Breakthrough season for Eichel

[AustonsNostrils]

Not happening. Same old Jack. A fresh start, a $10M a year contract, the captaincy and it means nothing. As a lifelong Sabres fan it's not easy to accept but accept we must. Many people here and elsewhere thought he'd break out in a way similar to Nathan Mackinnon, he won't, it's not in his personality though it's not all about his makeup as a person he's also got a fairly pedestrian hockey IQ, it's Year 4, he'll be a point per game or slightly better but the McDavids, Matthews's, Mackinnons have left him in the dust. His wingman Reinhart has 0 goals. The Sabres tanked hard and deliberately for 2 seasons, their fans suffered, and the reward for that suffering was Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel. Hard to criticize the GM's, 31 other GM's would have taken Eichel 2nd overall and probably half of GM's would have taken Reinhart.

Better coaching would help but Sabres fans who cleave to that as some magic key that unlocks his potential are dreaming. Great talent, good player but generational was a fantasy and franchise player is looking to be beyond him as well.

The Sabres are 3-3 on the season, if they had last year's tandem of Lehner and Johnson in goal they'd be 1-5 or 0-6.

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[ricky0034]

bit early to just write off the season of a guy that's only played 6 games so far and is sitting at 5 points right now

especially when unlike a lot of guys this early in the year he's someone that doesn't have a super inflated shooting percentage right now,if he had the shooting percentage Matthews did he would be at 11 goals

honestly when it's all said and done I still think he ends up with more points than MacKinnon on the season and probably Matthews as well

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

You can win with a 70~80 pts 1C....

 

[Cloned]

It's been 6 games lol.

 

[AustonsNostrils]

It's been 6 games lol.

it's not 6 games, it's over 200 games I've watched. I didn't say Eichel was a bust but the expectations for him were far greater than what's been seen.

 

[Cloned]

it's not 6 games, it's over 200 games I've watched. I didn't say Eichel was a bust but the expectations for him were far greater than what's been seen.

Guy's been injured a lot and has been hovering around PPG when he's been healthy.

Granted he's not on McDavid's level, but that's not really a fair comparison to make considering McDavid probably has only 1 or 2 other true peers close to his level.

 

[talitintti]

McDavid comparisons looking like a total joke, but Eichel looks not to be on the level of the other franchise players of his generation like Barkov, Matthews and MacKinnon either.

 

[Moskau]

It's been 6 games lol.

It's his entire career. He's simply not a franchise defining player. Not only is he not in the Matthews, MacKinnon, Barkov category of players (I'm not even going to mention McDavid), he might not even be in the Scheifele, Seguin tier of young centers. The guy is incredibly lucky though. Play in the NCAA right as it begins transitioning to a higher scoring and younger league. Get drafted in the same year as Connor McDavid, have media and scouts create a fake comparison between the two like they do between every player projected to go 1st and 2nd. Get paid $10 Million a season because the guy who people compare you to got $12 Million even though you're not even close to him as a player and closer to being worth $7 Million tops. What a life Eichel stumbled into.

With his lack of Hockey IQ, lack of shift to shift tenacity, and the emergence of other 2015 prospects I predict that by next Summer Eichel would not even go top 5 in a 2015 re-draft. I would probably build a franchise around McDavid, Marner, Barzal, Aho and possibly Provorov/Werenski before I would build around him.

 

[Icebreakers]

Guy's been injured a lot and has been hovering around PPG when he's been healthy.

Granted he's not on McDavid's level, but that's not really a fair comparison to make considering McDavid probably has only 1 or 2 other true peers close to his level.

Points isn't everything though. When you are that type of player being paid that money, you have more to burden than just producing. If you think sabre fans should just be happy about Eichel showing up getting 70-80 points then going home then it's not happening .

 

[Cloned]

It's his entire career. He's simply not a franchise defining player. Not only is he not in the Matthews, MacKinnon, Barkov category of players (I'm not even going to mention McDavid), he might not even be in the Scheifele, Seguin tier of young centers. The guy is incredibly lucky though. Play in the NCAA right as it begins transitioning to a higher scoring and younger league. Get drafted in the same year as Connor McDavid, have media and scouts create a fake comparison between the two like they do between every player projected to go 1st and 2nd. Get paid $10 Million a season because the guy who people compare you to got $12 Million even though you're not even close to him as a player and closer to being worth $7 Million tops. What a life Eichel stumbled into.

With his lack of Hockey IQ, lack of shift to shift tenacity, and the emergence of other 2015 prospects I predict that by next Summer Eichel would not even go top 5 in a 2015 re-draft. I would probably build a franchise around McDavid, Marner, Barzal, Aho and possibly Provorov/Werenski before I would build around him.

Fair enough.

 

[Kevs Security]

Eichel will surprise you, I guarantee it. My friend told me Eichy's got some issues with his knees at the moment.

 

[Albus Dumbledore]

he should start with defense. Him being a 70-80 point guy but being a liability in his own end is bad. if he could at least be average and then good that would help him a bunch.

as for the iq and stuff, idk experience will hopefully help offset some of that.

 

[biturbo19]

I still think the Sabres really goofed up by naming Eichel captain. It's just...not who he is. He's always come across to me as more Kane than Toews, in his attitude, demeanor, style of play, etc. Like Kane, he can be a fantastic player, equally crucial to his team's success and a guy who drives a good line and puts up a ton of points...but he's not that same sort of, "do everything the right way", leader of men sort of player as Toews. Eichel is one of those examples i hate, where a team seems to just hands the "C" to their "best player" on the scoresheet...just because, rather than having earned it by leading and captaining and setting the right example on and off the ice.

How do you walk back the "C" though, even if you do find that Toews to complement your Kane? You can't really strip the captaincy from a guy like Eichel making a billion dollars a year for max term, without creating a tsunami in the room that just emphasizes the embarrassment of having the C stripped. So now you're stuck with it...for better, or probably worse. I don't understand why there was such a rush to slap the letter on his chest, before he'd proven a darn thing to earn it. With the right guy, you can always wait it out (like the Leafs are doing with Matthews). He's not complaining about not getting the C yet. But once you slap that C on there...you can't put that back in the box.

 

[Jtown]

I really got it wrong with Eichel. I legit thought he would be a stud by now. He has all the skills a player in today's game needs to succeed but he seems to be on cruise control.

 

[22FUTON9]

I’m really surprised to see this many people writing him off already

 

[bert]

bit early to just write off the season of a guy that's only played 6 games so far and is sitting at 5 points right now

especially when unlike a lot of guys this early in the year he's someone that doesn't have a super inflated shooting percentage right now,if he had the shooting percentage Matthews did he would be at 11 goals

honestly when it's all said and done I still think he ends up with more points than MacKinnon on the season and probably Matthews as well

Why do you think that? Im curious? Any reasons in particular? Those are the two hottest players in the league boasting the most raw skill outside of Mcdavid.

 

[Dustin]

@TheJackAttack is not going to like this thread.

I personally think it's far too early to be making assumptions one way or the other as to the type of player Eichel will be. Buffalo has been trainwreck over the last couple of seasons and it make take a bit to turn things around.

 

[NyQuil]

Another hot take: courtesy of HF Boards.

 

[Number 57]

McDavid is the best player on earth by a landslide and even he cannot carry the Oilers to 1st place. I mean he litereally had a point on every single goal the Oilers scored until that OT winner by Nurse last night. He carried them on his shoulders. But if you don't have a decent support group, you're not gonna win. It's a team game. Even if you have McDavid.

So Eichel can pot his 70-75 pts, honestly it's not bad for a 1st line C. What he neeeds is better goaltending (so far, he has it in Hutton), better defense (once Dahlin emerges they'll be fine) and more depth up front (Sobotka, Sheary and Berglund isn't the answer).

I'm not sure about the coach or the system as I havn't seen them enough, but Housley doesn't strike me as the answer. So perhaps a change is required behind the bench.

Probably another bad year in the cards for Buffalo... unfortunately. Next summer they need to acquire a top-6 forward and top-4 D and they'll be competitive.

I mean, even Matthews has Marner, Rielly, Marleau, Tavares.... and MacKinnon plays with Landeskog and Rantanen. Come on!

 

[777]

uhhh Eichel is on pace for 40 goals. He has half of Buffalo's goals. HALF

Buf is the 2nd worst GF team in the NHL right now. Blaming Jack... lol

 

[Spirit of 67]

He still has lots of runway ahead of him.

 

[Paris in Flames]

It should be noted that Mackinnon's point totals by season were...

2013 - 14: 63 points
2014 - 15: 38 points
2015 - 2016: 52 points
2016 - 2017: 53 points
2017 - 2018: 97 points

Eichel has realistically had better production in his career before Mackinnon had his insane season last year.

Why is a Mackinnon like break out impossible for Eichel? 2 seasons ago 98% of this board would rank him above Mackinnon..anything can happen.

 

[Frank Drebin]

After that shameless tank job by Tim Murray I'm glad to see other teams get better players from the 2015 draft.

 

[K Fleur]

Eichel is 21 years old.

 

[ijuka]

It should be noted that Mackinnon's point totals by season were...

2013 - 14: 63 points
2014 - 15: 38 points
2015 - 2016: 52 points
2016 - 2017: 53 points
2017 - 2018: 97 points

Eichel has realistically had better production in his career before Mackinnon had his insane season last year.

Why is a Mackinnon like break out impossible for Eichel? 2 seasons ago 98% of this board would rank him above Mackinnon..anything can happen.

Because MacKinnon always had absolutely insane skills and he constantly destroyed the WHC so it felt like something was holding him back, which it was.

Eichel just doesn't have the pure skill that MacKinnon does. Therefore such a breakout with everything clicking is unlikely.