A couple weeks ago, TSN’s Darren Dreger mentioned the possibility of the Penguins potentially trading Sidney Crosby after this season if they miss the playoffs and conclude that their Stanley Cup window is closed.
Naturally, some fans and media immediately began speculating about the Bruins as a possibility. Crosby would obviously want to go somewhere he could win a fourth Cup, and the Bruins are one of the top teams in the NHL year-in, year-out. He’s friends with Patrice Bergeron and has consistently played on a line with him for Team Canada, dating all the way back to the 2005 World Junior Championship. And trading for Crosby would be the kind of blockbuster move that could set the Bruins up for a few more real Cup runs as Bergeron’s career winds down.
A certain show on the station that shall not be named even went so far as to suggest the Bruins should consider trading David Pastrnak for Crosby, which would be pretty foolish considering Pastrnak is nine years younger, is already an elite scorer, and is locked up through 2023 on arguably the best contract value-wise in the NHL.
Here’s the thing about a Crosby trade: It’s not going to happen. I know… never say never, even Wayne Gretzky got traded, etc. But Crosby loves Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh loves him, he’s a legend there, and he has an almost father-son relationship with team owner Mario Lemieux.
And perhaps most importantly, things just aren’t anywhere near bad enough in Pittsburgh for Crosby to look around and decide he has no chance of contending again. Yes, the Penguins got upset in the qualifying round over the summer. And no, they don’t quite look like a serious Cup contender as currently constructed. But they were in a pretty good spot before the COVID pause last year, and they’re currently in playoff position in third place in the East Division on points percentage. It’s not that hard to imagine a couple good moves (getting a true No. 1 goalie would be a good place to start) getting them going in the right direction, even if that doesn’t happen until the offseason.
So, unless things change dramatically, don’t waste your time dreaming about Crosby. The good news, though, is that there is another elite center you can dream about who might at least be a plausible target: Buffalo Sabres star Jack Eichel.
The Bruins haven’t played the Sabres yet this season despite being in the same division (the two games they were supposed to play got postponed due to Buffalo’s COVID outbreak), so you’d be forgiven for not following them that closely yet.
Here’s the short of it: They’re losing. Again. They’ve lost five of their last seven and they’re in last place in the East with a 6-8-2 record. Offseason additions Taylor Hall and Eric Staal are both off to slow starts, and it certainly seems like the Sabres are heading for a 10th straight season of missing the playoffs.
We know Eichel wants to win. We know he’s been frustrated that Buffalo hasn’t even reached .500 in any of his first five seasons, never mind make the playoffs, never mind contend. A sixth year of this, after yet another general manager change last summer, could be a breaking point.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman acknowledged as much last week when appearing on sister station WGR in Buffalo (the Eichel talk starts at the 12:45 mark), responding with a simple “yes” when asked if he sees an Eichel trade as a possibility.
“Obviously the way the Sabres came back out of the break with two really rough losses has started a lot of talk about what could be happening here,” Friedman added. “We know that this is something that came up last summer, OK, and I don’t know if it was ever close. The feeling I’ve always had is that Buffalo knew that Eichel was unhappy. They asked Eichel to take a step last year and he really did. We talked about how much of a step that Eichel took last year, and still when it came to team success, it just didn’t really go anywhere. And now you look at where it is this year, and you know he’s going to be frustrated.”
We know why the Bruins naturally get connected to Eichel any time this comes up. He's from Chelmsford. He played at Boston University. He’s good friends with Bruins defenseman and former BU teammate Matt Grzelcyk. He still comes back here in the summer. And the Bruins will soon need to find their next franchise center with Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci not getting any younger.
We explained back in October why trading for Eichel last offseason was never a possibility for the Bruins, but why it could be more realistic next offseason. Here are the key points from a salary cap perspective:
One big reason why is that Krejci’s $7.25 million cap hit will be coming off the books, as the 34-year-old center is in the final year of his contract. While it’s possible the Bruins and Krejci work towards some sort of short-term extension between now and then, it’s also possible the Bruins view it as a chance to start getting younger and reinvest that money in someone who will be part of the next core.
Tuukka Rask’s $7 million cap hit could also be gone after the season, although there’s obviously the possibility that you would need to either re-sign Rask or turn around and pay another goalie if young netminders like Jeremy Swayman, Dan Vladar and Kyle Keyser aren’t quite ready.
Eichel is signed through the 2025-26 season with a $10 million annual cap hit. That is obviously huge money, and the Bruins would need to be mindful of the fact that Charlie McAvoy will be due for a big pay raise after the 2021-22 season and David Pastrnak after the 2022-23 season.
Brandon Carlo, Trent Frederic and Nick Ritchie are all restricted free agents after the season, too, and all have helped their value with their play so far. But as of now, the Bruins are expected to have nearly $30 million in cap space to work with. They could fit Eichel’s salary without having to do anything super crazy as far as moving money around.
The bigger obstacle will be the trade package it takes to acquire Eichel. There haven’t really been any concrete reports on what the Sabres would want or expect, but Friedman said it would be “more than one thing you’re excited about.” Presumably, those things could be first-round picks, top prospects, or good NHL roster players.
And that is where things would get complicated for the Bruins. They have already gone without a first-round pick in two of the last three drafts. They have one of, if not the thinnest farm systems in the NHL -- The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked their “prospect pool” dead last in the NHL, while colleague Corey Pronman ranked their “young talent” 28th of 31.
Would they be willing to include multiple first-round picks and basically turn into the Los Angeles Rams of the NHL in terms of draft capital? Would they be willing to include a couple of the promising prospects they do have -- think some combination of Jack Studnicka, John Beecher, Urho Vaakanainen, Jeremy Swayman? What about a young player or two already contributing at the NHL level like Frederic, Jeremy Lauzon or Jakub Zboril? Or more established young NHLers like Carlo or Jake DeBrusk?
Start putting together two, three, four of those pieces and maybe you have a conversation. The Sabres would probably want to ask about Charlie McAvoy, but that would presumably be a non-starter for the Bruins.
Other potential bidders like the Rangers and Kings have better prospect pools and higher draft picks that could entice the Sabres. Eichel’s no-movement clause doesn’t kick in until 2022, so the Sabres won’t be restricted in terms of where they can send him if they do decide to trade him this summer. The Rangers would probably be at or near the top of Eichel’s preferred destinations anyways given all their young talent and his relationship with David Quinn, who was his coach at BU.
It’s never going to be easy to acquire a player like Eichel. But setting yourself up with a "next core" of Eichel, Pastrnak and McAvoy, while still getting however many good years Bergeron and Brad Marchand have left, is a mouth-watering prospect.
And unlike Crosby, who almost certainly won’t even be on the market, Eichel is a dream target the Bruins might at least get a chance to shoot for.