Over the course of his 10-year NHL career, star center Jack Eichel had his share of highs and lows. The highs included a Stanley Cup championship with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2022-23, and a 66-assist, 94-point performance for Vegas last season. The lows included what now feels like many wasted years as a member of the Buffalo Sabres, and a near-constant battle to stay healthy, averaging only 61.6 games-played per-season since he broke into hockey’s top league in 2015-16.
But as he enters Year 11 of his NHL career, the 28-year-old Eichel is poised to have his biggest season yet. He’s entering the final year of a contract paying him $10-million per season, and he’s likely to benefit from being a linemate of new Golden Knights star right winger Mitch Marner. Are we about to see a new level from Eichel that we haven’t seen before?
Now, does Eichel have anything to prove to anyone? No. After winning a Cup, he’s achieved the most lofty goal any NHLer can hope to achieve. But there is a nagging sense out there that we’ve yet to see the best of Eichel. He’s only been in the top 10 in scoring twice in his career, and aside from one 23rd-place finish, he’s been outside of the top 50 players in the league, either due to injuries or to being a rookie/sophomore.
In his defense, Eichel has been excellent in the playoffs in the past three years, posting 33 assists and 43 points in 40 career post-season games. But the Golden Knights are famous for moving on from players who don’t fit into their long-term picture – and while we’re not here to tell you Eichel is at that stage in his time with Vegas, there’s absolutely going to be pressure on him to at least maintain the standard he set in last season in particular.
Some of those expectations will be heightened because Marner will make his new Golden Knights teammates better. But Marner is regarded as more playmaker than play-finisher, so unless Eichel is able to get to the 30-goal plateau – something that’s happened only two times in his NHL career – Eichel is going to have to help Marner score more often and elevate his assist numbers to the 70-assist level or better.
The Golden Knights are projected to have approximately $29-million in salary cap space accounted for in 2026-27 (when you take into account defenseman Alex Pietrangelo’s health issues and likely-permanent place on Injured Reserve), so Vegas does have more than enough space to keep Eichel in the fold beyond this season. However, the expectations on the Golden Knights have increased exponentially with the addition of Marner. So if you think Eichel isn’t going to be dealing with significant pressure to ratchet up his game this season, you’re fooling yourself.
All things considered, there’s a very good chance Eichel can make a push to new heights this coming year. He’s still in his prime and will be there for the foreseeable future. But there’s no question the Golden Knights are going to need more out of him than ever in 2025-26. Vegas has every intention of a deep playoff run, but they’re going to need all hands on deck to do so, and if Eichel isn’t going to play in every game and be just as effective as he was last season, the Knights’ chances of being legitimate Cup frontrunners will drop notably.
Eichel may not be a top-10 player in the league, and he may never get there, but so long as he’s contributing above-average numbers and the Golden Knights are doing great things as a team, Eichel will almost assuredly be in Vegas for most of the rest of his career, if not all of it. Eichel doesn’t have to be ‘The Man’ for the Knights to do great things, but he does have to pull his weight – and if that doesn’t happen, Vegas’ chances of winning its second Cup will drop considerably.
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