Finding the Eichel Middle Ground

They aren’t going to want a backup goalie and another left shot defenseman prospect. Pegula also won’t retain to a team he probably won’t allow Eichel to be traded too.

Realistically, the Rangers are the only team that can afford Eichel, cap-wise, return-wise, and fit-wise. Zibanejad probably gets flipped if Eichel comes in, and since his contract is merely half of what Eichel makes, there will be suitors. I think both teams need to get it over with already.

Check again. There's no retention on the "middle ground" trade. You're reading one of the biased examples.

You also can't look too hard at the pieces they don't want, as long as there's enough you do want, ie: the "meat" of the deal. The rest is just gravy and can be flipped for extra value or incorporated into the team.

The meat of an Eichel deal has to be a high end forward prospect. Especially a center one. Rangers don’t have that.

That's fine, but the Rangers DO have high end forward prospects. They have the 1st and 2nd overall picks from the two years prior. You could probably even get one of them if the demands for the rest of the package are adjusted accordingly.

Lafreniere or Kakko, a 1st, and someone to balance salary that could be flipped for something extra, might get it done. One of those + the equivalent of 3 more 1sts just isn't going to happen.