We’ve reached our fourth and final team of this series. I was always against writing articles about trading Jack Eichel, but I have to admit I had some fun reviewing a handful of teams. It was interesting to think about a fair package for the star center now that we may have reached the point of no return.

In this last deal, I’m going to be putting together a package the Buffalo Sabres could feel as though they can still compete now. Ideally, if they pulled off this package, the Sabres would hang onto Sam Reinhart as their new top center.

We’ll save that for another day and get into this trade scenario. If you listened to my radio spot on WGR550 yesterday morning with Howard and Jeremy you know what team is coming already. This is one of the two teams that I immediately thought about when targeting a desperate general manager.

The last team is the Calgary Flames. They appear to be ready to make a big move to get back to winning and Brad Treliving is under a lot of pressure. They would finally get a true top-line center and be able to re-tool on the fly. While the Sabres would move an unhappy player, but get immediate talent back to avoid a multi-year rebuild.

Prospects/Young Assets

The Flames have the weakest prospect pool of the four teams that I covered in this series. Having said that, their top prospect in the system would be interesting to the Sabres in Connor Zary. He was selected 24th overall by the Flames less than a year ago in the 2020 NHL Draft. The 19-year-old centerman played games in the WHL and AHL this season. He kicked off his year playing for Canada in the World Juniors and wasn’t bad in a limited role as a young player on that loaded roster.

He was a good two-way center playing for the Kamloops Blazers in juniors. The knock again Zary is he doesn’t have any “elite” qualities, but he’s a good all-around player that could be leaned on in high-pressure situations as a pro. His numbers were good for a player of his age in a handful of pro games he received playing with the Stockton Heat. He had three goals and seven points in nine AHL games.

A few other interesting prospects are goaltender Dustin Wolf and winger Jakob Pelletier. The Sabres could use more depth at goal in their system, which is what makes Wolf a good fit for the Sabres. Pelletier would be another potential high-end forward to add to a shallow group in the Sabres system.

I decided to go with a defensive prospect in this deal instead of the two aforementioned players. That player is 2020 third-round pick Jeremie Poirier. He was one of the more intriguing player from the draft last season. He may have had the highest offensive upside of any defender in the draft last season. The Quebec-born defenseman is a dynamic player with the puck on his stick.

The caveat to all of that skill is his shortcomings defensively. The QMJHL is a league that is geared toward offense and you don’t see many defensemen come out of that league with their defensive skills at the level they should be at going into the pro game. This would be a roll of the dice for the Sabres, but if they can develop at least an average defensive game, Poirer could be a dynamic pro player.

The Centerpiece

Now, we get to the main attraction of this. In any deal with the Flames, my centerpiece would be forward Matthew Tkachuk. The 24-year-old is one of the best play-driving wingers in the game, as you’ll see below in Micah McCurdy’s impact chart. Getting him back in this deal would allow the Sabres to continue to try to put a competitive team together.

The Flames would likely prefer to include either Sean Monahan or Johnny Gaudreau in an Eichel trade. I have no interest in either of those players. Gaudreau will be 28-years-old before next season and only has one more year remaining on his contract. Monahan is undergoing hip surgery and has been unimpressive the last two years in Calgary.

Tkachuk is exactly the type of player the Sabres need. He’s hard to play against, drives play, and his highly-productive. One of the reasons that the Flames could be open to moving Tkachuk is due to the twist in his contract. The final year of his deal carries a salary of $9 million. That means that his qualifying offer as a restricted free agent would need to be at least $9 million.

Personally, I wouldn’t be scared off about paying him that much money.  He’s the quality of player that would deserve that type of contract and would be 24-years-old when his contract expires after the 2021-22 season.

Trade Projection

The final piece of this deal would of course be a first-round pick. I’m not sure if the Flames would be willing to include a potential top-10 pick in this upcoming draft. Therefore, I’d target the 2022 first-roound with a stronger class overall.

Here is how my final trade would look:

Flames receive: Jack Eichel

Sabres receive: Matthew Tkachuk, Connor Zary, Jeremie Poirier, and a 2022 first-round pick

That’s a wrap on this series. I hope you enjoyed it. I’m sure we’ll have more Eichel trade content as the storyline unfolds throughout the offseason. Now, we’ll move into some more conventional content over the next month as the playoffs unfold.

Data via: Cap Friendly, Hockeyviz.com, and Byron Bader

Photo Credit: Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images