Quoting: Jah1722
I asked for input and what I got was that the 5th rounders from DET are future 3Cs but the unsigned 5th rounder you mentioned isn’t an NHLer and that Bertuzzi is worth almost as much as Eichel. Hence I’ve learned a lot.
I’m not a hockey expert. I don’t claim to be one. But I think I am well versed enough to not compare any trades to the Jack Eichel trade as a barometer for other trades.
When someone says, “They’re asking for a Jack Eichel return”, it speaks to a very clear misunderstanding of Eichel’s original value or just an ignorance on the dynamics of the VGK/BUF trade.
I guess “what I’ve learned” is that some people still don’t have the presence of mind to differentiate what Vegas paid for Eichel under the circumstances in which they did, from his value/talent as a player if his situation was not as messy as it was at the time.
Vegas got Eichel for pennies on the dollar. That package is nowhere near close to get a player of Eichel’s value.
Jack wanted to leave Buffalo.
Forced his way out.
Highly publicized and detrimental to the organization publicly.
5 years and $10m+ still owed on a contract.
Injured.
Needed an artificial disk replacement surgery.
The return VGK gave up for him was trash for a player of his caliber but that’s what the market dictated for him at the time.
All of these factors contributed to what Buffalo was going to get for him. It wasn’t like he had a routine injury he was nursing, anything spine/neck related, especially an artificial disc replacement, is going to affect teams willingness to take on $10m+ annually, not to mention they’d have to have that amount of cap available to make it work to begin with.
Had he been healthy and all of those other factors still existed, he would have easily returned close to double what he did.
So, it’s not a good comparison to use for any player who is being traded that isn’t injured. It wasn’t a normal trade and the circumstances certainly weren’t normal or comparable to any other deals we’ve seen or will see.