Golden Knights to Deploy Marner–Eichel Pairing on Top Line
LAS VEGAS – Teh Vegas Golden Knights will experiment with a first line featuring newly acquired Mitch Marner alongside Jack Eichel, head coach Bruce Cassidy announced.While acknowledging the potential for success, Cassidy cautioned that on-ice chemistry remains an unknown factor.
“They will have time together [but] whether they have chemistry, that’s to be steadfast,” Cassidy stated. “Sometimes on paper, you look at chemistry and think it’s going to work and it doesn’t. And sometimes other lines just come together naturally.”
A key consideration for the pairing is the players’ similar skillsets. Both Marner and Eichel are renowned playmakers, prioritizing assists over goal-scoring. Marner finished third in the NHL with 75 assists in the 2023-24 season, trailing only Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche). Eichel recorded the sixth-most assists in the league with 66.
Cassidy noted this similarity, questioning who would emerge as the primary shooter on the line. “Those guys both like to hang on to the puck,” he said. ”If they’re together, who’s the best shooter on that line? So that could change. I think it’s pairs first, and then the threesome.”
Marner, who spent his first nine NHL seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs alongside stars Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and John Tavares, expressed enthusiasm for the opportunity to play with Eichel. “[Eichel is] obviously an extraordinary player, a guy that realy moves well up and down the ice, both ends of the ice very responsible,” Marner said on july 2 during his introductory press conference. “Simultaneously occurring, he’s got a deadly shot with his vision and playmaking style as well. I’m very excited to start working with him and try to figure out the chemistry quickly and get that rolling.”
Eichel, entering his fifth season with the Golden Knights, believes Marner’s hockey sense is exceptional. “From talking to people who played with him in Toronto, I just think his hockey sense and creativity is on another level,” Eichel said during the United states Olympic orientation camp in Plymouth, Mich. “He’s a guy who can create so much by himself, and he can create so much from nothing, and there’s only so many guys in the world who can do that. He makes the players around him better.”
