Quoting: WhatThePuck
At no point in Eichel's career has he had more than 3 top 6 players. The fact you're arguing about someone who's a 2nd liner on Buffalo, but a 4th liner on a playoff team shows that.
He had 18 points in 21 games. You're acting like had 2 points in 21 games. Aho was literally under PPG last year lol.
Idk what to tell you. He's a franchise player. Every metric shows that. If you want to just ignore reality go ahead. He's a 1C on every team except Edmonton, Colorado, Pittsburgh, and Toronto. That's it.
Even McDavid who's a generational talent can't will teams to the playoffs. He's only made it 3 out of the 6 years. That's while playing with Drai too. When Eichel gets traded to a contender he's gonna absolutely tear it up. Then everybody is gonna be saying damn we should've traded for him.
In the qualifying round against the Rangers, Aho had 8 points in 3 games...he was well over a PPG if you combine that with the regular season stats since it wasn't a playoff series.
Eichel is now 24, he's coming off an injury, he wants out and he's struggled with top talent around him. This year he had 4 good top 6 players around him with Hall, Olofsson, Reinhart and Skinner. He had Staal, Mittelstadt, and others too who have shown their ability to play in the top 6. He's had the support. The truth is, whoever trades for him, is going to give up more than he is worth. He's a 2C on a contender (yes, he's a 2C in Carolina, he's a 2C in Boston, he's a 2C in Colorado, Tampa, etc...)