Not nearly enough when you ask for a 2nd player and for Buffalo to retain 17.5 million over 5 years.

If I was the Sabres GM I'd want at least a 2nd round pick every season just for that much retention.

I think its probably closer to 3 firsts just for retention. So this is nowhere near close.

I have a question. Why do you think that the Sabres have no choice and have to trade Eichel. They hold all the cards, like Sackic did when he waited to trade Duchene, I believe. Eichel is signed to a contract that has 5 more years, and unless he plays for them he will be sat out, not paid and because of rules and agreements he can not play anywhere else. The Sabres hold most of the cards. Eichel's only card is he will have a clause in his contract next year, I beleive, where he can dictate somewhat where he is traded.

Well, because people would like to steal a franchise center for nothing, and the media seems to be all for it and also serving as a mouthpiece for the interested gms. His time in buffalo should be done, but giving him away would be horrific misstep, we need potentially high end pieces to get the re-rebuild going in the right direction. Ideally we find an acceptable deal, maybe it waits until he has surgery and plays in the olympics. Seems clear that if he had any legal recourse to void his contract with buffalo, that one of the two agents would have kicked the tires on it, so thats not it. Its hard to say whether buffalo is being unreasonable or not without knowing what offers were on the table- i vaguely remember the rangers one being awfully light and a poor fit, but the ny media insisted it was a fair offer, so its something you would have to see and decide for yourself.