Montreal Canadiens: Why the Habs Should Not Trade For Jack Eichel

The Montreal Canadiens have one of the most exciting young centre corps in the league. Nick Suzuki is a star in the making, Jesperi Kotkaniemi while inconsistent can still become a great player in the NHL, Jake Evans is a budding shutdown specialist and they are all under the age of 25. They will only get better, and word on the street is that the Canadiens are in the market for one of the best young centres in the league, Jack Eichel.

While Eichel is surely one of the better young players in the league, he has been stuck on the terrible Buffalo Sabres for his whole career now. But it seems that the two sides have reached a breaking point and Eichel is looking for a trade. And the Canadiens are one of the teams that have been central in the trade talks.

The question is if Montreal should try to acquire Eichel. The Sabres are looking for a king’s ransom for their young centreman, and they are right to do it. In 375 games, he has 139 goals and 355 points, which is obviously just under a point a game. He, of course, has not played an NHL playoff game, as Buffalo has the longest current playoff drought in the NHL.

It has been reported that Montreal is at least interested in Eichel, but it is going to be a lot to pry him out of Buffalo. Although Eichel is clearly miserable with the Sabres, Buffalo General Manager Kevyn Adams is patient with his star, and will seemingly hold out for the time being until he finds the right package. It will undoubtedly include some high-ranking prospects and early draft picks.

At just 24 years old, Eichel still has a lot of potential and upside. He isn’t a guy nearing a fall, Eichel has the possibility of being better, with many NHL players entering their primes in their mid to late 20s. What is not to like?

Well, the price is steep, and not just to acquire him. His contract is for $10 million dollars a year until 2026. Not to mention that after this year a No Movement Clause kicks in on his contract until it ends. That is steep, but probably fair for the quality of player Eichel is. He can shoot, he can skate and he can score.

But Montreal also has some players that will be looking to be making some big money. This year is Jesperi Kotkaniemi, whose up and downplay will not garner too much money and term, but in the future Nick Suzuki will get a big contract, as will Cole Caufield and Alexander Romanov. Having a $10 million dollar contract, that may be impossible to move, will only hamper Montreal’s ability to sign all of these contracts.

It is also a question of culture. That is nebulous, impossible to pin down the idea of culture. Culture is what many people blame on Toronto Maple Leafs’ many recent playoff woes. If you want to see how important culture is, just look at Montreal before P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty and Michel Therrien left.

Montreal might be in the middle of a crisis of culture. Shea Weber is a legendary leader and has been the Canadiens’ captain since 2018. But as most fans know, he is confirmed to miss this coming season, and it is doubtful that he will ever play again. Weber’s physical play and stout defensive mind will be tough to replace on the ice, but Montreal will need to address the lack of his leadership in the locker room.

It is impossible to know exactly what the locker room culture is like without being in it, but from the outside looking in, the leaders seem to be Shea Weber, Carey Price and Brendan Gallagher. Gallagher is bold and brash on the ice, and his off-ice personality seems to match that. Price and Weber seem to be far more of the silent leading types, guys that lead by example and gravitas rather than a big rah-rah speech.

The question is how would that change if you put in the immensely confident Eichel into the mix?

Eichel has been frustrated with Buffalo for a long while now. He was drafted in 2015, one pick behind Connor McDavid, and as mentioned before, the Sabres have not made the playoffs since. It is enough to make anyone frustrated, and it seems that every year’s season-ending press conference showing a dejected and angry Eichel growing more and more frustrated with the team, the coaching staff, the management and himself.

Big news came out in 2017 that said Eichel, when his contract was set to expire, would not resign in Buffalo if the current head coach, Dan Bylsma, would also be resigned. Buffalo responded by not only firing Dan Bylsma, but also General Manager at the time Tim Murray. Could they have been fired due to their performance outside of the comments made by Eichel? Sure. Buffalo finished that season with a 33-37-12 record, good for second last in the conference, and it was their 6th straight season without making the playoffs.

Nonetheless, Eichel came out of the whole ordeal looking worse than the year before. It got worse when Buffalo kept losing. We wouldn’t be talking about this move in such a negative light, or the thought of Eichel being traded from Buffalo at all, if the coaching change and GM change had worked, and it clearly hadn’t. Buffalo continued to miss the playoffs, receiving the first overall pick in 2018 and Rasmus Dahlin, which did not bring the fortunes of the Sabres any higher.

This year felt like a last-ditch effort for Buffalo, who signed Taylor Hall to a one-year $8 million contract this year, but lost Eichel early to a neck injury and their season quickly plummeted.

Eichel has steadily played well for Buffalo, and likely doesn’t shoulder much of the blame for the way the franchise has been recently, but he has had such a negative aura about him for so long now. And surely losing that often for so long can do that to a young player, but can he snap out of it and be positive in a different environment? Even the best teams go through slumps and players have to stay positive.

From the outside looking in, Eichel doesn’t seem to be the best presence to add to a locker room that just lost its captain and has a rookie coach at the helm. Sure, it might make Montreal better on the ice, but the number of assets that the Canadiens would have to give up and the turmoil that might ensue on the team.