Jack Eichel Has Won a Stanley Cup Before Connor McDavid

June 26, 2015 is an infamous day in NHL lore. The Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres, two franchises that were dwelling in the basement of the league for years, held the first two picks in the Draft. The top prospects were a Canadian phenom many scouts tagged as the next Wayne Gretzky. The other was a brash American college student who thought he was larger than life. With the first pick in the draft, the Oilers selected Connor McDavid from the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League. With the second pick, the Sabres selected Jack Eichel from Boston University. Two superstar rookies who are forever intertwined in the evolution of the modern NHL game. Highly-skilled forwards who put up points and serve as the face of a franchise. Yet, the #2 pick has just won his first championship. The #1 pick is still searching for his. 

The Vegas Golden Knights just won the Stanley Cup for the first time in...six years. They've only been in the league for six years. The Edmonton Oilers, meanwhile, haven't won a Cup since 1990 and haven't been back to the Finals since 2006. Jack Eichel became a key piece to the Vegas system after his relationship with Buffalo soured beyond repair. He was flipped to the Knights in 2021 for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs, and a handful of high-round draft picks. That serves as the biggest moment of Eichel's career: he no longer wanted to play for a franchise with no direction like the Sabres. A franchise that didn't have the players or executive leadership to get over that hump. It's paid off. He notched 26 points in the playoffs, playing with guys like Jonathan Marchessault, Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, and others. 

McDavid just came off a 153-point season, where he scored 64 goals. He also had two teammates, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, post 128 points and 104 points respectively. Yet, the Oilers bowed out in the second round to the Knights. That's been the story of the Oilers with McDavid and Draisaitl as the core of the team: close, but always missing pieces to get over the line. Whether it's depth scoring, unreliable goaltending, or poor roster management, the Oilers can't shed their demons. 

Eichel and McDavid's careers have been intertwined because of how skilled they are. They represent what the NHL is becoming: offensive, skill-based, and faster reading of the game. It was always a case of who would get the Cup first. You'd think a player like McDavid who can casually score 60+ goals a season would be that guy. Eichel was always seen as the bridesmaid to McDavid. Now, it's the other way around.

This Cup win by Eichel not only elevates his status on the elite player list but also brings into question how McDavid is going to catch up. He's coming on 8 NHL seasons, all while humbly racking MVPs, scoring titles, and other personal accolades. He's still missing Lord Stanley's Cup. You could argue he keeps running into teams that are just better. You could also argue Oilers management is notorious for making short-sighted decisions on roster structure. You could point to how they gave goalie Jack Campbell a 5x5-deal after one decent season with the Maple Leafs or signed defenseman Darnell Nurse to a contract he probably didn't deserve (8 years, $9 million a season) and how poor their play was in these playoffs. Having little cap space doesn't help. You could go back to the fact the Oilers had four 1st overall picks in 5 drafts in the 2010s and only two of those players are still with the team. Whatever the reason, the Oilers have let McDavid (and Draisaitl) down. Why aren't they urgent to change their career trajectory?

It's dramatic to say the Oilers won't win a Stanley Cup with McDavid and Draisaitl. Yet it's clear there need to be some pretty big changes to the team. They've been coy about what they want to change. McDavid, being the best player in the league, is remarkably uninterested in finding a way out of his situation in Edmonton.  At least that's the interpretation of what we get from his emotionless, often-stale press conferences. Maybe he doesn't want to stir the pot. But that's what his draft-mate did. 

Eichel's relationship with the Sabres was in decline by his fourth season in Buffalo. The franchise had not improved at all despite Eichel putting up insane numbers. It was clear he had no 2nd-elite player on the roster to play with. Coaching changes were a constant. Eichel racked up injuries, one so bad he had to have a disc replaced in his neck. It sidelined him for almost the entire 2021 season and into the 21-22 season. However, the Sabres wouldn't let him get artificial disc replacement surgery, wanting him to go through a more-painful but more-proven treatment. He got fed up with the situation, and Sabres brass indicating they were likely going through another rebuilding cycle was the final straw. He requested a trade, and Buffalo obliged. Vegas would let Eichel get that artificial disc replacement surgery. He recovered in three months and was back playing hockey by early February 2022. A season later, he was a core piece of the Knights' Stanley Cup triumph. It helped to have teammates who were on his level.  

Eichel took his destiny into his own hands. McDavid hasn't done or said anything that suggests he is going to do the same. 

It takes way more than two elite players to win a Stanley Cup. The Oilers were pretty good this season, that can't be denied. But if you watch them, you can see they were missing a lot of important pieces. McDavid and Draisaitl's scoring prowess tends to overshadow these flaws. But when the cracks start to show, they come out hard. And the series against Vegas showed the Oilers lacked what Vegas had: a solid set of Top-6 forwards, two to three shutdown defensemen, two that could move the puck on the blueline, strong goaltending, and team chemistry. 

Hockey has always been about "the team." Individualism is often frowned upon. Loyalty to a team is a big topic in sports in general. Some players choose to gut out the hard times, thinking there's a better future on the horizon. They won't abandon a team in its darkest hour. But what about players' personal ambitions?

We don't know what McDavid actually wants in his career. He can say all the right things to appease the fans and media, but what do we know what he personally wants? Does he want to win the Stanley Cup? It seemed like it these playoffs. Yet, I found that Draisaitl actually showed more drive. I've seen more indications that the German is fed up with the Oilers' shortcomings and the Edmonton media's criticism than I've seen from McDavid in his 8 years in the NHL.

I don't doubt McDavid wants to win a Stanley Cup. But he doesn't show it. Perhaps this recent Cup win will motivate him and the Oilers to do more. Trade players they don't think can get them over the line. Sign ones that can. Hire a better GM with a more modern approach to the game (sorry not sorry, Ken Holland). 

Make no mistake, I'm not diminishing McDavid's status as the best in the league, perhaps the world. But the simple fact remains: Jack Eichel won a Stanley Cup before Connor McDavid.