The Golden Knights and star center Jack Eichel had “loose, unofficial discussions at various points this season” in advance of him becoming eligible to sign an extension with Vegas on July 1, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period.
Official talks between Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon and Eichel’s camp should begin in short order after Vegas’ season came to an end this week at the hands of the Oilers in the second round. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a max-term deal for the 28-year-old come across the wire when the new league year begins – Pagnotta went so far as to call an Eichel extension the top priority for Vegas this summer over the futures of any of their pending free agents.
The deal will undoubtedly be the richest in franchise history when signed, topping captain Mark Stone’s eight-year, $76MM extension doled out in 2019. Eichel will be entering the final season of the eight-year, $80MM deal he signed with the Sabres before his entry-level contract expired – of course, Vegas acquired him midway through that deal in a blockbuster swap in 2021.
The 2015 No. 2 overall pick will enter talks well-equipped, coming off the best season of his career by a significant margin. An all-situations center for Vegas, he recorded new career highs in assists (66), points (94), and rating (+32) while playing the most of any Knights forward and leading the team in scoring. Now over three years removed from artificial disk replacement surgery in his neck – the first NHLer to undergo the procedure – he’s back to being the well-above-a-point-per-game producer he hinted at before the injury in Buffalo.
With the salary cap’s projected aggressive rise over the next few seasons, there’s a case for Eichel to earn a multi-million-dollar raise over his current $10MM cap hit. A potential comparable is Leafs winger William Nylander, who signed an eight-year extension with an $11.5MM cap hit midway through the 2023-24 season. Both players have scored at a 90-point pace over an 82-game schedule over the last three years combined. Nylander signed for just over 13% of the cap – with next year’s $95.5MM figure set in stone, that would translate to a $12.5MM AAV for Eichel on a max-term deal.
Unfortunately for the Knights, they don’t have any big-ticket contracts coming off the books before Eichel’s extension would go into effect in 2026-27. Stone’s ($9.5MM cap hit) and Alex Pietrangelo’s ($8.8MM cap hit) deals, the next two richest on the team, both expire in the summer of 2027.
Image courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.