Jack Eichel, formerly the franchise for the Buffalo Sabres, was scheduled to make his season debut with his new team, the Vegas Golden Knights, in Sin City Wednesday night. It’s almost as big a story as Sidney Crosby getting his 500th goal in Pittsburgh earlier in the week. Bigger, maybe. 

This column is much about Patrik Laine, who, like Eichel was a No. 2 overall draft pick. We'll get to Laine in a minute, after wending through Vegas and Buffalo.

The Knights, an instant contender created from a stacked deck of expansion-draft rules in 2017, are the bane of fans in 31 other NHL cities. Now they have Eichel, a big 25-year-old center, in his prime, who scores with the frequency of peak Artemi Panarin. It's just not fair. Where's the pain?

Blue Jackets:"Best I've seen him": Patrik Laine riding six-game point streak

Eichel in early November had surgery to replace a herniated disk in his upper spine with an artificial implant. He was the first NHL player to have this type of surgery (and a month later, Chicago Blackhawks veteran Tyler Johnson became the second). 

Jackets fans who've been waiting decades for a No. 1 center know what is going to happen with Eichel — he's going to be the top-line center for whom entitled Vegas fans have been waiting for, lo, these five long years.

Some Jackets fans will be compelled to wonder why general manager Jarmo Kekalainen didn’t do what Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon did, which is roll the dice on a deal for Eichel. There were reasons. 

Prior to the draft last summer, rumors were flying that the Jackets were among a host of teams pitching for Eichel. The rumors were overstated, perhaps even fabricated.

As Eichel was warring with Sabres management over surgical procedures, the Jackets were holding onto their picks and prospects and putting together a blockbuster deal to move Seth Jones to Chicago. 

The Jackets had kicked a tire on Eichel, but that’s about it.  Eichel and his $10-million-per-year salary sat on the trading block for months. He and his doctors wanted artificial-disk surgery and the Sabres insisted on spinal fusion, a more well-known procedure but one with a longer recovery period and a much greater prospect of future surgeries. 

(Good for Eichel. Players need more say in their physical treatment. This is a win for them, and it will be an issue pressed in future collective bargaining. Good.) 

In the end, Sabres GM Kevyn Adams performed a salvage operation and fetched top-line winger Alex Tuch, prospect Peyton Krebs and future first- and second-round picks. It went down Nov. 3. 

The Jackets had already done the Jones deal. They’d used their three first-round picks on center/winger Kent Johnson, center Cole Sillinger and defenseman Corson Ceulemans.

They signed another former first-round pick, sniper Yegor Chinakhov. They hung on to the two first-round picks (one conditional) they have for the 2022 draft. 

The Jackets then set forth on a season of evaluation. What do they have in Max Domi, Jack Roslovic, Adam Boqvist and Jake Bean? 

What do they have in Laine?

It appears they have the best version of one of the most feared shooters in the league. 

Laine is carrying a seven-game point streak into Thursday’s game against the Blackhawks in Chicago; he has 7-6-13 in that span. On the season, Laine has has 13-15-28 in 28 games.

Laine, in his defensive metrics and his ability to drive plays, is not unflawed. He still needs others to set him up. Yet, it’s fair to say that he’s a better all-around player than he was when he scored 44 goals in 2017-18.

Jackets fans I know want dinner on the table right away and want Laine signed long-term. Laine will be a restricted free agent (with arbitration rights) at season’s end. In-between, there is the trade deadline (March 21). 

Asked Wednesday how he views Laine as the deadline approaches, Kekalainen texted back: “I don’t see this deadline having any significance with Laine. We have lots of time.” 

While that’s a touch cryptic, it seems to indicate that Kekalainen isn’t bent on moving Laine before the deadline. If that is the case, then there are two options: Sign Laine to another one-year extension at his qualifying price ($7.5 million) or better — which would take him to his UFA year — or see if the two sides can agree on a long-term contract. 

A long-term deal takes both sides. Does Laine want to be here? It didn’t look like it last year, but it does this year. Things have changed. The roster has changed. The plan has changed. 

Laine is one of the league’s most dangerous weapons. By all appearances, he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. We’ll see where his next contract negotiation goes, or the next two. 

Boqvist continues to shine offensively, XC