Jack Eichel

Vegas Golden Knights star Jack Eichel captured his first Stanley Cup title eight years into his career.

Speaking to reporters after the Golden Knights' 9-3 win over the Florida Panthers in Game 5 on Tuesday night, Eichel explained he feels "really fortunate and blessed" to have won a championship after a long wait.

"I think it's only human nature to have some doubt creep in when you don't make it to playoffs for an extended period of time," he said. "You're wondering if it will ever happen. So many people go through their whole career without having the opportunity to hoist the Stanley Cup. It's the hardest thing in the world [to win]."

Eichel entered the NHL with tremendous hype as the No. 2 overall pick by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2015 draft.

In six seasons with the Sabres, he was a productive offensive player. He scored at least 24 goals in each of his first five seasons, but the team had struggled to find its footing with no playoff appearances since 2010-11.

The relationship between Eichel and the Sabres deteriorated over time, most notably during the 2020-21 season when he only played in 21 games due to a neck injury.

Per Wajih AlBaroudi, Eichel's doctors recommended an artificial disk replacement to fix the injury. The Sabres requested he undergo fusion surgery in part because the artificial disk replacement had never been done on an NHL player, and the league's collective bargaining agreement gives clubs the final say over a player's injury recovery.

Eichel's agents released a public statement in July 2021, in which they stated the "process is not working" and preventing him from being able to play.

Vegas acquired Eichel from Buffalo in November 2021 in a deal involving three players and three draft picks. He had the disk replacement surgery soon after the trade and missed three months before returning in February 2022.

The 26-year-old led the Golden Knights with 66 points during the 2022-23 regular season. He was fantastic in the postseason with 26 points in 22 games, including three assists in Tuesday's closeout game against the Panthers.

The victory gave Vegas its first Stanley Cup title in its sixth year of existence. The team had a franchise-record 111 points during the regular season.

The Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup Finals on Tuesday night, beating the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5.

And Jonathan Marchessault—who finished second this postseason with 25 points (13 goals, 12 assists, behind only teammate Jack Eichel (26 points)—was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player during the playoffs:

A number of players on Vegas made a strong case.

There was Eichel, who led all players in scoring. Mark Stone was tied for third in scoring this postseason (24 points), capping off a fantastic run with a hat trick on Tuesday. Goalie Adin Hill went 11-4 in the playoffs with two shutouts and eight games with 30 or more saves.

But few people took much issue with Marchessault—one of the truly great stories in the NHL, given his background as a player who went undrafted and was claimed by Vegas in its expansion draft—claiming the award:

The 32-year-old Marchessault has been a solid regular-season performer in his six seasons in Vegas, notching 28 goals and 29 assists in the 2022-23 campaign. But he comes alive in the playoffs, with 34 goals and 36 assists across 87 playoff games for the Golden Knights.

These playoffs were the second time in five playoff appearances with Vegas that he recorded 20 or more points.

So yes, let the party begin for Marchessault and his teammates:

It was appropriate that Marchessault—one of the six original Golden Knights still on the roster who are aptly named the "Misfits"—earned this prestigious award. He went from being unwanted at the draft to one of the unprotected players snagged by Vegas in the expansion draft.

A number of teams would certainly want him now.

BUFFALO -- History repeating itself is a fascinating occurrence, especially when it comes to generational talent in hockey.

In 2015, Connor McDavid was the heir apparent to Sidney Crosby as a franchise-changing superstar-to-be. That year, McDavid was followed closely behind by Jack Eichel and the lead-up to the draft saw teams tanking to have the chance to pick either of one of them. The Edmonton Oilers won the biggest prize in McDavid and the Buffalo Sabres, the league's worst team who had the best shot at the No. 1 pick, "settled" for No. 2 and Eichel.

Fast forward to the present day. Quite similarly to the 2014-15 season, teams decided to go all-in on being as bad as possible with the opportunity to draft Connor Bedard far too attractive. And just like McDavid had Eichel, Bedard has his own star-in-the-making behind him: University of Michigan star Adam Fantilli

While the Chicago Blackhawks are sitting in the same catbird seat as the Oilers were eight years ago, the Anaheim Ducks are poised to cash in with a superstar talent of their own at No. 2.

The parallels between Bedard and Fantilli haven't been as plainly stated as those between McDavid and Eichel, but the two young stars-to-be set to be picked at the end of June will forever be linked just the same. What's more, their talent backs it up.

"It's a season for the ages for both of them," NHL Director of Central Scouting Dan Marr said. "It's very difficult for a 17, 18-year-old to excel at the World Junior level and the way Connor had at every level that he played at and what Adam did, he was one of the younger players in the league and as a freshman, there's a lot at the college level, with seniors and juniors, the freshmen are at the bottom of the heap."

When you look at what Bedard and Fantilli did with their respective teams this season (Bedard with the Regina Pats of the WHL and Fantilli with Michigan) and compare them to what McDavid did with the Erie Otters and Eichel at Boston University during their draft years, you can see why it's such an accurate throwback to 2015.

2014-2015

McDavid: 47 games, 44 goals, 76 assists, 120 points (2.55 points per game)

Eichel: 40 games, 26 goals, 45 assists, 71 points (1.78 points per game)

2022-2023

Bedard: 57 games, 71 goals, 72 assists, 143 points (2.5 points per game)

Fantilli: 36 games, 30 goals, 35 assists, 65 points (1.81 points per game)

One guy excelled in the Canadian Hockey League while the other was the best of the best in the NCAA as a freshman. It's kind of spooky.

There is one slight difference between the pairs. Instead of a Canada versus United States rivalry like McDavid and Eichel, Bedard and Fantilli were teammates for Canada during World Juniors. That know each other doesn't do much to make things spicy in the grand sense, but they're competitors and they'll more than likely be rivals in the Western Conference very soon. There's also the fact that they've been in the same draft conversations for years now with Bedard being the prime focus all along. That suits Fantilli just fine.

"He's a phenomenal hockey player and he deserves everything he's getting," Fantilli said. "There's a lot of eyes on him, in terms of everything that he's going to be expected to do with the amount of success he's had in juniors and at an international level...we've been in entirely different situations and we're going to be drafted in different spots so it's going to be a different experience for both of us."

Bedard has been in the spotlight since he was granted exceptional player status by the CHL when he was 14 years old in 2020. He's been the focus of the hockey media ever since and his childhood dream is nearly fulfilled. But his eyes are on what's happening right now and staying in the moment.

"I'm focused on what's important and what I can control with my own play and my own team, of course," Bedard said. "You don't really think about that stuff, just some extra interviews and attention and whatnot. I'm just staying focused on what I need to be focused on and try to become a better player and a better person so that's how I handle it."

Bedard's focus is steely and straight ahead in the most McDavid ways imaginable, even if his description of what he's doing doesn't excite you. The goal is to make the NHL and then to become the best player he can be. That puts him straight in line to compete with the likes of McDavid, Eichel, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of the elite players in the world.

"There's a lot of words that start with 'C' that analytics can't judge for you like character, and one of them is consistency, and that he can consistently play that high character game, game in and game out, is truly impressive," Marr said.

Knowing what the first two picks of the draft are most likely going to be is not a new phenomenon in the NHL. Surprises like last year's draft where Juraj Slafkovský was the surprise No. 1 pick ahead of Shane Wright (who ultimately went fourth) are rare, so knowing the expected order of Bedard going No. 1 and Fantilli No. 2 makes this draft special and will forever link the two youngsters.

It circles back to the same dream the Oilers and Sabres had in 2015. Their example proves more has to go into making those picks to have success. That Eichel is front and center with the Vegas Golden Knights after things didn't work out with the Sabres shows the future isn't predetermined. But the greatness those players have will carry them forward The only questions left are how far they will go and how often they will have to go through each other to reach the top.

The Vegas Golden Knights are two wins away from their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Vegas seized a 2-0 lead in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final with a commanding 7-2 victory over the Florida Panthers in Monday's Game 2 at T-Mobile Arena. While the home team's offensive firepower and strong play from goaltender Adin Hill (28 saves on 30 shots) made the difference, Matthew Tkachuk's roller-coaster of an evening overshadowed some of the game.

The left-winger received a misconduct penalty in Game 1 and picked up where he left off with another one in the second period of Monday's contest with a hard hit on Jack Eichel.

Eichel skated off but eventually returned, as did Tkachuk. However, the latter's return was short-lived as he received yet another misconduct penalty and was done for the night after scoring a goal.

His performance led to plenty of reaction on social media:

Tkachuk was excellent in the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes and figured to be Florida's best chance at keeping up with Vegas' litany of scorers, but a garbage-time goal after the outcome was decided and multiple misconducts through two games was not the formula.

The Golden Knights found their path to victory, though, with Jonathan Marchessault and Brett Howden each scoring twice. Alec Martinez, Nicolas Roy and Michael Amadio scored the other goals, and the Panthers ended up pulling goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in the second period.

The only real concern for Vegas was the status of Eichel after Tkachuk crushed him, but even that didn't last for long because he was back on the ice in the third period and even assisted Marchessault's second goal.

Marchessault now has 12 goals in the playoffs and looked like the best player of the series for extended stretches.

Perhaps Tkachuk can reclaim that status with an impressive showing when the series shifts to Florida for Thursday's Game 3, but he has left plenty to be desired through two losses to start the Stanley Cup Final.