Name the centres better than Eichel today

[Bluto]

Better than eichel...
Mackinnon
Crosby
Mcdavid
Malkin
Backstrom
Zibanejad
Courturier
Tavares
Pointe
Barkov
Aho
Petterson
Draisaitl
Barzal
Matthews
Bergeron
Stamkos
Schieffle

In no particular order

 

[Sniper99]

I'm not trying to collect historical cup rings, I'm trying to win some cups in the future

I have zero trust in Crosby having enough appetite left to win.

OMG this is just foolish. LOL

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

OMG this is just foolish. LOL

That's not even the weirdest thing he said in this particular thread.

 

[yada]

Better than eichel...
Mackinnon
Crosby
Mcdavid
Malkin
Backstrom
Zibanejad
Courturier
Tavares
Pointe
Barkov
Aho
Petterson
Draisaitl
Barzal
Matthews
Bergeron
Stamkos
Schieffle

In no particular order

I like this list although id say barzal is about even but the isles wouldn't make the swap. I also would take eichel over malkin though due to age and injury history.

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

McDavid
Mackinnon
Matthews
Drai
Barkov
Crosby
Point
Aho

 

[Jagemon]

Better than eichel...
Mackinnon
Crosby
Mcdavid
Malkin
Backstrom
Zibanejad
Courturier
Tavares
Pointe
Barkov
Aho
Petterson
Draisaitl
Barzal
Matthews
Bergeron
Stamkos
Schieffle

In no particular order

Okay there mister.

Healthy Eichel is close to top 5 in this league. If he is ever traded and stays healthy, he will prove you wrong.

 

[RealisticLeaf55]

It's hard to say because we haven't seen Eichel's best season as of yet. So as of right now, naturally there will be a lot of centers ahead of him. Does that mean he will stay behind them? Absolutely not.

Barzal?
Matthews
Drai
McDavid
Crosby
Malkin
Barkov
Mackinnon
Backstrom?
Point
Tavares?

Once again, when Eichel is healthy and fully playing, this can easily change. I placed question marks on those I am very on the fence with.

 

[EV22]

I think Tavares is a good comparable career and talent wise. Both were insanely hyped prospects who have been really good but maybe not the franchise saviors everyone thought of. Really similar rookie campaigns (54 and 56 points with both scoring 24 goals). After that it has been consistent upward trend towards PPG (0.94 and 0.95 PPG average in the NHL) in quite poor teams (pre-Toronto, and Islanders weren't as bad as Buffalo now but still a low-scoring team). Tavares was easily touted as top-10 player when playing in Islanders, but after Toronto switch maybe he was a bit overhyped at the time? Really depends on what Eichel will do next but he reminds me a lot of Tavares in the Islanders and would rank him behind:

McDavid
MacKinnon
Crosby
Draisaitl
Malkin
Matthews
Backström
Barkov

So in the top-10 range with players like Point, Aho, Tavares (has been trending downwards) and Barzal. But could see him jumping easily in the top-5 in the coming years with the right career move, but wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't turn out to be the "top dog" in different team like Tavares.

 

[gwh]

McDavid
Mackinnon
Draisaitl
Matthews
Barkov
Eichel


I d go with this. Eichel plays for the Buffalo Trashfires afterall

 

[sandysan]

Imagine this thread a year ago. He’d probably be #5 or so at worst. Don’t think he suddenly lost it.

Being perceived as a whiner and on an all time dysfunctional team sure changes things. Buffalo is bound to trade him for a ham sandwich and some team is going to get a franchise center for the better part of the next decade.

His days in buffalo do seem numbered but his health is a real concern ( the neck). not being willing to bet either way, I say that centers he would be ranked higher than if 100 % healthy are now viable options to pass him. For example, guys like bergeron and ROR.

young and hobbled is not a huge asset,

 

[Holymakinaw]

Inspired by TSN. Assuming full health and disregarding age and cap hits, name the centres you think are better than Eichel right now.

McDavid
McKinnon
Matthews
Crosby
Draisaitl

That's it.

 

[Frenzy31]

It's hard to say because we haven't seen Eichel's best season as of yet. So as of right now, naturally there will be a lot of centers ahead of him. Does that mean he will stay behind them? Absolutely not.

Barzal?
Matthews
Drai
McDavid
Crosby
Malkin
Barkov
Mackinnon
Backstrom?
Point
Tavares?

Once again, when Eichel is healthy and fully playing, this can easily change. I placed question marks on those I am very on the fence with.

Why haven't we seen his best season yet? He turns 25 in October. This isn't a 21, 22 year old kid. His production is very high, but he isn't a complete center yet and he should take some accountability for his teams play and more importantly culture. This seems to be a culture issue - at some point players need to take on responsibility.

Skinner was a stud when he arrived. They added Hall. They have a top pairing young dman and a legit #1 center. Maybe part is coaching, but there are other issues there as well, including a culture problem.

I would put ROR in there also. I would take Eickel over both Malkin and Tavares at this point.

 

[BFLO]

It's been noted, but the recency bias on this site is absolutely off the charts.

Jack Eichel can be reasonably placed behind: McDavid (easily), Mackinnon, Crosby (but likely not for long), Draisaitl, Matthews, and Barkov. I'm willing to hear arguments that Point belongs above him because of what he has managed to do in the playoffs.

But look, I like Aho and Scheifele a lot, but they aren't in the same stratosphere.

Eichel has been marooned on an island of incompetence and ineffectual play. Surely you can't tell me that you think that if you replace Eichel with Scheifele the Sabres are better?

Can you imagine Eichel on Carolina in place of Aho?

I will be honest, if he finds the right fit (or the Sabres improve enough around him) I could see him being as good or better than Draisaitl or Matthews. People forget that this is an incredibly talented player.

Now, the psychological side. I'm not sure that his maturity is as superlative as his skill set. It requires an incredibly unique 18 year old to enter a billion dollar organization under the tenor of "we gave up and became as pathetic as possible in order to get someone else. We got you instead, fix us".

The pitfalls are innumerable including the potential for an incredibly swollen head, the potential for the magnitude to rob you of your love of the game, the potential (when things don't go as well as you are used to) for despair.

He's basically a franchise player in the most toxic environment in the NHL (not just toxic as it is for any Sabre, but toxic for a franchise player who is supposed to save a franchise that quit).

Good post. Which centers replacing Eichel as the Sabres 1c would actually have done better than Eichel has done for his career?

Definitely better: Mcdavid, Mackinnon, Crosby, *Malkin when healthy and younger

After that I don't see anyone who I think would definitely be better.

Barkov, would lose out on points from the downgrade at wing from Hubes to Reinhart. But is probably closest to doing the same for the Sabres as he's done for his actual team.

Draisaitl, how much of his production comes while at center vs at wing for McDavid?

Matthews, definitely would not have performed as well in Buffalo as he has in Toronto. Huge downgrade in situation around him.

ROR was better than rookie Eichel, but then fell behind rapidly after that. So it blows my mind that people think ROR would be better than Eichel for the Sabres when ROR already played for the Sabres at the same time as Eichel and was not better.

 

[BambiKakko]

Barkov, would lose out on points from the downgrade at wing from Hubes to Reinhart. But is probably closest to doing the same for the Sabres as he's done for his actual team.

Barkov have been playing with Duclair and Verheage most of the season so not sure would Reinhart be a downgrade

 

[BFLO]

Barkov have been playing with Duclair and Verheage most of the season so not sure would Reinhart be a downgrade

I specifically said over Eichel's career. Not just this season. Huberdeau and Barkov played together in 2018-19 when they were both 90+ points. Do you think Barkov scores 96 points in 2018-19 playing for the Sabres with Reinhart and Skinner as his line mates?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Eichel seems like that guy with tons of talent who just hasn't quite taken that next step yet. There are at least five who are clearly better and he might crack the top ten.

 

[Mobiandi]

McDavid, MacKinnon. That's it

 

[McFlash97]

Good post. Which centers replacing Eichel as the Sabres 1c would actually have done better than Eichel has done for his career?

Definitely better: Mcdavid, Mackinnon, Crosby, *Malkin when healthy and younger

After that I don't see anyone who I think would definitely be better.

Barkov, would lose out on points from the downgrade at wing from Hubes to Reinhart. But is probably closest to doing the same for the Sabres as he's done for his actual team.

Draisaitl, how much of his production comes while at center vs at wing for McDavid?

Matthews, definitely would not have performed as well in Buffalo as he has in Toronto. Huge downgrade in situation around him.

ROR was better than rookie Eichel, but then fell behind rapidly after that. So it blows my mind that people think ROR would be better than Eichel for the Sabres when ROR already played for the Sabres at the same time as Eichel and was not better.

Lol...

Hahahhahaha Draisaitl at center on the wing..in the toilet...in Eichels gf room.. doesn't matter trashes Eichel all over the place... credibility out the door.

 

[hockeynorth]

McDavid Matthews Draisaitl MacKinnon Barkov Crosby and I have the last 2 as debatable

 

[Snippit]

If you are willing to discard this season based on injury, then the answer is:

McDavid, Mackinnon, Matthews, Draisaitl, Crosby, and then probably equal to Barkov

I think people are forgetting what he did in 19-20 based on the mess of this season but he will regularly score 95+ points for his new team, you can quote me on that.

 

[BFLO]

Lol...

Hahahhahaha Draisaitl at center on the wing..in the toilet...in Eichels gf room.. doesn't matter trashes Eichel all over the place... credibility out the door.

I honestly haven't watched enough of Drai to know how good he is, which is why I framed it as a question.

Do you think he wins the Art Ross last season as the Sabres 1 C with Oloffson and reinhart as his line mates? Or breaks 100 points in 18-19 with skinner and reinhart/pominville? Looking at moneypuck Drai spent 442 minutes with McDavid/Kassian last season, only 318 with nuge/yamamoto

There's a chance he does better in Eichel's shoes than Eichel did, but there's no way he matches the production he had with the Oilers.

 

[Washed Up 29YearOld]

ain't no one better than Eichel Greatest Of All Time yo ya'll just hatin

 

[SFKingshomer]

Better than eichel...
Mackinnon
Crosby
Mcdavid
Malkin
Backstrom
Zibanejad
Courturier
Tavares
Pointe
Barkov
Aho
Petterson
Draisaitl
Barzal
Matthews
Bergeron
Stamkos
Schieffle

In no particular order

Kopitar

 

[Bluto]

Kopitar

Agreed

 

[Cats2TheCup]

I specifically said over Eichel's career. Not just this season. Huberdeau and Barkov played together in 2018-19 when they were both 90+ points. Do you think Barkov scores 96 points in 2018-19 playing for the Sabres with Reinhart and Skinner as his line mates?

Yes. He paced for it this season without Huberdeau. How can you actually think it's impossible when he's literally doing it this year? Look who he's played with.