We’ve now navigated our way through the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft, 2021 NHL Entry Draft, and first day of free agency. These were the three big days of this offseason. After all of those high movement days around the league, Jack Eichel remains on the Buffalo Sabres roster.

The reality is that he’s still likely to get moved. The question at hand now is when and where? This journey really has been a roller coaster with his trade market. One day teams are in on it and the next they’re reportedly out.

Yesterday, the theme from TSN insiders Darren Dreger and Bob McKenzie was that the market was soft right now for the Sabres captain. When I reached out to my sources I received some pushback on that. The sentiment was that it’s quiet around the league because the focus has narrowed to a handful of specific clubs. In my opinion, there’s probably some truth on both sides.

Let’s take some time here to reset what the market looks like for Eichel. A lot of teams made moves yesterday to improve their roster and use up cap space.

Sabres Situation

Before we get into other teams, an important part of this is understanding where the Sabres sit right now. Specifically, in regards to their salary cap situation. According to Cap Friendly, they’re $8.8 million under the cap floor of $60.2 million. They still have a handful of restricted free agents to sign in Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, Casey Mittelstadt, and Rasmus Asplund. Those moves alone will get the Sabres to the floor.

The catch here is that their current cap total of $51.4 million includes Jack Eichel’s $10 million cap hit. That means that in any Eichel trade the Sabres will likely need to take back nearly the same amount of salary that’s going out the door to be cap compliant.

That adds a wrinkle to these trade discussions. Of course, the Sabres could go out after and acquire some big contracts in salary dump moves. The issue with that is most of that has already been done and those contracts are likely on the Arizona Coyotes now.

Vegas Golden Knights

Now, let’s shift to focusing on the teams that are likely legitimately still involved in this. The first team is the Vegas Golden Knights. They were one of the more active teams yesterday on free agency. They acquired winger Evgeny Dadonov from the Ottawa Senators, re-signed Mattias Janmark, and brought in a backup goaltender in Laurent Brossoit.

According to Cap Friendly, the Golden Knights are currently $1.7 million over the salary cap with all of those moves. So, they’re out of it right? Well, not so fast. Let me explain.

Yes, they’re currently over the cap, but one sign that the Golden Knights are not done is that Nolan Patrick is still sitting there without a deal. He’s a restricted free agent and Evolving Hockey projects a two-year contract with a cap hit of $1.7 million for the former second overall pick.

Also, are the Golden Knights really going to go into this season with William Karlsson and Chandler Stephenson as their top two centers again? The lack of a true top-line center has held them back from getting over the top and winning that Stanley Cup the last few years.

There is a path to making a deal work for the Golden Knights. They can include winger Reilly Smith into this deal as a cap dump. He’s one of the few players on the roster that has no trade protection. He has one more year remaining on his contract with a $5 million cap hit. They can then look into including another player that has salary such as, Alex Tuch. He’s another one that doesn’t carry any trade protection.

If they want to move one of their bigger wingers like Jonathan Marchessault, they could get a third team involved. Marchessault would waive his no-trade clause to go to Buffalo, they would retain salary and immediately flip him to the third team in this deal that Marchessault would be willing to go to. It’s a win-win-win. Vegas gets the cap space for Eichel, Marchessault gets moved to a team he’s okay with, and the Sabres can hit the cap floor as well as pick up another asset for retaining.

The two other certain pieces in this trade would be forward Peyton Krebs and a first-round pick would be involved. Then the Sabres would get one more asset in the form of a player like Nic Hague, Brendan Brisson, Lucas Elvenes, or the aforementioned Patrick.

Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks are one of a few teams that didn’t do much on day one of free agency. Their only move was to retain their captain Ryan Getzlaf for one more year. So, what’s the plan in Southern California? Are the Ducks going to stick to their rebuild or do they want to take a shot with the aging players on the roster?

Sabres fans need to accept that they’re not getting Trevor Zegras in a deal with the Ducks. Sorry, but it’s not happening. On the other hand, I wouldn’t say defenseman Jamie Drysdale is out of the question. Then beyond that, we’ve discussed the other potential pieces such as Lukas Dostal, Jackson LaCombe, Max Comtois, a first-round pick, Sam Steel, and Max Jones.

The Ducks have $18.5 million in cap space currently, therefore they can take on the full Eichel contract without any issue. However, with the Sabres needing to take back some salary, they could take back the contract of Adam Henrique. He still has some game and can be a leader for a young roster for the next three years.

Calgary Flames

We haven’t talked about the Flames much in regards to Eichel, but they keep getting connected to him. As of now, the Flames sit with $12.95 million in cap space after the big signing of Blake Coleman. They have a handful of restricted free agents to re-sign, but nobody that will break the bank.

I have a hard time finding a trade with the Flames that works. Forward Conor Zary and a first-round pick are obviously to pieces that would need to be in it. Beyond that, I’m sure how you piece together the remainder of the package. Goaltender Dustin Wolf was an intriguing idea before the Sabres acquired Devon Levi. The only other two interesting prospects are Jakob Pellitier and Mathias Emilio Pettersen.

I’m not sure how much interest the Sabres would have in a roster player like Dillion Dube or how much interest the Flames would have in including a better player such as Andrew Mangiapane.

Minnesota Wild

Michael Russo of The Atheltic indicated early yesterday that the Wild have taken themselves out of the discussions for Eichel. That could be a negotiating tactic and they could circle back to the Sabres. They didn’t do anything else in free agency that would have filled the hole that Eichel would have occupied. The Wild also still has over $20 million in cap space. It should be noted that need to re-sign Kevin Fiala and star winger Kirill Kaprizov.

The thing that makes the money tricky for Bill Guerin in Minnesota is how he navigates through the big dead cap hits from the Ryan Suter and Zach Paris buyouts. Those big cap hits will start in the 2022-23 season and carry through the next two years after that. They likely need to hold onto their entry-level contract players like Marco Rossi and Matthew Boldy. At the same time, he’s juggling the idea of capitalizing on a short window if they do manage to bring Kaprizov back.

Tough decisions to be made in Minnesota, but as of now, they appear to be watching this from the sidelines.

New York Rangers

Last and yes probably least, the New York Rangers. Chris Drury appears to be attempting to acquire Eichel without giving up a single consequential asset. A bold strategy for the new Rangers general manager. Elliotte Friedman mentioned on his 31 Thoughts podcast earlier this week that the two clubs are basically living on different planets in this trade discussion.

The information that I’ve been able to pull out lines up with that. I’ve been told that Kevyn Adams does not consider the Rangers as a real trade partner at this point unless they’re willing to up their offer significantly. As time goes on here without a move, it favors the Rangers the most. Primarily because it’s one day closer to Eichel’s no-move clause going into place and the Rangers would be at the top of his list of preferred destinations.

There may be a mystery team or two out there in these talks. The Montreal Canadiens are one such team that many have speculated. I also have curiosities about the Carolina Hurricanes. We’ll see where this goes in the next few days to weeks. The sooner this gets resolved, the better it’ll be for everyone involved.

Photo Credit: Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

Data via: Cap Friendly and Evolving Hockey