Ahh, the high horse routine.
You take facts out of context, and construct an argument with them. Here, I'll address them for you. The scoring rate you harp on about you take in a vacuum. First, no one in the league is as good as McDavid. He is not overly relevant because he's in a league of his own. Second, other players like Matthews have a much better supporting cast. You literally cannot ignore that fact to make a solid argument, yet you do. Most everyone looking at your arguments knows this, and knows how weak the arguments are. That's why they are not worth refuting.
"Supporting cast" means almost nothing. Eichel isn't playing with an ECHL team. Reinhart, Olofsson, RO'R, Kane, Skinner (aside from this year), Okposo in some years, Staal, Hall--not a murderer's row, but if Panarin can put up 90+ points in 60 some games with Ryan Strome as his center, why can't Eichel do the same with Olofsson, Kane, or Skinner on his wings? There's a difference between "not having all stars on his line" and not having any talent at all on his team. There are PLENTY of players who finish top 10 in scoring on non-playoff teams. You call it an analysis in a "vacuum" where I ignore his supporting cast. Why is that excuse not necessary for Barkov, Mackinnon, or Kane a couple seasons ago? All three finished top 10 on non playoff teams. It's not uncommon at all. But it's only seen as a valid excuse for the camouflage superstar, Jack Eichel. And again, it's not like Eichel has
just missed out on top ten finishes. He hasn't even been close. In three of his five complete seasons, he's finished outside the top
fifty:
15/16: Tied for 59th (with Galchenyuk and Bobby Ryan)
16/17: Tied for 53rd (with Nino Niederreiter)
17/18: Tied for 52nd (with Jason Zucker, Sean Monahan, Filip Forsberg, Yanni Gourde, and Teuvo Terravainen)
18/19: Tied for 23rd (with Monahan and Kessel)
19/20: Tied for 10th (with Huberdeau)
Eichel is still an
excellent player, and I'm not trying to make him sound like crap by any means, but Buffalo fans keep scoffing at packages that include the equivalent of 4+ 1st round picks and prospects. The package Buffalo fans are expecting is a package that would make sense for a true, top 5 center (Mackinnon, McDavid, prime Crosby, Draisaitl, Marchand, Matthews, etc. That's not a value that matches his production over the last 5 years. Eichel is more in the same category as Point, Aho, Barkov, prime Kopitar kinds of players. Buffalo fans can insist that isn't the case, but a top-5 C claims that distinction by producing, and Eichel hasn't produced to those levels at any point in his career.
And when the points come is also not overly relevant. I can just as easily pull out stats that show how good Eichel is over a whole season. Facts taken out of context while ignoring others make for a weak argument.
That doesn't address the point. It's the equivalent of saying "I don't like your information, so I'm going to ignore it." Why do points down the stretch matter? Because it shows that a player has the pride to compete at the same level even if the playoffs are out of the question. You need that from a leader of a team. You need players who will go to war solely to spoil another team's playoff berth, even if it hurts their team's draft position. A player that seems to have a record of checking out early because the games don't matter? Huge red flag. And to be fair, that's just my interpretation of those numbers. I'd be curious to hear anyone else's different interpretation. Do his minutes go down down the stretch? It the team playing prospects more to see what they have? There are a couple of other possibilities, but having it happen year in and year out is not a good look.
And look, I know you're going to try for a witty comeback. Please don't bother, because this is the only response I am going to give you. If you don't want to trade for Eichel, fine, but stop trashing Eichel with arguments like this and expect to be taken seriously.
I don't want the Rangers to trade for Eichel. I was initially open to it, but the more I looked into it, the more red flags I found. I would rather hold on to our prospects and cap space and build the way we have been for the last few years. If they gamble on Eichel and it turns out that I was right about those red flags, then the team will go nowhere for 5 years AND lose a chunk of their future both due to the potential trade and not being able to re-sign key players. Also, if Buffalo fans are so sensitive that they can't stand anyone doing anything but genuflecting at Eichel's glory, bear in mind that the inverse holds true as well. If you don't want Rangers fans in here applying a critical lens to your player, try not calling other teams' players/prospects "trash" and other such insults.
