Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid must go to Carolina and Arizona

Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid need to succeed. Considering the absurd amount of hype around these two prospects, it’s vital that they’re put in spots that have high potential for growth.

They must go to places where they can help push the game to new and unseen heights. They need to go to places that have never seen prodigies with their prodigious skill sets.

In that case … for the love of god please Arizona and Carolina tank. Tank worse than you’ve ever tanked before in your history. Do all in your power to make sure Eichel and McDavid don’t end up with Edmonton and Buffalo, the two poster children for crappola franchises.

We need one of you to save hockey in the desert. We need the other to be the heir apparent to Eric Staal and bring back the playoff hockey tailgates we knew and loved in Carolina’s runs to the Cup Final.

The last thing we need is for either to end up in Edmonton/Hoth or the recovering industrial paradise known as Buffalo – though one would get a ton of national TV love with the latter.

To paraphrase Wayne’s World – you’re not worthy.

In all sincerity, if the NHL wants both to push its game forward and see them succeed it’s Arizona and Carolina or burst. And no, we don’t want Arizona and Carolina to lose games on purpose. It just makes more sense for those two forwards to end up in Raleigh or Glendale.

Currently the Coyotes and Hurricanes have 37 points. Buffalo, on an 11-game losing skid, has 31 points. Edmonton has 33. The lower the finish, the higher the chance to draft. No. 1 in 2015 when the two super prospects are eligible.

Apparently we’re not the only one to think of this.

Said Cardiac Cane:

If Connor McDavid is put of the question, Jack Eichel or Noah Hanifin, the top 2 American born prospects in the upcoming draft, would be great [consolation].

If the Hurricanes fall out of the top 3, they do have the pieces to move back into “McEichel” territory.

Anything could happen in the final 3 months of the year with the Carolina Hurricanes, but their increased success in since the beginning of 2015 has indicated to me that the hopes of drafting Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel may be disappearing.

And so says Dave Lozo from Bleacher Report

Outsiders will look at what the Arizona Coyotes are beginning to do much the same way you’d look at some welded garbage monstrosity in the Guggenheim and wonder what’s so special about it. Remember that Simpsons episode where Homer receives acclaim as an artist because he couldn’t build a barbecue pit?

The Coyotes are that failed barbecue pit.

Tanking is not only the smart move for the 2015 draft, as it gives them a shot at Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel, but it’s the smart move for a franchise that has the power to leave Glendale in 2018 should the team lose more than $50 million in the preceding five seasons.

And from the same story:

This is the best way for the Coyotes to become a sustainable, profitable, and, oh yeah, winning organization before the five-year out clause in the team’s lease allows them to leave for another other location that wants an NHL team.

This makes just almost too much sense. Everyone wants it (except for Edmonton or Buffalo fanbases). And they’re also the best spots for these guys to end up.

Since 2009, the most prolific drafted Sabres? Zack Kassian (55 points in 179 games and now with Vancouver) and Marcus Foligno (59 points in 163 games). The only one who comes, close is ‘All-Star’ Zemgus Girgensons with 44 points in 117 games.

Edmonton has drafted some solid players since 2009, but they've also drafted very high. Taylor Hall was a ‘can’t miss’ though his name has somehow been dragged into trade rumors. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, he’s fine – but he’s another player who didn’t really need to be developed.

How the Oilers have handled Nail Yakupov and Leon Draisaitl has should have them incarcerated in hockey prospect development court. They had almost no clue what to do about either and it shows with Yakupov having no confidence in his game since his rookie year, and Draisaitl being sent back to junior 37 games into his NHL career.

Between Justin Faulk, Jeff Skinner and maybe Elias Lindholm, (though it’s still too early to tell with the last name) the Hurricanes have shown how to select players and make them NHL-ready.

The Coyotes haven’t exactly hit the draft jackpot in recent years having seen their drafted prospects play just two NHL games since 2012. But Eichel or McDavid could develop in the desert without the weight of massive expectations generally heaped on a player in a big hockey market.

As Lozo pointed out, there is that pesky $50 million clause. That’s definitely pressure. But it’s three years away. They got time.

Says SB Nation:

It didn't take long for the new Arizona Coyotes owner to make a big decision about the future of his franchise.

According to TSN's Pierre LeBrun, new Coyotes owner Andrew Barroway met with GM Don Maloney this week to discuss immediate plans to rebuild their fading team. In LeBrun's words, the two agreed to "blow this up, and let's have a full rebuild in the desert."

Arizona is undergoing one of its worst seasons in franchise history. The Coyotes own the fourth-worst record in the NHL at the midway point in the season, and considering the core has remained the same for years it's no wonder ownership is looking to hit the reset button.

DO IT. SELL EVERYONE. TANK!

Just kidding! Sort of ...

Lastly, Buffalo and Edmonton don’t deserve to have another hockey prodigy. Sabres fans had Gilbert Perreault and were treated to the French Connection. The Oilers dynasties of the 80s go without saying.

Give someone else a chance at great prospect. McEichel wants BBQ. McEichel wants to go hiking at Camelback Mountain. McEichel should be in Arizona and Carolina.

Now if only those two teams could do their parts …

On a sidenote if McDavid goes to Edmonton, how many Gretzky comparisons will we hear? Enough to probably create a drinking game. So that’s at least something in Edmonton’s favor – probably the only pro.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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