Player Profile: Jack Eichel

Who is Jack Eichel?

Jack Eichel is a 26-year-old 6’2″, 214 lb center with a rich history of playing hockey. He is currently playing for the Vegas Golden Knights and has been since he got traded to them by the Buffalo Sabres on November 4, 2021. He’s been an NHL player for the past seven years, making this season his 8th one in the books. 

Biography:

Born October 28, 1996, in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Jack Eichel was destined to be a hockey player. Starting very young, he quickly gained a lot of passion for the sport. His earliest recorded hockey stats were taken when he played for the Boston Jr. Bruins of the Empire Junior Hockey League (EmJHL) when he was about 13-14 years old. He played 79 games with them, racking up 54 goals, 68 assists, and 42 penalty minutes. For a player in his early teens, that’s a lot of points for someone that young to be getting. 

His next step in developing into the player he is today was playing in the USA National Team Development Program (USNTDP). As time passed, it can be seen from his stats alone how much he improved. In both seasons he played there, he got 67 goals and 72 assists by the end of his 111 games played.  

During the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics, Eichel made an appearance skating for team USA in Austria. He managed to be tied for the team lead in points. 

World Junior Classic:

He was a part of the 2013 US National Under-18 Team, and he helped them win silver in the World Junior Classic. In 2014, he helped the US National Junior team win the championship gold in Sweden. While playing in the World Junior Classics, he was tied for a team-high five goals in seven games and named by their coach as 1 of Team USA’s three best players.

Eichel in the NHL:

Jack’s first NHL season was in 2015 when he was 19. In 2015, the Buffalo Sabers drafted him in the 1st round #2 overall pick. During his debut with them, he scored the only goal for Buffalo in the whole game as they lost 3-1 to Ottawa. He finished the 2015-16 season with 56 points and a team-high 24 goals in 81 games. Jack was also named to that season’s NHL All-Rookie Team. In the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, he scored 24 and 25 goals while frequently out on injured reserve. He was officially named Captain of the Sabres on October 3, 2018. During the 2018-19 season, he scored 82 points: 28 goals and 54 assists, all in 77 games. Next year during the 2019-20 season, he earned 78 points: 36 goals and 42 assists in 68 games. That season was his 4th in which he led Buffalo in points. He competed in the NHL’s All-Star Classic in 2018, 2019, and 2020. This season so far, his stats have been quite solid: 26 goals, 28 assists, a plus/minus rating of 20, a total of 198 shots on goal, two game-winning goals, and a shot percentage of 13.1%. In his NHL career, he has a total of 466 games played, 179 goals, 434 total points, 29 game-winning goals, 147 power-play points, and a shot percentage of 10.8%. It is quite evident that he is a perennial force to be reckoned with on the ice. Despite all his injuries, he still continues to impress all his fans by his amazing ability to play his best as much as possible.