Throughout the season, Eye on Hockey will take a look at the top two prospects for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, updating their latest statistics, what the scouts are saying and which teams will have the best chance to draft the two most anticipated prospects in a decade.
Though the NHL season is just about a month old, the NHL Entry Draft evaluation season has been going strong for more than twice as long. By now, every hockey fan on the planet knows who Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel are. The former is the Canadian wunderkind that has been called the best prospect since Sidney Crosby, while the latter carries the distinction of being the top American prospect since Patrick Kane. They are expected to go No. 1 and No. 2 in June's draft.
That has brought about some accusations of tanking directed toward the league's bottom-feeding teams, with many of those fingers pointed at the Buffalo Sabres. However unethical tanking might be, and the league has maintained that it doesn't believe any of its teams are honestly tanking, it would seem like these are the guys worth the gambit.
Of course, the new draft lottery rules will give the last-place team in the league only a 20 percent chance at acquiring the first overall pick. But finishing last also guarantees that team one of these two players as lottery teams can slide no lower than one draft slot below their regular-season finish. That means there's a chance to bring in a prospect that could potentially do for a club what Crosby did for the Penguins. That's mighty attractive.
What is especially encouraging for teams at this point is that both McDavid and Eichel have been living up to the preseason hype. Plenty of players in the past have shrunk in the spotlight, but these two have been fighting over it.
McDavid has averaged 2.8 points per game so far for the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League this season with 42 in 15 contests. It's a staggering pace that would put him in some rarified air. Eichel's Boston University squad has played just five regular-season games, but the freshman center has points in all of them, with four goals and five assists to date.
There's some debate about whether or not Eichel can actually challenge McDavid for the No. 1 spot, but McDavid has been the consensus No. 1 so far in early draft rankings and the head start he has gotten in 15 games sure hasn't hurt.
Regardless, these two have the potential to be as close to franchise saviors as we've seen since Crosby was taken first overall in 2005 by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Their early-season production has been staggering.
Here's how the duo's points-per-game rank among the draft seasons of forwards taken first overall in the past decade. It's obviously a very small sample, but we'll be checking back in on these numbers throughout the season.
| No. 1 picks in their draft season 2005-2015 | |||
| Draft Year | Player | League | Points per game |
| 2015 | Connor McDavid | OHL | 2.80* |
| 2005 | Sidney Crosby | QMJHL | 2.71 |
| 2007 | Patrick Kane | OHL | 2.50 |
| 2010 | Taylor Hall | OHL | 1.86 |
| 2009 | John Tavares | OHL | 1.85 |
| 2015 | Jack Eichel | NCAA | 1.80* |
| 2008 | Steven Stamkos | OHL | 1.72 |
| 2013 | Nathan MacKinnon | QMJHL | 1.70 |
| 2012 | Nail Yakupov | OHL | 1.64 |
| 2011 | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | WHL | 1.53 |
* -- Statistics through Nov. 6, 2014
This obviously isn't a comprehensive way to evaluate the top two players, as so much more goes into draft evaluations than points. That said, it's an illuminating data point that paints a favorable picture for each of the 2015 hopefuls. There is a level of expected production for these two and they're probably both surpassing it at this point.
That's why now is as good a time as any to detail their seasons to date and take a look at how each player has set the table for the remainder of their draft season.
Connor McDavid
Age: 17
Height: 6-feet-1 Weight: 187 pounds
2014-15 stat line: 15 GP, 14-28-42, 19 PIM
The Latest: McDavid was held off the score sheet for the first time this season Thursday night in Erie's 5-2 loss to the Niagara IceDogs. That dropped McDavid from a three points-per-game player to merely a 2.8 points-per-game player. Poor kid. How will he recover?
That's sarcasm of course. McDavid had room for an off night. After all, the Ontario-born centerman has had seven games so far this season where he put up four points. What he is doing at the rate he is doing it makes McDavid the freak of nature he was billed as before the season.
Now in his third year of junior hockey, McDavid has progressed each year since being granted "exceptional status" by the OHL to join the league a year before he was age-eligible.
As much as the narrative is being pushed that this is a two-horse race between McDavid and Eichel, the OHL forward has a gigantic head start on his American counterpart. There are a few things that narrow the gap for Eichel, like physical strength, but it's going to be very difficult to knock McDavid off of his No. 1 track.
McDavid Highlight of the Month: There are a lot to choose from, but McDavid's shorthanded tally against the Plymouth Whalers as part of a four-point night is a pretty good one to target. Here's a look at all four points, including the beauty of a shorthanded tally in which McDavid made quick work of the defense (at 1:00 of the video):
Jack Eichel
Age: 18
Height: 6-feet-2 Weight: 194 pounds
2014-15 stat line: 5 GP, 4-5-9, 0 PIM
The Latest: With his tremendous start to the season, many around college hockey are calling the true freshman the best player in the nation. Though you would expect a potential top pick to be that, Eichel is one of the youngest players in the country. The fact that college hockey has older players, many over 20 years old, makes it challenging for younger and less physically developed individuals to stand out.
Eichel has had no such problems and his team is benefiting from it. Boston University had a rather terrible season in 2013-14. They finished 10-21-4 in a rebuilding season. This year, the Terriers are 4-1-0 and ranked fifth in each of the major national college hockey polls.
Among players with more than one game this season, Eichel is tied for the national lead with 1.80 points per game. He has also taken a staggering 31 shots on goal, an average of 6.2 per game. Again, this is as an 18-year-old freshman who had to accelerate a year in high school just to get into BU this fall.
Scoring in the college ranks is difficult. The players are older, stronger and more experienced than their junior counterparts. Eichel's numbers may not remain overwhelming, but the fact that he's the best player in college hockey already shows that he's not far from being able to contribute at the NHL level.
Eichel will actually have a national audience Friday night as his Terriers meet archrival Boston College on NBC Sports Network at 8 p.m. ET. BC actually features the player that is currently the consensus No. 3 prospect for the 2015 NHL Draft, 17-year-old defenseman Noah Hanifin. It should be a great game and a great night to see some of the very best in the 2015 draft class.
Eichel Highlight of the Month: With only five games so far, we haven't seen the full arsenal of Eichel's talents. However, in his first live game in a BU jersey, an exhibition against Canadian university St. Thomas, Eichel had five assists, all primary. He was on another level compared to his opponents that night:
Connor McDavid-Jack Eichel Sweepstakes Power Rankings
1. Buffalo Sabres: Though the Sabres have managed to squeak out three wins this season, their results have often been of the horrific variety. Badly outshot, badly outmanned, badly outpossessed and often just plain bad, this club looks destined for one of these two players.
2. Carolina Hurricanes: Now that the Hurricanes are getting healthy and rattling off some convincing wins, their position in the top two is awfully precarious. That said, this is a team that probably could use a top-two pick to get over the hump.
3. Columbus Blue Jackets: Injuries have taken a good Blue Jackets team and made it mediocre. They'll likely improve when players get healthy, but it could be a while before they're at full strength.
4. Edmonton Oilers: A familiar position for the Oilers, they would probably prefer to avoid picking first overall for a fourth time in the past six drafts, but they'll probably still be a lottery team.
5. Arizona Coyotes: This is not a position the Coyotes probably foresaw for themselves, but if their play doesn't improve soon, they may have to start selling off pieces to start rebuilding in earnest.
