Marner, Eichel is rooted as Golden Knights's reference couple in the coming years – Las Vegas Sun News

Two days before the news of the trade that sends to the end of Toronto Maple Leafs Mitch Marner Al Vegas Golden Knights became official and public, the voice was ran to extended by the team.

Before Marner was fully aware of any person outside his intimate circle and the main office of the Golden Knights knew about the imminent movement, he received text messages from two of his future teammates. One of them was from an All-Star partner of the NHL of several times, the Jack Eichel center.

“I am very excited to start working with him and try to discover chemistry quickly and get that roller,” Marner said about Eichel. “I have spoken with a couple of boys who have been his teammate before, and they have only said incredible things about him.”

The Golden Knights have to wait for the 28 -year -old couple taken within two selections to each other at the top of the 2015 NHL Draft, Eichel was the second in general and Marner, can discover that level of camaraderie.

The future of the organization now depends on it.

Eichel and Marner are rooted as the faces of the franchise for almost the next decade.

Marner arrived in Las Vegas through the signature and trade agreement with Toronto in an extension that extends until the 2032-2033 season for a total of $ 96 million. Eichel, currently still under contract for the next season, will almost surely obtain its own maximum agreement of eight years in the coming months that will be extended during the 2033-2034 campaign for an equal or greater amount.

Together, the two players will occupy more than a quarter of the salary space of the gentlemen assigned for the entire team.

That means they must produce at the elite level. The good news is that until now they have not done anything in their careers to suggest that they will not, and in any case, they could possibly improve each other as they deepen their cousins.

Marner finished fifth in the NHL last season with 102 points (27 goals, 75 assists). Eichel was eighth with a Las Vegas franchise record 94 points (28 points, 66 assists) despite missing a handful of games to injure the section.

Players like the current Captain Mark Stone, the only Knight No Eichel who has not finished in the top 10 of the Hart trophy vote (the most valuable player), and former prominent Jonathan Marchesault, the top scorer of goals of all time, has helped to give Las Vegas some unpopted stars delivery skaters during the years.

But he has never entered a season with a couple as explosive as Eichel and Marner as they will when the 2025-2026 calendar begins in October.

“I don't know if they will play together (on the same line),” said Las Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimon. “Those will be decisions that (coach) Bruce (Cassidy) takes.”

Cassidy can be mixed and combined like all coaches, but it is difficult to imagine that Marner and Eichel will not spend a significant time in the Las Vegas progress line.

Even if you decide to divide them, Marner and Eichel will register minutes together in the power game and penalty death.

There are concerns that lead to putting so much emphasis on two players, namely, both are among the best league pins but, therefore, they have been too willing to differ to teammates with games on the line. Neither Eichel nor Marner have demonstrated the murderous instinct of constantly maintaining albums for themselves and throwing them to the network when their teams need more goals.

“Someone will have to shoot,” McCrimmon acknowledged when asked about the couple's stylistic adjustment.

The slot below with Marner and Eichel in the hypothetical progress line of the Golden Knights hypothetical could now be one of the most advantageous papers in the NHL. Ivan Barbashev is the most likely candidate to fill it, although the Golden Knights could also give Pavel Dorofeyev, who scored 35 goals in the team last year, a look there.

But Dorofeyev has combined well with Stone, who will presumably continue to anchor the second line. The 33 -year -old stone is still a franchise pillar and one of the best NHL players, but has fought with injuries and has begun to show a decrease that will almost surely accelerate in the remaining two years in its contract.

The Golden Knights needed another force to do everything with Eichel to compete to the highest confines of the West Conference, and they could not have done it better than Marner: the NHL available consensus player in this low season.

The presence of Marner and Eichel places them among the favorites to reach the Stanley Cup in the coming years. If the Golden Knights really get there, it will be reduced to whether the duo can discover how to maximize their association.

“It gives us another number 1 star in the front position, which we believe is really important,” McCrimon said. “I think our team greatly improves.”

This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.