That's not Buffalo's problem. In a pandemic world where it's a flat cap and money doesn't flow as easy, teams aren't gonna be retaining as much and especially not for that length. You want Eichel, you know what you're getting in cap so you make it work or you don't get him.

With how disgruntled Eichel is, everyone basically knows how it's coming to an end. It will lower the price and if it comes to 1 of Krebs or Glass, Vegas will say they can have Glas but not Krebs. Vegas is doing just fine without Eichel, they don't need to give up a cost controlled A prospect for a guy that they're already winning without. That being said, Glass is a good consolation player and better all around than Krebs. And don't scoff at Hague being included in my idea. He's already capable of playing top 4 minutes at such a young age, and he's a big body that's only getting better. He's been raves about for his leadership ability too. I'd argue he's Vegas' best young player anyways so they're giving up they're best prospect/young player already.

And you very well might be right about that, but Vegas could say the same thing. Don't want to retain to get this package? Ok cool. Have fun trading Eichel for Chytil, Kakko, and a 1st.

Maybe its not 2mill either, could be less, but Buffalo has pretty low leverage considering the player they are trading.

And yes I agree, doesn't necessarily have to be money in money out. Tuch I just thought was good because he adds value to the trade and subtracts cap, but if you could trade Rielly Smith to someone else that might be better.

Ultimately I agree with you, but I don't think its out of the question

If I am Buffalo, I'd want one elite piece back.
Maybe Krebs can become that, maybe even Tuch or Glass or one of those picks.
But I'd want one surefire top line forward, top pair d-man to build around.