The NHL 15: Jack Eichel has his contract (and his winger)

He might still have his best hockey ahead of him.

Before each NHL season I look at 15 players that I think are the most intriguing players in the NHL. Not necessarily the best players (though, sometimes they are), but players that offer some sort of intrigue, a big storyline or figure to be a major X-factor for the season. This is The NHL 15. We continue today with Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel, who has his long-term contract extension and his top-line winger. Big things could be ahead.

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It is really easy to do. It is really easy to get excited about when looking at contract situations and trying to look into the future at who might become available in the offseason. But there is not a bigger waste of time in the NHL than trying to project what future free agent classes will look like more than a year out. And I mean that as no shade to the people that do it. I do it. You’ve done it. Everybody that has anything more than a casual interest in the sport has done it.

But this is the NHL. When it comes to player movement and blockbuster transactions the NHL ranks a very distant fourth among the four major North American men’s sports leagues. It is a combination of general managers taking risks in the wrong places (they would rather overpay the wrong player than risk making a major change to the roster) and players just simply not wanting to move. Looking ahead to the summer of 2026 there were some absolutely gigantic names that could have been unrestricted free agents. It got people excited.

Connor McDavid.

Kirill Kaprizov.

Jack Eichel.

Kyle Conner.

Artemi Panarin.

Adrian Kempe.

Some big names!

Well, over the past week the top-four guys mentioned there have all signed new long-term contract extensions to remain with their current teams. Kempe figures to re-sign with the Kings. Nobody really knows what the Rangers and Panarin have planned, but it’s a good bet that when July 1, 2026 rolls around the top free agents to be bidding over are going to be a 34-year-old Panarin or players like Anders Lee and Alex Tuch.

Good luck with that.

The latest player on that list to re-sign with their current team is Eichel, having signed an eight-year, $104 million extension with Vegas just hours before they opened their 2025-26 regular season on Wednesday evening.

It carries a $13.5 million per season salary cap number next season that will be the third-largest in the NHL (trailing only Kaprizov and Edmonton Oilers superstar forward Leon Draisaitl).

It’s one of those moves that’s not really a good move or a bad move. It’s just a move. It’s the expected move. It’s exactly what it should be. He didn’t really take a bargain contract the way McDavid did in Edmonton, but he also didn’t seek to break the bank and get as much as he possibly could. He probably could have gotten more. He could have taken less. He’s a top-tier player making top-tier money. It does not have to be anything more than that.

And make no mistake, Eichel is a top-tier player and has been everything Vegas needed him to be and wanted him to be when they acquired him from the Buffalo Sabres early in the 2021-22 season.

Even though he is at an age (28) where you wouldn’t expect a player to keep getting better, I do think it’s possible that we have not yet seen the best that Eichel has to offer. Not only because of the improvements he has made as a player, but also because the Golden Knights gave him the best winger of his career this offseason in Mitch Marner.

The 2024-25 season was the best all-around year of Eichel’s career. He might still have better days ahead.

Let’s talk about all of that.