I imagine it has quite a bit to do with him not being Canadian.

Literally no one called him a bust

He also had tavares and marner on another line to take off the pressure.

Also look at eichel 2nd and 3rd years: 121 points in 128 games, a 77.5 pace at ages 19 and 20. You are clueless

Mack 2nd best player in the world

You guys can't be serious. Eichel is clearly better. The difference between the two players is that MacKinnon gets carried whereas Eichel is the one carrying his useless linemates Reinhart and Olofosson. MacKinnon doesn't have Eichel's puck skills and speed. In fact, he isn't a very dangerous player at all. Jack Eichel is the clear MVP for this season, he is far better than Mario Lemieux in his prime.

Eichel is by far better than MacKinnon. MacKinnon is overrated, he plays on an overpowered team and gets carried by his teammates. When he's by himself, he's absolutely useless. Eichel has more talent than Mario Lemieux.

Eichel and Matthews are by far the two best centers in the NHL. I'd have both of them over McDavid.

You’re entitled to your opinion, like I said I am a big fan of Eichel, give him better linemates and it’s pretty damn close. But calling Eichel better than Lemiuex? Come on, you better be joking ffs.

No, I'm serious. Lemieux, he didn't have any skill. He wasn't particularly creative with the puck on his stick. All he did was wait around and score tap ins. Eichel, he is much quicker and dangerous with the puck.

The two sh**posters collide, oh no.

I was being pretty civil and will continue to do so because I am a better person than you. Have a good day big guy.

Time to evacuate the thread

I tried to find middle ground with the comments but because I didn’t agree with the little boy, it is a **** post. Standard internet immaturity there, I accept that we can’t all be mature but next level ignorance will be ignored from me.

Didn't bother reading all the comments... I think it's an interesting topic, I'm not sure I have the answer. One thing I do know is that Eichel is underrated around the league. And to properly compare them I think you need to allow for age... keeping in mind that although MacKinnon was drafted 2 years earlier, they are only 1 year apart. So lets look at P/GP for the two players:

MacKinnon
18: 0.77
19: 0.59
20: 0.72
21: 0.65
22: 1.31
23: 1.21
24: 1.55

Eichel
18: NCAA
19: 0.69 (^)
20: 0.93 (^)
21: 0.96 (^)
22: 1.06 (v)
23: 1.41 (^)
24: N/A

In the 5 years that we can compare, Eichel has scored at a higher rate in 4 of them. Over those same seasons (2014-19 for COL and 2015-20 for BUF) COL was a slightly better team, posting a .494 win rate (vs .464 for BUF) and scoring 2.68 G/GP vs 2.55 for BUF. It looks like Eichel has done more with less.

Not the result I was expecting.

So many fans get so excited about Matthews (and he's American) and kinda ignore the equally as good Eichel. Different strengths but really equally good (gee you have good justification to say Eichel is better).
I'm not a Sabres fan, but you have to appreciate Eichel and his team this year. But I am a Bills fan....so I'm hoping one Buffalo team has long playoff run this season.

Can we just do a poll please lol

Its close, i think you could throw barkov in the same discussion. All young franchise centers that arent mcdavid, all doing what franchise centers do.

Eichel is finally beginning to play up to his draft pick status. To be fair, MacKinnon has always had better team/line mates. But GREAT player are capable of elevating team play. Eichel helps Buffalo win a Stanley cup then the landscape will be shifted.

This isn't true. Look at my post above (#39).

Does it really matter? I doubt Joe would trade Nate for Jack nor would Jason trade Jack for Nate. I will say that I only got to watch Nate in the playoffs last year and he was quite impressive. Let me close by adding, only last year did Jack start to play a 200 foot game. I do not know what was holding him back, maybe his captain who lost his love of the game was showing Jack how collect a paycheck without working?
@MikeyThePensFan Great post, one of the best conversation starters I have seen.
@CD282 How dare you use statistics to make your point! That is out of line in a discussion based on opinions. TBH, I did not expect that to be the case either, thanks for sharing.
@Leafboy101 Actually rated just about correct in previous years, never considered one of the elite NHL forwards.
@CapFriendlysFinest Jack has played on even worse teams than Nate, and the AVS have gone to the playoffs three time in Colorado, so obviously there were good players around him at that time.
@Ledge_And_Dairy Yes, similar but Nate has had the better supporting cast his entire career, as the Avs made the playoffs 3 times in his career while the Sabres never did. If you want to look at a bad roster, check out Buffalo’s defense in 2016-‘17 Kulikov, Gorges, Fedun, Falk, and Franson all played more the 27 games..
@palhal Let’s not get an inferiority complex here. He has certainly played as a team leader this year. It is not only a Buffalo thing but any good player on a bad team usually gets ignored.
@bigZ98 I agree, but Jack is also very good at making his wingers look good. Skinner gets his 40, Reinhart gets his 25, Pominville scored only 2 goals last year when he was not with Jack and does anyone not think that the quick passes Jack was making to Olofsson on the PP helped Viktor to be Rookie of the Month in October.
@Jambo Yes, a good chance for an MVP is the Sabres can make the playoffs.
@ Eklund I agree, Nate has had a better supporting cast than Jack his entire career. As I said several times earlier, the Avs made the playoffs 3 times and the Sebres 0 times during their respective careers.

15/16 - - - .69 ppg
16/17 - - - .93 ppg
17/18 - - - .96 ppg
18/19 - - - 1.06 ppg
19/20 - - - 1.42 ppg (currently)

Such an obvious bust lmao

Eichel has not been overrated, he has been underrated and still is. He has gotten the 3rd star of the week twice in a row now when he easily could have been 1st star. The NHL still doesn't appreciate him because he isn't a 1st overall pick. He drives the teams offense single handedly, dominates the game consistently, and produces big time points. I'm not disagreeing that MacKinnon is better, but Eichel is not overrated at all

What are you talking about? Eichel has been a dominate player for 4 years now. Look at his ppg since year 2!

On those terrible Avs teams, MacKinnon was a 50-60 point guy. He didn't really take off until the 2017-18 season.