Standing 6-foot-2, 201 pounds, with broad shoulders, and a swath of curly blonde hair Jack Eichel looks like an All-American. He actually is one. A first-team All-American in college hockey last season, he also won the award named after American hockey icon Hobey Baker as the best player in college hockey. The North Chelmsford, Mass., native was the second freshman ever to do so in the NCAA and first since Paul Kariya back in 1993.
Eichel carries himself with confidence off the ice, but exudes it on the ice. Listen to him speak, watch him skate and you’ll know that he is prepared to play the part of the new face of the Buffalo Sabres franchise.
The No. 2 overall pick in 2015, Eichel will make his NHL debut Thursday night, 20 days before his 19th birthday. He will hit the ice with high hopes, lofty expectations and a pressure most adults will never experience.
The Sabres and their fans have been hurting. Some of that pain, or maybe a lot of it, was self-inflicted with the knowledge that the path to better days was through utter destruction. The team won 44 games total over the last two seasons, finishing dead last in both 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Last season, there was Connor McDavid, the wunderkind drawing comparisons to Sidney Crosby, Mario Lemieux and even some bold enough to say Wayne Gretzky. He was clearly the top prize in the draft. Prior to the season, the NHL’s draft lottery rules changed, putting the Sabres’ chances of winning the top pick and being able to draft McDavid at a mere 20 percent. As the team embarked on the 2014-15 season with a roster that was sure to struggle, the only reason to stay the course on a dumpster dive was because they had a 100 percent chance of getting at least Eichel.
Some might say he’s a consolation prize, but he’s been treated like anything but. He is prominently featured in all team events and marketing. Eichel has been trotted out to various community events, interacting with his now fellow Buffalonians with an easiness that has proven endearing. He’s playing the part of franchise savior, but the hardest part comes next.
When the puck drops Thursday, Eichel will have to prove himself essentially on a nightly basis, with every move watched closely, but he’s had some practice at this.
At 18 years old, playing college hockey where the players age in range from 18 to 26, Eichel dominated. He put up 71 points to lead the country. He took Boston University from one of their worst seasons as a college hockey program the year before to the cusp of the national championship before ultimately falling to Providence College. It was one of the more dramatic program turnarounds you’ll see in college hockey and Eichel was the key to it.
Then he got the call from USA Hockey. After playing in the World Junior Championship earlier in the year, he was brought on to the Men’s National Team to compete in the Men’s World Championship. Eichel was one of the team’s best forwards despite being their youngest player. He had seven points as Team USA won a surprise bronze medal with one of the youngest teams USA Hockey has ever iced at that tournament. Eichel was its first-line center and saw matchups against top centers like Evgeni Malkin of Russia.
He plays the game differently than most. At the previous levels he has played at, the game seemed to come easy to Eichel. He could control the pace of his shifts when the puck was on his stick. Creating space is something he does extraordinarily well, processing the game two steps ahead of most everyone else.
Then there’s the power in his skating stride. His ability to separate in fewer steps than the average player is one of the reasons he could succeed early and produce at a rate higher than most rookies. Just watch him pull away here:
It will also help that he has a better supporting cast in Buffalo than he would have if he arrived a year earlier.
He comes to a Buffalo team that is barely recognizable from the season before. Dan Bylsma was hired as the head coach, bringing a Stanley Cup pedigree and an instant culture change. The Sabres acquired Ryan O’Reilly in a big trade with the Colorado Avalanche right before they picked Eichel second at the draft. Evander Kane, acquired last season from the Winnipeg Jets along with Zach Bogosian, sees himself getting back to the form that allowed him to score 30 goals earlier in his career. Rookie Sam Reinhart, the No. 2 pick in 2014, is ready for his NHL debut as well. As has Robin Lehner, who will take the reins as the team’s new starting goalie.
Buffalo might not be a playoff team right away, but no one can deny the franchise has a completely different feel from the last several seasons. They hit rock bottom and now they’re finally climbing back up.
Meanwhile, Eichel has done nothing to dissuade hyping him up. He was a standout in the team’s rookie tournament and then led the Sabres in scoring during the preseason with six points over four games. Both of the goals he scored ended up on the highlight reels (like the one above).
He’s slated to center a line with Kane and Reinhart when the Sabres take on the Senators in Buffalo Thursday, a trio made up entirely of fresh faces. They’re giving him every opportunity to succeed.
Beyond the impact he’s expected to have on the Sabres, Eichel has a real opportunity to usher in the next generation of American hockey players. Eichel was the first of seven Americans selected in the first round of the 2015 NHL Draft.
Fellow top-five pick and Massachusetts native Noah Hanifin will also be making his NHL debut Thursday night as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes. One of Eichel’s former teammates at the vaunted U.S. National Team Development Program and a 2014 first-round pick, Dylan Larkin, became the first teenager in the last 17 seasons to make the Detroit Red Wings’ roster. Additionally, the projected No. 1 overall pick for 2016 is Scottsdale, Ariz., native Auston Matthews.
Higher-end American prospects seem to come in bunches. There was a large group of players born between 1984 and 1986 that have established themselves as some of the biggest American stars in the game right now like Zach Parise, Jonathan Quick, Ryan Suter, Ryan Kesler T.J. Oshie and David Backes. Then there were a few more born in the 1987-89 range like Phil Kessel, Patrick Kane, Jack Johnson, Erik Johnson, Kevin Shattenkirk and James van Riemsdyk.
This latest wave born between 1996 and 1997 may have a chance to rival all of them and it could be Eichel leading the charge. It’s hard to put such high expectations on teenagers, but Eichel has routinely surpassed projections set for him.
Kevin Allen, who writes for USA Today and is considered the dean of American hockey writers, long ago termed Eichel as “arguably the best American prospect since Mike Modano.” It’s high praise coming from Allen, who literally wrote the book on USA Hockey. Modano is the all-time leading scorer among American-born players in the NHL. Eichel may not get to that level of production with the way the league is now, but he certainly looks to be the next big thing in American hockey.
We don’t know what the future holds for Eichel or the Sabres or USA Hockey. That will play out over the next several years. We do know that Eichel has created these expectations for himself by rising to the occasion every time he steps foot on the ice. Now he’ll have to do it on the biggest stage there is.
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