Remember the annual refrain from Red Sox fans prior to 2004? “There’s always next year.”
It captured both the exhaustion of seeing yet another season end without a World Series and the optimism that there was still something worth coming back to the following spring.
I was reminded of that feeling this week when legendary hockey reporter Bob McKenzie returned from semi-retirement to drop the Twitter bomb that he had “heard Jack Eichel trade rumors.”
By the end of McKenzie’s Twitter thread, it was clear that any trade of the Sabres star was highly unlikely at this time, with this more a case of a couple teams just making a phone call to new Buffalo general manager Kevyn Adams and not a case of the Sabres shopping Eichel or Eichel demanding a trade.
In the couple days since, the fires have been extinguished even further, with Adams telling our sister station, WGR, that he has “no intention” to trade Eichel. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman pointed out that the Sabres paid Eichel a $7.5 million bonus this season and that 75% of his 2020-21 salary has already been paid, further adding to the idea that it wouldn’t make any sense for Buffalo to trade him now.
Still, any time reports surface about Eichel being unhappy or about a possible trade, the Bruins come up. It’s only natural. Eichel is 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.
It’s an exciting possibility to think about, but it was never a realistic one for this offseason, not even during the four minutes when we were eagerly waiting for McKenzie to finish his Twitter thread. You almost had to roll your eyes when you saw and heard Bruins fans starting to get excited, knowing full well this could only end in disappointment.
But what about next year?
There seems to be a real sense that the 2020-21 season (which could very well just be a 2021 season by the time it actually starts) could be a make-or-break year for Eichel and the Sabres.
“If things don’t get better, we are going to revisit this topic next spring.” That’s the ominous note on which Friedman ended his Eichel write-up in his 31 Thoughts column.
Eichel has now played five seasons in the NHL. He has developed into the star he was expected to be, finishing tied for 10th in the league in points this past season. But he has yet to make the playoffs. He has never finished better than sixth in the division as the Sabres have failed to build anything resembling a contender -- or even a good team -- around him. He is now on his third head coach and third general manager.
He has made it abundantly clear that he wants to win and is not happy about the fact that he isn’t doing so.
"Listen, I'm fed up with the losing and I'm fed up and I'm frustrated," Eichel said back in May. "You know, it's definitely not an easy pill to swallow right now. It's been a tough couple of months. It's been a tough five years with where things have [gone]. I'm a competitor. I want to win every time I'm on the ice. I want to win a Stanley Cup every time I start a season."
The Sabres have a lot of cap space to work with this offseason (nearly $34 million to be precise), but also a lot of holes to fill. They currently have just 11 players under contract for next season, including just five forwards. They do have four restricted free agents up front and two more on defense.
They have already made one splash, trading former Bruin Marcus Johansson to Minnesota for Eric Staal. It was a surprising move given that Staal will be 36 by the time next season starts, and the Sabres would presumably want young talent to help them build. But it also hinted at the idea that Adams might realize he doesn’t have the luxury of a long rebuild if he wants the Sabres' future to include Eichel.
What Adams does the rest of this offseason is going to be one of the most interesting storylines in the NHL, precisely because of what it could mean for Eichel’s future.
If he can build a team that can compete for a playoff spot next season, or at least one that shows tangible progress and gives Eichel a reason to believe in the direction they’re heading, then the trade talk probably goes away.
But if he can’t and next season turns into another slog with the Sabres out of playoff contention halfway through the year and little reason for optimism, then yes, the trade talk next offseason could end up being a lot more real than just a couple phone calls and some tweets.
If that happens, you can bet the Bruins will be linked to Eichel once again. And this time, it might not be so far-fetched.
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 entering 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 and his $7 million cap hit could also be gone after next season, although there’s obviously the possibility that you would then need to 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.
Then there’s the other huge price tag: the package the Sabres would need to get in return in order to justify trading their franchise center. There haven’t been any reports about what Buffalo would demand in return -- because, again, talks haven’t gone that far yet -- but you’re probably looking at multiple high draft picks and multiple top prospects or NHL-ready young players.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Sabres pushed for McAvoy to be the centerpiece of any package, but it’s hard to imagine the Bruins would go too far down that road.
Anyways, it’s not particularly useful to get too deep into the weeds right now. Nothing’s going to happen this offseason. The excitement generated by that McKenzie Bomb quickly wore off. The rumors are dead. In retrospect, it seems foolish to have ever gotten our hopes up in the first place.
But there’s always next year.
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