Quoting: TheBoyDuddus
Two of Ottawa's best and most NHL ready prospects along with 7th oa and a potential lottery ticket in the best draft of almost the last decade isnt great face value. I'm not saying it's bad but Pinto is 100% in the top 9 and given Greig's preseason in the NHL and his play in junior he probably is too. Theyre top 30 prospects in the league.
Zaitsev is a cap dump and obviously Murphy is better than that. But the cost of the dump plus whatever the cost of Murphy would be a lot more palatable if kept separate.
Obviously not the same situation, despite the fact that Cat is owed a massive raise on a new contract after this season but you could argue that Ottawa is giving more up that Vegas did for Eichel. Pinto and Krebs are the same age/draft and of a similar pedigree. Then Ottawa is giving 7th vs Vegas giving 16th so add whatever value that is to Greig and a '23 1st vs Tuch and a late Vegas '23 2nd. Dont think its far off by any means and as much as I love what Cat does he's not Eichel (healthy).
Cat is worth as much as Eichel, if not more.
1) Eichel, in a public display forced Buffalo's hands in season. How many teams could and were willing to play cap gymnastics mid season? Market demand is everything and that reduced the market for Eichel
2) Eichel having a major surgery with a questionable long term prognosis. I've had the surgery and his outcome long term will not be good taking hits. This has been already proven in the NFL.
3) UFA in 4 years, versus RFA and a year younger. Team team acquiring Cat can sign a 8 year extension.
4) $10M cap hit. Cat's QO is $9M after his current bargain contract expires.
Those main factors had a major impact on Buffalo's return. If you remove them, and create parity to Cat (healthy, not at odds with his team, RFA, cheaper cap hit, traded in the offseason) Eichel would have gone for substantially more.
Last thing I'll say is the #7OA would be equivalent to the #15 last year...it's a weak top 10 this draft year so that's parity with the Vegas pick in my opinion.