I dont know... the difference I see from the elite.. like Crosby and McDavid is the ability to stick handle in tight areas. Eichel can stick handle when hes on the rush but when he is in closed quarters he gets in trouble. He needs to have a lot of space to operate. Not sure if its IQ but more his ability to stick handle and skate in tight quarters. Could be his size..could be his stick length..could be he just needs to keep working on those things
I think it’s completely accurate to say he has some limitations at stickhandling compared to the super elite. For sure. And it’s difficult to improve that skill at this age.
But to me the iq issues rest not so much related to his stickhandling in tight.
It’s the fact that he puts himself in that position frequently, nowhere near the net and without an obvious option.
There are a lot of times per game where he somehow still turns those dead end plays into a good outcome, at least maintaining possession.
But if he made smarter decisions away from the puck and with the puck he would get so much more production, without even needing to be a wizard with his handle.
I would love to see a breakdown between Jack, McDavid, Crosby, Malkin, Stamkos, let’s call them a rough breakdown of the top 10-20 offensive players. Forget defense, which is a separate issue. The analysis would be just how they attack the offensive zone, purely from a pace perspective. 2v1, 2v2, etc, and so on.
I would be blown away if Eichel wasn’t the last or bottom tier of those guys in that category.
And this is not a skating stride/big guy misunderstanding. He consistently tries to look up and slow things down as soon as he clears the red line.
Sometimes that makes sense, particularly with a late trailer. But most of the time it’s the wrong choice. It gives the defending team time to recover, which most nhl teams are very capable of. It means less time for teammates to be opened, for rebounds or general mayhem in the ozone.
Now the hard part to know without talking to him and being hands on, is that idk if that is a specific strategy he thinks will work? Because he definitely had a similar style in amateur, so it’s not something either Bylsma or Housley told him to do. And certainly not something that is being directly changed.
Or does he do that, the slow down game, so that he can look around for a long time with a ton of space because he needs the extra time to think? Which would be an indication that he has some real mental limitations.
Or is he just a little bit lazy, relative to elite professional athletes? Because at least 3 times a game there are chances offensively that would be great chances if he went all out and he chooses not to. His defensive effort, makes me take this possibility relatively seriously.
In the end it’s probably a little bit of everything, which pisses me off even more that we had a moron like Bylsma here for Eichel’s start. He needed a hard ass coach that drove him as hard as possible to start his career. Fix the bad habits, enforce a certain level of professional effort.
Instead Bylsma acted like he had a fully formed Crosby that needed no direction, and let him play like an ahole for two years, with zero consequences. Then was the time to clash, cuz who cares if we dump that coach eventually, mold the kid for Christ’s sake.
In the end he still is a good player, Seguin level at least, which is good to have. And Dahlin will be the generational guy, all good.
