Chicken wings sound mighty fine to Eichel
Prospects descend on Buffalo for NHL combine
BUFFALO • Jack Eichel wants wings.
It’s a few days before the fitness tests at the NHL Draft Combine and the projected No. 2 overall pick is hungry. He knows he should eat healthy. But he’s in Buffalo, a city that is about to become his new home, and so he feels a natural desire to eat what the locals eat.
“I’d love to get the Buffalo chicken wings,” he said. “I know those are famous. I’d heard there’s a No. 1 spot for wings in Buffalo, so I’d like to go there and try the wings.”
The problem is Eichel, who is from the Boston suburb of North Chelmsworth, Mass., does not know exactly where to go. He’s new to the city. Aside from his hotel and the NHL rink across the street, he has not really had a chance to do any sightseeing. Plus, he’s a bit superstitious.
About a month ago at the world championships in Prague, a young reporter surprised Eichel with a Sabres Tshirt that she wanted him to try on. He wouldn’t do it. Not because he dislikes the idea of playing in Buffalo, but rather because the idea is still premature. And so, the chicken wings will have to wait at least another few weeks.
“I don’t want to jinx myself,” Eichel said. “We haven’t been told anything, so we don’t know where Connor (McDavid) or myself is going to go. Obviously, it looks like he’ll go to Edmonton and I’ll go to Buffalo. But with that being said, nothing is ever set in stone until they go up to the mic and say something.”
After a season in which the Sabres lost more games than any other team in the NHL, the name fans had been hoping to hear at the June 26 draft in Florida was “McDavid.” So it was a bit of a disappointment when the Edmonton Oilers won the draft lottery.
“I feel for the fans,” Sabres GM Tim Murray said in April. “I think that they were extremely e xc it e d about Connor.” Murray immediately backtracked on his comments: “Maybe after we have our meeting in two weeks,” he told ESPN.com, “maybe we have Jack Eichel at No. 1.”
It was another way of saying that the 18-year-old Eichel, whom scouts believe would have been the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft had he been born 44 days earlier, might be more than just a consolation prize.
Described as the best U.S.-born prospect since Mike Modano, the 6-foot-2, 194-pound centre has been compared to everyone from Ryan Getzlaf to Mario Lemieux. This year, he became only the second freshman in NCAA history to win the Hobey Baker Award (Paul Kariya was the first), after scoring 26 goals and 71 points in 40 games for Boston University.
As Calgary Flames president of hockey operations Brian Burke told USA Today, “Even if you were an alien from a spaceship who had never seen hockey, you would say, ‘Good Lord, that’s a talented athlete.’ ”
To most Canadians, Eichel is sort of like an alien because he played in the NCAA. While everyone knows that McDavid put up an unreal 120 points in 47 games for the Erie Otters, it is difficult to put into perspective what Eichel did against players who are four or five years older.
But consider this: Jonathan Toews scored 39 points as a freshman for the University of North Dakota, while Phil Kessel had 51 points for the University of Minnesota.
“Now that I’ve had time to reflect on what I did, it’s quite incredible how much our team accomplished,” said Eichel, whose Terriers lost in the national championship title game. “It was a great year. I think all the goals I had were met or almost met.”
Like McDavid, the hockey world is running out of things to say about Eichel. Scouts rave about his shot, his hockey intelligence, and his long, powerful stride. They also believe that, like Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin who went 1-2 in the 2004 draft, the gap between McDavid and Eichel might not be as big as it seems.
Ultimately, it will depend on how the Sabres build around him. With head coach Dan Bylsma hired last month and Evander Kane acquired from the Winnipeg Jets last season, as well as a young nucleus that includes Sam Reinhart (No. 2 pick in 2014), Rasmus Ristolainen (8th, 2013), Nikita Zadorov (13th, 2013) and the 21st and 31st overall picks, the future seems bright.
“Jack Eichel is an elite, elite franchise centreman,” said Craig Button, a former NHL GM who is TSN’s director of scouting. “It’s a foregone conclusion that McDavid is going No. 1 and Eichel is going No. 2, but there’s not a significant difference between these two players.”
“He is a difference-maker,” said Dan Marr, NHL director of Central Scouting. “Ten years from now, their numbers might be close.”
For now, Eichel is not looking to compare himself to McDavid. He just wants “to focus on having a successful NHL career.” Hopefully, he said, that will be in Buffalo.
“I come from a workingclass town. Both my parents work for a living, so I can appreciate Buffalo,” said Eichel, whose father is a manager at a plumbing company and whose mother is a nurse at the Boston Medical Centre, who treated victims from the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
“I know it ’s a workingclass city and they have a passion for hockey. They have a great fan base and a lot of support and a lot of people work in the city and live outside of it.”
In other words, he should fit in well. He just has to find a place to get his wings. And that shouldn’t be a problem.
“We’ ll hook him up and show him what a real chicken wing tastes like,” said Mark Dempsey, Anchor Bar vicepresident of franchise and development. “We’d love to have him down. People here are going to adore him.”
I don’t want to jinx myself. We haven’t been
told anything