That's the exact same kind of short-sightedness that left Edmonton with Lucic over Hall.

I'm not moving 7 assets for one player. Eichel is fantastic and so would getting Neal off the books entirely, but Edmonton sheds a lot of long-term value in order to accommodate this trade.

There's also the matter of affording a full NHL roster with this setup: it's genuinely impossible unless you let Nurse walk, which would only be a detriment to the team.

In fairness all 6 of the non James Neal assets in that trade have like a 33% chance of being impact NHLers at best probably one of them ends up really good

Maybe half of them are solid at NHL level

I'd be more worried from Buf perspective naturally

This is so much better than most EDMAGMs as the Eichel return is entirely good not great assets and the term for aging UFAs is closer to where it should be

If they could pull this off ultimately

It'd be decent

They could unload Kassian and sign a cheaper replacement for the steadily aging Larsson also Russell coming off the books will help a bunch

Lots of good cheap assets coming up

Idk not too tricky here

This entire AGM is a farce: most everything expires next year. Is the plan to just cycle out a new roster every season? Why are Larsson, RNH, and Ullmark taking one year deals in the first place? No, they come with term, which makes any flexibility here moot.

I'll focus less on the RFAs given that they have less bargaining power, but what happens if the Yamamoto extension is only a two-year deal? Where's the money coming from now? The cap isn't set to rise for another two seasons and Edmonton has all of its chips in four players (very good ones at that).

Russell and a buried Turris account for half of the minimum cost of Bear and Nurse extensions. Edmonton no longer has the assets to dump Kassian outright, so assuming 50% retention, you can now only afford two of your defencemen. What about Puljujarvi? McLeod? Spare forwards? Replacement defenders or the inclusion of Broberg and Holloway to the main roster? Bonuses?

Looking at things in a one-year vacuum is peak lunacy. The league doesn't exist in individual annual segments. There are longer-term consequences of this trade being ignored here.

Top 6 would be sick. Better hope holloway and Mcloud can give depth scoring or this team gets bounced early in the playoffs

The terms on the UFA/RFA's aren't important. They could be any term doesn't really effect things. You are right that none of those players would sign one year deals and honestly I just don't care what each term would end up being.

The Oiler's are already in cap hell without this trade and honestly they are in basically the same position with the trade. So who's better, James Neal and $4.75M in cap space or Jack Eichel? I take Eichel without hesitation. So really this trade comes down to Eichel for a pair of fringe prospects with upside and 4 high end draft picks, one of those picks to compensate for Buffalo taking Neal. If you want things to look better financially, don't resign RNH. That's $7M you can use for "bonuses".

The Oilers aren't in cap hell this offseason, this is the crux of your mistake. They have like $30M to work with this summer. It's the short-sighted, foolhardy moves like buying out Koskinen or investing in another $10M dollar player that makes it seem so.

Your argument is intellectually dishonest: of course Eichel is an upgrade on Neal to the point the two aren't comparable. The problem is his money is virtually gone from the books in as little as two years, likely 3 with the remainder of Edmonton's dead cap. The flexibility that his $4.75M brings (assuming he's buried for the upcoming season) does more to balance and strengthen the roster. Abdicating Nugent-Hopkins might be a short-term solution to the finances but the overarching problem remains: you've doubled down on Edmonton only having 2 potent lines and bank exclusively on hope that the third and fourth lines get by.

It's simply not good enough. Eichel is a hell of a player, but the acquisition cost - Lavoie and Samorukov are not fringe prospects, educate yourself - and long term implications of this trade make the construction of a repeat contender virtually impossible.