Quoting: Aasen6
Debrincat is a good player but his game is as one dimensional as they come and his numbers are inflated due to playing with patty Kane. He’s definitely not returning anywhere close to what eichel did which is what’s suggested here
You clearly don't watch enough of Cat because "one dimensional" is incredibly false about Cat. He's been a good two way winger the last two seasons and an absolute spit fire pest to the other team. He is also returning at the very least what Eichel did, but most likely more and a simply analysis would help you understand why...
1) Eichel carrying a $10M cap hit trade in season has a very limited market, teams have already set their cap for the season and can't just squeeze in $10M thus there was limited demand
2) Eichel going into a major surgery with a very gray or unknown long term prognosis (which is still there). Not many teams are willing to eat up $10M in cap space for that
3) Eichel forced Buffalo to trade him, and was a public display
4) Eichel was a UFA in 4 years, that's a lot of risk and a lot of cap space for a guy that the acquiring team only gets for 4 years
Cat has never been injured, continues to get better and better, is a RFA, a year younger, top 5 goal scorer in the league, traded in the offseason when teams can easily make cap space, and carrying a very affordable cap hit.
You just don't know Cat enough to not understand if truly available he automatically the top acquisition piece in the league; period.