Interesting discussion. I think Eichel is a star. I think when he puts his mind to it he is outstanding. I never see Crosby or McDavid taking a shift off. I do not see them lallygagging back on D or skating slowly to the bench on shift change. I do see those things happening with Jack from time to time. Was it coaching? Was it having the life sucked out of him from what was happening around him? Is he unable to perform at the highest level as consistently as other elite talent? Answer those questions or reject my premises--either way that determines whether waiting to sign him is good for Jack or Sabres....
I'm torn on this.
On the one hand, I do believe Jack is a bit less mature than other young elite talents in the league. He pouts, occasionally appears lackadaisical on the ice, comes across as unprofessional at times to the media. Wears his frustrations on his sleeve.
On the other hand, of players like McDavid and Matthews, he came into easily the worst situation. Completely incompetent coaching and almost no secondary scoring these last two years. Reinhart only recently started coming into his own, O'Reilly/Kane/Okposo were supposed to be the guys to ease his load the first few years and for whatever reason (coaching, injury, personal frustrations, etc) they couldn't step up consistently. If Eichel wasn't on his game any given night, the team sunk with him.
That's exactly what we were trying to avoid by bringing in so much established top 6 forward talent... but it all kinda fell onto Eichel anyways. I think in a better environment and a better mindset, like what this year will hopefully start with... we'll see the dominant Eichel more nights than not. I hope.
