Breakthrough season for Eichel

[HaNotsri]

Outmatched by Bergeron and W Karlsson. Two selke monsters. Other than that he’s been great. Not his fault that we traded ROR and now only have one capable center.

Eichel will need some time to match up against the best defensive C in the league.
Matthews is amazing. Barkov as well. Doesn’t take anything away from Eichel.

We had great depth at D and would never become Edmonton.
We traded all that for wingers and a C.
Then we had a center spine that would make the league green with envy. Turns out Reinhart is a winger. And then we traded ROR.

Now we have 1 good C and lot’s of prospects on d. We will never become Toronto, Pittsburgh, Washington or Tampa. But maybe we can build a team like Nashville?
And then Eichel can controbute to some real success.

 

[PatrikBerglund]

Giving Eichel the C was, un my opinion, a really bad idea.

He needs another 2-3 to just focus on his game, not the whole team.

 

[KPower]

Giving Eichel the C was, un my opinion, a really bad idea.

He needs another 2-3 to just focus on his game, not the whole team.

I would have never given him the C.

He’s a douchebag.

 

[LeafFever]

Has anyone ever once stated "Eichel Hasn't Even Hit 70 Points Yet"?

 

[zeke]

The thing about Eichel is that I'm pretty sure he's a winger, not a center.

 

[zeke]

Giving Eichel the C was, un my opinion, a really bad idea.

The kind of move made where you are hoping a C helps a player become something better than he is....which never happens.

 

[tarheelhockey]

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.

Maybe look at Lecavalier as an example. He came into the league with an impossible-to-live-up-to level of hype, and was named captain even earlier than Eichel. Both at the time and in retrospect it was too early to put him in that role, and he was stripped of the C when Torts was brought in as coach. Over the next few years he won a Stanley Cup, grew from a 60-point type player into a 50-goal 100-point star, became a pillar of the community, and was re-named captain.

I don't know the behind-closed-doors story of how the C-stripping played out, but I'm thinking they may want to have lunch with Jay Feaster some time and learn a bit about how the Lightning organization handled that drama.

 

[La Masse]

Oh c'mon.The guy has as much talent as any player not named Mcdavid.He's only getting started IMO. Its also only been 6 games so slow your horses.

 

[Allan92]

If the OP watches so many buffalo games surely he's realised that anything resembling offence flows through Eichel about 90% of the time?

Guy takes over shifts like few others can but when you have the support he has, who's going to score apart from him?

To be PPG on the sabres is a big achievement. The team has Pominville, Berglund Sheary where others have Marner Kapanen, Jost, Rantanen, hell even McDavid has Drai and RNH.

Eichel also comes off as having a bad attitude. Maybe there's truth in that but I look at it as him being a winner and having an edge that drive to want to succeed. Time will tell whether or not he should have been captain.

Take Eichel out of Buffalo and it would have the biggest detriment to any team in the league aside from taking Hank out of the rangers and McDavid away from the oilers

 

[Filthy Dangles]

Oh c'mon.The guy has as much talent as any player not named Mcdavid.He's only getting started IMO. Its also only been 6 games so slow your horses.

No he doesn't. His skill set is starting to become overrated around here. He's a straight line player. He doesn't create much time and space for himself in the offensive zone like other superstar players.

I think we wer're looking at a player like Ryan Johansen longer term at this point. I, like many others was obviously high on Eichel, but I'm starting to give up on him being an aircraft carrier type player.

 

[Bonzo111]

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

yeah really, he'll come around. Mackinnon took forever to breakout it seems.

 

[zeke]

Take Eichel out of Buffalo and it would have the biggest detriment to any team in the league aside from taking Hank out of the rangers and McDavid away from the oilers

With eichel: 215gms, 83-104-28, 194pts, .451pts%
W/O eichel: 37gms, 13-17-7, 33pts, .446pts%

 

[Royal Thunder]

Yikes is this over dramatic

 

[Spilot23]

Well poor Eichel he seems to be the whipping boy when things are not working. Hard to do something with the team he has though playing with Sheary and Reinhart. Give him someone like Rantanen and I think that Eichel would produce PPG or more. I'll admit that I don't particularly watch the Sabres but the game they played against the Avs seemed like he was dangerous everytime he had the puck he even did an amazing play that led to a goal that got waived off sadly. It's hard to do wonders when your team is that bad.

 

[LeafFever]

Well poor Eichel he seems to be the whipping boy when things are not working. Hard to do something with the team he has though playing with Sheary and Reinhart. Give him someone like Rantanen and I think that Eichel would produce PPG or more. I'll admit that I don't particularly watch the Sabres but the game they played against the Avs seemed like he was dangerous everytime he had the puck he even did an amazing play that led to a goal that got waived off sadly. It's hard to do wonders when your team is that bad.

Things not working=100% of the time thus far in his career.

 

[Spilot23]

Things not working=100% of the time thus far in his career.

That's why I said that the team he has, it's hard to do wonders with that.

 

[BL92]

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

Exactly, it's been done before. It's not like there are McDavid's to go around for every team.

 

[Eltuna]

I thought he looked pretty good against the Avs the skill was pretty evident. Mackinnon really broke out when Rantanen hit the scene Eichel doesn’t have a guy like that on the team. I would still bet that this is a guy that hits 90 in his career.

 

[jj cale]

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.

I love Mackinnon but Eichel definitely has the pure skill he has. What he appears to lack is the same level of drive Mack has.

 

[Not Sure]

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.

Eichel has the pure skill to be a top 2 or 3 player in the league, problem is he only uses it when he decides he wants to. He been a more vocal leader lately, but he needs to show it on the ice, not just say the right things. It seems ROR and Housley have rubbed off on him in that way, dont just talk about effort, go out there and show an effort.

I'd put Eichels raw talent above Matthew's, but Matthew's effort on every single shift makes things happen, not just his talent. Matthew's drive puts Eichels to shame, hopefully he pulls it together, until then I just hope it doesnt rub off on Dahlin.

 

[Sweet Leaf]

He just doesnt bring the intensity from shift to shift and game to game.

I saw a weekend game last year Detroit vs Buffalo at LCA. Jack did not show up. He was dressed. He floated around. He just did nothing. It was like he was hurt or something. Dylan Larkin dominated him.

I saw another weekend afternoon game last yerer stars vs sabres in Buffalo. Jack looked very dangerous at times and on the PP but then disappeared for long stretches.

All the talent in the world but there is a faulty circuit there somewhere. Still he will have an awesome career just not as good as it should be. He can still go off and get 100 plus points.

 

[Frank Drebin]

This decades Phil Kessel

 

[CanuckGame39]

He always starts a little slow and then all of a sudden explodes with production.

Every year hes been in the league its been like this. I still think this will be his breakout 100 pt season.

 

[Melrose Munch]

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.

Agreed, people need to remember he is just 21.

 

[gorangers0525]

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

They really didn’t though. Even in hindsight, Eichel would be 2, and that doesn’t change a few games into a season.