Ever since they went first and second overall in the 2015 NHL Draft, Jack Eichel’s faced unavoidable, sometimes harsh comparisons to Connor McDavid. Fair or not, those comparisons are likely to pick up as the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers gear up for a second-round series between the Pacific Division’s two best teams.
To an extent, it’s only human to compare the top two picks of a draft. Sometimes that means comparing a really great player (Eichel) with one already approaching iconic status (McDavid).
When the focus wasn’t on inevitable-but-unfair McDavid comparisons, Eichel also had to eat a ton of blame for the Buffalo Sabres’ full-scale ineptitude, with some people grasping at takes about how it all proved that tanking is inherently flawed.