Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel: Impact on Their Division Rivals

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

 

 

Well, we know Edmonton and Buffalo will draft #1 and #2.

And unless those two franchises are insane, they WILL be drafting Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel in that order as well.

 

We know these guys are 'special' talents. Words like 'generational players' being used with these guys as well.

 

Many of us are quite aware of what they can do on the ice and we all have expectations of how they will elevate the Oilers and Sabres.

Both players will be joining a cast of very good young players on each of their teams as well....obviously, teams with issues in many areas (otherwise they wouldn't be last place teams, right?)....but still, some dream line combinations can be drawn up.

 

 

So, I thought, why not start a thread where we can discuss what the division rivals of the Oilers (Pacific) and Sabres (Atlantic) will be looking to do with their rosters, knowing they will be seeing these 'special, generational' players regularly on their schedules.

 

For instance....teams like the Lightning and Panthers....very good young cores with up n coming talent.....but still developing defenses...how do they deal with a Jack Eichel paired with some other very good Buffalo players?

Does an older team like Boston have to not only evaluate their own talent, but account for what they can do to deal with ever increasing faster teams like the 'new' Buffalo Sabres?

 

Jack Eichel, as good as he is, will be heading into one of the two toughest divisions in hockey (Central, IMO, being #1, Atlantic #2)...what will his transition to the NHL be like dealing with the likes of Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay....

 

Same with Connor McDavid in the Pacific.....dealing with the likes of up n coming Calgary and their core of young stars.

Teams like the Kings and Ducks, who have established, still-in-their-prime cores....do they change up much knowing they will be dealing with McDavid regularly.....how doe Connor fare against those teams?

 

Then you have teams in the same Conference that will have to deal with these two young talents as well.....Minnesota, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Chicago.....they will see their fair share of McDavid....while Pittsburgh, New York (both of them), Washington, Philly....they will see quite a bit of Eichel.

 

Impact of McDavid and Eichel and their linemates on their division rivals...let's see if we can get some awesome takes from HF.net.

Discuss.

 

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

This is a really deep draft and six of the first eight players taken, barring trades, will go to the Eastern conference. As a Wings fan (and in your case, Lightning fan) this is not a good thing, allowing the have nots to gain ground. The East had its fair share of very good and very bad teams, only a few in the middle. 

 

  I am thrilled that McDavid is going to Edmonton, as far away from the Eastern conference as possible. Eichel, IMHO is a solid real deal prospect but not in the class of McDavid, kind of like when the Penguins landed Lemieux and the Devils in second wound up with Kirk Muller, a fine player for a long, long time but not in Lemieux's class by a long shot. I kind of see Eichel that way, a solid two way center who will be an excellent player but not a once in a generation player like McDavid. Taking nothing away from the kid, I would kill to get him, but to get McDavid I might kill someone I like.

 

 As for how it affects the Wings, we are built weird right now, our wingers are young, we have a solid core on defense but we are getting old at center, Zetterberg, Pavel, Helm and Weiss are all getting up there, the only center in the system who looks to be a sure thing is Andreas Athanasiou and his role is as yet undefined. Buffalo has Eichel and Reinhart and Girgensons, three great young centers, don't get me started on the Bolts, the Bruins still have Krejci and Bergeron, Florida has Bjugstad and Barkov, Montreal has Plekanec among others, Ottawa has Turris and Zibinejad and Toronto will soon be home to Nylander along side Bozak.

 

 In short, the Wings within a year or two could easily be very short in the arms race at center within our own division. I love what we have now, in fact I would place our top four centers including Glendening against most anyone this year, but going forward within a year or two we could be in big trouble.

 So I see the Wings being forced to look for a trade or signing a big free agent until Dylan Larkin is ready in three or four years, provided he plays center and not the Wing when he makes the big club.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Outstanding take, @yave1964

 

I will take your word, and others too, on the differences in performance of Eichel and McDavid as, outside of highlight reels (no shortage of those on the internet), and news stories, I have not seen them actually play in games to make any sort of educated comparisons myself.

 

But given the amount of positive prognosticating that is out there, I can only conclude that BOTH these guys are the real deal....by how much relative to each other, I don't know, but suffice to say that both the Conferences will two very good player to have to account for each and every time the Oilers and Sabres show up on the schedule.

 

That all said, interesting that you are worried about how the Wings stack up down the middle with not only the Sabres, but other teams in the division in the long run.

Nothing at all wrong with that angle.....lines DO get matched up for specific situations after all....but personally, I was thinking more along the lines of the defensive coverage.

 

While certainly a given line on a team will be matching against Eichel's line, it is the defense pairings that will see the brunt of what that young man and his linemates will bring, and it is they who will be assigned to contain those guys.

 

So that is the direction I am taking my post.....defense of the likes of Eichel.

 

Not that it was ever a good thing to have, but with a guy like Jack now skating within the division, teams simply CANNOT have slow footed, brain dead defensemen patrolling the blue line.

Not even if you think you can "hide" them.

 

So what I think a Jack Eichel will do to the Atlantic Divison is weed out the undesirable, pylon-like, poor decision making D-men from each team in there and have them replaced with guys that can really skate, are quick thinkers, and can expertly box out and keep awesome talents like him to the perimeter at best.

 

For the Bolts, guys like Braydon Coburn, Jason Garrison, and Andrej Sustr....they each bring something to the blue line...but each of those players also has some glaring weakness or two that can EASILY be exploited by a generational talen such as Jack Eichel.

So for guys like that, either their game needs to be stepped up, or the Bolts (most likely) will need to replace them with 'upgraded models' over the course of the next year or three.

 

Fortunately, Tampa Bay has some promising, fleet footed and (hopefully) quick WITTED defensemen in the pipeline that may be able to cope with the likes of Eichel and his ilk in the coming years.

Of course, the proof will always be in the playing and until those young defensemen meet up with Eichel on the ice, we won't know for sure.

 

Other teams in the divison like Montreal, your Red Wings, the Bruins, and ouch, ESPECIALLY Toronto....they are gonna have to look long and hard at what they have on defense now and what they have in the cupboards and postulate: "Are these guys good enough to keep up with Jack Eichel, a Sam Reinhart, or any of the other not-yet-in-their-primes forwards from the other division rivals?"

 

For sure, there will always be a place for a big hard hitting defenseman on the team....but unless that guy can really skate and think (preferably at the SAME TIME   ), they will be fewer and farther between....being replaced by mid sized or smaller d-men who can skate like forwards and think very, very quickly.

 

So beware Braydon Coburn, beware Kronwall, beware Jared Tinordi, beware Dion Phaneuf, etc, etc.......unless you guys up the ante in your game, and be MORE than just hard hitting freight trains or bodies 'in the way', you guys may find yourselves obsolete in the new era of Atlantic Division hockey that a guy like Jack Eichel will usher in moving forward.

 

To me, THAT is the kind impact an Eichel in the East and a McDavid in the West will have.....they will change how teams load up on defensemen and look more closely at the skill set of those defensemen to be sure they can keep up with the Eichels, the Reinharts, the Johnsons, the Galchenyuks, the Huberdeaus, etc...that are sure to be taking over and controlling the pace of play in the Atlantic for years to come.

 

As if the new rules in hockey didn't already have the big lumbering defensemen on the brink of extinction, guys like McDavid and Eichel (in conjunction with the already awesome talents skating in NHL rinks now) will push those dinosaurs completely into oblivion.

 

Teams in the Atlantic and Pacific divisions specifically, need to safeguard their bluelines starting now to be as ready as possible for those two new entrants.

[JackStraw]

Personally, I think Eichel will be better than any center currently in the league besides Crosby (and maybe Malkin). He literally has all the tools- fantastic skater, passer, shooter, size, creativity... a complete package. I'm glad he won't be in the Flyers division.

[JagerMeister]

Personally, I think Eichel will be better than any center currently in the league besides Crosby (and maybe Malkin). He literally has all the tools- fantastic skater, passer, shooter, size, creativity... a complete package. I'm glad he won't be in the Flyers division.

Eichel is American, so he wont be better than Getzlaf or Toews.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Some other ways Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel can impact division rivals:

Off the ice, in television ratings, and at the box office.

 

Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres visiting a rink like BB & T in Sunrise.

Perhaps people interested in the hype will show up when the Sabres visit the Panthers?

 

And in general, whenever the Sabres visit any division rival, whether that opposing rink has attendance issues or not, perhaps the interest in the actual game will be there.

I will admit, whenever the Sabres showed up on the Lightning's schedule and there was a more compelling matchup to be watched, I'd actually bypass the Sabres-Bolts game in favor of say....Rangers-Islanders.

Seriously.

 

Buffalo wasn't much to see last season...perhaps Eichel brings more interest and fans of division rivals in Tampa Bay, Sunrise, Detroit, Ottawa, et al will actually WANT to watch the Sabres play their team.

 

Same with McDavid over in the Pacific Division.

And if McDavid truly is viewed as THE generational talent...even well above Eichel...then interest when the Oilers visit Calgary, Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Jose and so on, should be at all time highs!

[Holymakinaw]

Toronto already gets smoked by Buffalo, year in and year out.  The Leafs are 70-110-15 against Buffalo all-time, and that's WITHOUT facing a talent like Jack Eichel.  Add Sam Reinhart to that, and Buffalo could be causing the Division total fits very soon.  

 

If he falls to 4th, the Leafs shouldn't hesitate to snatch up Noah Hanifin, so they can at least counter with a top pairing of Hanifin and Morgan Rielly, for years to come.  That would be a dynamite pairing.

 

If he doesn't fall to 4th, they will be happy with either Marner or Strome, which is FAR from nothing.  Not quite Eichel, but also pretty damn nice.

[jammer2]

@Holymakinaw  Just my own line of thinking, but I would pass on Hanfin and go after Strome....and Marner before Hanfin. WIth Nylander already in the fold, this represents a once in a lifetime chance to have 2 dominant championship types of players at center. Would be one of the most outstanding one-two punches in the game.....that is to much to pass on. You need two great centers to win the cup...and this is their chance to put them both on the roster. Exciting times in Leafville......literally, history is about to happen. The fan base will be ramping up the "we got the cup" nonsense....and planning the all important SC parade route....LOL!

 

  I'm positive Strome and Marner are the real deal...I have a bit of creeping doubt when it comes to Hanfin...and I think Werenski is every bit as good as Hanfin....but neither should go in the top 5....but Hanfin probably will.

[Holymakinaw]

@Holymakinaw  Just my own line of thinking, but I would pass on Hanfin and go after Strome....and Marner before Hanfin. WIth Nylander already in the fold, this represents a once in a lifetime chance to have 2 dominant championship types of players at center. Would be one of the most outstanding one-two punches in the game.....that is to much to pass on. You need two great centers to win the cup...and this is their chance to put them both on the roster. Exciting times in Leafville......literally, history is about to happen. The fan base will be ramping up the "we got the cup" nonsense....and planning the all important SC parade route....LOL!

 

  I'm positive Strome and Marner are the real deal...I have a bit of creeping doubt when it comes to Hanfin...and I think Werenski is every bit as good as Hanfin....but neither should go in the top 5....but Hanfin probably will.

 

Yeah, I honestly don't think you can go wrong with ANY of the top 5 picks this year.  I'd be ecstatic getting either one of Hanifin, Strome or Marner.......they all have potential to become TOP players one day.