My prediction here is based off of the movie Casino 1995....cheaters justice.....you can have the money and the hammer or you can walk out of here, you can’t have both and in this case, it’s the equivalent of saying, You can have Zegras and a future first or you can have a top three this year and other young players, you can’t have both.

And this is what I ultimately think it will be. If the Ducks are not sending Zegras, then the option will be a very high draft pick and different players

2022 First round pick is top ten protected, can be deferred to 2023

The secondary pieces of this trade may not wow anyone, but both the Ducks and the Sabres will want to win as quickly as possible.

My theory is that the Sabres will ask for both Zegras and three, I think that will be a no go as Anahaiem will not want to mortgage that much of their future for Eichel. Eichel immediately upgrades Anaheim’s center position and provides a great pivot to place around a young core of Comtois, Sam Steel, Lundestrom and probably can get Rickard Rakell scoring again, Rakell is a dominant possession driver and could be a lethal combination with Eichel.

Max Jones is a young power forward who can help their bottom six and Lukas Dostal has been impressive at every level of hockey he has played at. He’s probably one of the Ducks most underrated prospects. He is good enough to challenge for an NHL roster spot next season, but in Buffalo would probably form a solid tandem with UPL in Rochester. After last seasons goaltending debacle, the Sabres will likely want to secure their position between the pipes as much as possible.

Anaheim includes Kesler to send over his 6.8 million salary which goes to LTIR for Buffalo. The trade does little for Anaheim cap wise, but Anaheim is an internal cap team and with them taking a ten million dollar player back, they will probably look to shed real money off their books