Tons of pressure land on Jack Eichel’s shoulders!

It was a messy offseason for the Vegas Golden Knights, even though they signed veteran forward Phil Kessel. This summer, they found out about goalie Robin Lehner’s season-ending surgery so late that it has potentially impacted front office decisions…They traded out Max Pacioretty, but are still $10 million over the cap limit and will have to work the financial puzzle on the long-term injured reserve.

The Golden Knights cannot afford any more distractions or more importantly, injuries before camp begins later on, and will need Jack Eichel to play at the superstar level he once had.

As Mike Stephens of the Hockey News points out Eichel is healthy and being paid tons of money “an already chaotic cap situation that has now forced the club to sell off useful players for, quite literally, zero return in an effort to merely stay compliant.”

And Stephens is right: Eichel has a lot of things coming his way to help him prove the Golden Knights and the fanbase that he can be that superstar Vegas desperately needs:

“Eichel has previously managed to somehow ride a nearly point-per-game pace in the NHL without ever having the benefit of playing alongside the likes of Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, Reilly Smith, Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Theodore, and, even, Phil Kessel for a full season.

Heck, Stone, Smith, and Karlsson were injured for most of Eichel’s tenure in 2021-22, and were each almost certainly less than 100 percent upon return.

Now, the whole gang is back.”

Here comes the pressure. Can he handle it?