Can Jack Eichel and the Flyers Become a Reality?
By Max Miller
It’s going to be an important offseason for the Philadelphia Flyers. After an understatedly disappointing season, there are more questions than answers as to where it went wrong, and little doubt there are going to be changes to the makeup of this team during the offseason. How do we know this? Look no further than Pierre LeBrun’s latest article for The Athletic. This quote about Eichel in particular is, very, very spicy:
"And believe me, this sounds like a veteran GM determined to make this offseason count. The Flyers are going to be players in what should be a very busy offseason overall with the Seattle expansion draft.I could see the Flyers looking into Jack Eichel, for example. I could also see them reaching out to Nashville and inquiring yet again on either Mattias Ekholm or Ryan Ellis.And certainly, if for whatever reason the Blue Jackets aren’t able to extend Seth Jones, you can bet the Flyers will be all over that situation."
To be fair, the Flyers being connected to defensemen like Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis isn’t entirely new, as they’ve been linked to their names throughout the season. No doubt the Seth Jones information is a new name, but wait, hold on a minute, Jack Eichel?! Further to that Elliotte Friedman had said that the Flyers would also look into the Jack Eichel situation in his latest 31 thoughts article:
"You have to think Boston tries, but do they have the pieces? No one lusts after a centre more than Columbus, but, again, do they have what Buffalo wants? Philadelphia could do it."
Needless to say this caught the eye of many Flyers fans, but can you blame them? Jack Eichel is a super-star level player, and going after a big fish in the offseason is something that the Flyers rarely do anymore. So without any further to do, lets unpack all of this and make sense of Jack Eichel to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Should the Flyers really even attempt to go after Jack Eichel?
To put it simply, the Flyers level of interest should be high as they are a team looking to make significant changes this offseason to shake up the status-quo. There is so much that he brings to the table. The first is being a bona-fide super-star level talent that the Flyers have not had since Eric Lindros. At the age of 24 he could solidify your #1 center position for a decade.
Another huge aspect of an Eichel trade, and maybe potentially the biggest? Bringing someone in with his talent level automatically energizes a fanbase that has been slowly dying of apathy for the better part of a decade.
Can the Flyers actually pull off this trade?
In theory, yes, the Flyers do have the ability to complete a trade of this magnitude, but there are a couple of hurdles that they would need to overcome. First and foremost is the issue of the salary cap. Eichel has a 10 million dollar cap-hit, and with the team having close to 70 million dollars allocated through the 21-22 season, it will be a tall task to offset one of their larger contracts to fit him under the cap.
The second hurdle that they face is that there are teams that can likely outbid them. The two teams have are heavily connected to Eichel are the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings, and both those teams have high-level prospects/players that you could see Buffalo having more interest in.
Do the Flyers have anything close to Alexei Lafrieniere, Kaapo Kakko, Adam Fox, or Quentin Byfield to offer in a trade? No, not really, but they do have quantity to complete a trade over quality. They do have young impact players on offense and defense like Ivan Provorov, Travis Konecny, and Joel Farabee, but after the latter’s breakout season I doubt the Flyers are looking to move him. Although the prospect pipeline isn’t as lauded as it once was before, they do have very good prospects like Morgan Frost, Cam York, Egor Zamula, and Tyson Forester.
Would the Sabres be interested in Sean Couturier? It’s quite possible, as he’s a perennial Selke award finalist, and could be part of 1-2 center tandem along with Dylan Cozens. But even that has it’s own issues, as Sean Couturier is signed only for one more year, will command big-time money, and there’s also no guarantee that he would re-sign in Buffalo.
Not to mention he has a history of injuries, and it’s not like Buffalo has been put in difficult positions with the health of their center’s, right? So while it seems that the Flyers do have the ability to get in the race for Jack Eichel, by no means would it be a sure thing to land him.