Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Trading For Jack Eichel Or Seth Jones

06/14/2021 at 8:33am EDT

Max Bultman of the Athletic answers some fan mail,

For Eichel, one of the league’s top scorers under contract for five more years, the cost would be immense. It could mean a deal headlined by Lucas Raymond or Filip Zadina, the No. 6 pick this year, plus either another current top-six NHL forward or another high draft pick or top prospect.

It’s possible Eichel’s neck injury changes that price a bit, but the safe assumption is that Buffalo will be able to command a mint for a 24-year-old right-shot center who has been near or above a point per game for five seasons.

And if that is the price range, it probably doesn’t make sense for the Red Wings to be a major player in those talks. It’s always worth checking in, but that kind of package would be so costly, with so many of the pieces Detroit is counting on in its rebuild, that the Red Wings may not end up being significantly better off than Buffalo is right now. Eichel is a great player, but Detroit still needs so much more....

Columbus would be effectively starting a rebuild if it traded Jones, which means they’d surely want tone-setting value for their No. 1 defenseman. But while Jones is a highly respected blueliner — he earned Norris votes in the four seasons preceding the most recent one (2021 voting has not yet been announced) — exactly where he fits among the league’s top defensemen is up for some debate. His shot share and quality numbers were down in a big way last season on a bad Columbus team.

The team context matters in that, no doubt. But it certainly doesn’t make it easy for an acquiring team to justify giving up premium value, especially if that team would then need to turn around and sign Jones to a huge extension. It just doesn’t look like a good fit for the Red Wings.

more ($$$)

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