7 Ripple Effects if the Flames Acquire Jack Eichel

The Calgary Flames (and Vegas Golden Knights) are reportedly very shut on understanding a commerce with the Buffalo Sabres for franchise centerman Jack Eichel. With ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reporting final night time that the commerce was shut (“on the one-yard line”) it as soon as once more despatched Flames twitter right into a frenzy in regards to the execs and cons of buying the celebrity ahead.

At this time we noticed Kevin Weekes toss out a proposed package deal from the Flames with Matthew Tkachuk because the centrepiece onto his Twitter. There are questions round whether or not that is the package deal, or if it was craftily leaked by Buffalo to maybe entice Vegas or different groups to get again into the hunt, however nonetheless it as soon as once more has generated intense hypothesis and conversations amongst Flames followers.

For the sake of this text, let’s function on the sense that Tkachuk is the primary NHL piece returning to Buffalo for now.

With that in thoughts, a commerce of this magnitude would definitely have ripple results throughout Calgary and the league because the NHL hasn’t seen a celebrity of this magnitude traded in a while. Let’s take a look at a few of these ripple results.

1. The Route of the Flames will Change

It’s not that singularly buying Eichel will change issues, however will probably be a real indication that this administration group is lastly pushing their chips all-in. If this blows up of their faces, they are going to lose their jobs, there may be actually now method round it. If it really works out, they may very well be right here one other decade. This season had seemed to be the unstated final yr for this core with guys like Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, and Andrew Mangiapane all in line for raises after this yr. As a substitute by buying Eichel, Calgary would actually lengthen their aggressive window and sign a shift extra in direction of long run guys like Elias Lindholm, Rasmus Andersson, and Eichel.

2. The Battle of Alberta might be Should-Watch Hockey

If it wasn’t already the league’s greatest rivalry after 2019-20, including Jack Eichel to it will make it could’t-miss viewing for any hockey followers. Certain if Tkachuk is the rumored piece again going the opposite method, Calgary would lose a few of their edge, however including Jack Eichel (drafted one spot after Connor McDavid) would give the matchup two of the highest 5 facilities within the league on groups which are already doing very effectively this yr. It will be nice for the game and draw a ton of consideration to those two groups that haven’t achieved a lot of something within the final 15 years, particularly the Flames.

3. Calgary must keep aggressive whereas ready for Eichel

That is kind of a double-sided final result. On one hand, it will have been rather a lot simpler for the Flames to justify a franchise-changing commerce like this one if they’d began as their typical mediocre October selves. As a substitute, sitting with a 6-1-2 report by means of 9 video games has lots of people very proud of the place issues at the moment stand.

By buying and selling for Eichel and eradicating at the least one or perhaps two items of your present roster, you danger jeopardizing what seems to be to be an already higher season for the crew. On the flip facet, the recent begin has given them a little bit of cushion to work with whereas additionally being within the comparatively poor Pacific Division. With Eichel’s return rumored to be after the Olympic break, Calgary must survive about 40 video games with out him and whoever they commerce, however would get him again for the ultimate 30 video games of the season.

4. Two Tkachuk’s within the Atlantic Division

I imply it will go a great distance in producing curiosity for 2 groups which have been mired in unhealthy hockey for a very long time now. Matthew Tkachuk is little doubt a participant that numerous groups across the league would like to have, and including double the Tkachuk to the Atlantic Division would even be nice advertising for the league for 2 much less fashionable groups. That’s after all if the NHL did a superb job advertising their product, however that’s one other problem completely.

5. Calgary would have an Elite Centre Core

If this commerce is made and Tkachuk is the one NHL ahead leaving Calgary, then the Flames would find yourself possessing arguably the perfect heart group within the league or on the very least within the High 3 in my view. With Eichel, Elias Lindholm, and Mikael Backlund on the primary three traces, Calgary would undoubtedly be the higher crew down the center and actually counter the Oilers McDavid-Draisiatl punch effectively. Once you additionally think about gamers like Dillon Dube and Sean Monahan who’ve expertise down the center, you then’re an especially deep lineup. You want nice centres to win the Stanley Cup. It’s that easy.

6. Eichel could be the culminating piece of the complete rebuild

If there’s one factor that the Flames rebuild actually missed out on, it was that tremendous excessive decide to draft a celebrity participant. Certain they received Tkachuk, Monahan, and Sam Bennett (ugh) at #4, however they by no means received that probability to draft first or second total to nab an elite of the elite participant. As a substitute they constructed the crew slowly over time, including items by means of drafting and trades, adopted by bringing in Jacob Markstrom and head coach Darryl Sutter.

The Flames have additionally accomplished a superb job of filling their prospect cabinets as effectively to both embody as items on this commerce, or to fill in roster holes shifting ahead on the NHL stage. A mix of A stage prospects (Coronato, Pelletier, Zary, Wolf) and B stage prospects (Francis, Ruzicka, Heineman, and so on.) will give the Flames choices for buying and selling, but additionally permit them to be assured in what’s leftover. Every thing is in place proper now for the crew to go for it, and Eichel could be the end result of the entire efforts.

7. Does buying Eichel do sufficient to entice Gaudreau to re-sign?

That is extra speculative, and is extra simply my opinion, however I’m not making this commerce because the Flames for those who aren’t very comfy in believing that Johnny Gaudreau will re-sign after you make the deal. There actually isn’t a method that the Flames can financially add Eichel whereas re-signing Gaudreau, Tkachuk, and Mangiapane, however by dealing Tkachuk they need to be capable of make all of it match. Nonetheless including Eichel to play with Gaudreau for ~30 video games and one playoff crack simply doesn’t appear to be value it for me.

There isn’t any doubt that the Eichel commerce discuss will solely get louder as issues appear to maneuver in direction of a conclusion heading into this weekend. It’s thrilling that the Flames are proper in the midst of issues however on the similar time, an enormous change like this can widen the potential outcomes (each optimistic and destructive) for the crew. Change could be scary, however change is what followers of this crew have been wanting for years.

It might be romanticizing issues however you could possibly like this to the Derozan-Leonard commerce with the Toronto Raptors a number of years again. It’s going to harm to lose a fan favorite in Tkachuk, however the final purpose is to win a Stanley Cup and the Flames could be rather a lot nearer to that purpose if Jack Eichel joined the crew. We will see.