The Vegas Golden Knights have one of the top lineups in the NHL, led by centers Jack Eichel, William Karlsson, Tomas Hertl, and Nic Dowd. However, The Athletic recently ranked the top-six duo of Eichel and Karlsson as the league's seventh-best top-six pair, behind two other Pacific Division rivals, the Edmonton Oilers (Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl) and the San Jose Sharks (Macklin Celebrini and Michael Misa).
This is an interesting ranking, since McDavid and Draisaitl have yet to lead the Oilers to a Pacific Division title, let alone a Stanley Cup, despite being a pairing for more than 10 years. Despite all their regular-season success, McDavid and Draisaitl have yet to finish the job by leading the Oilers to a championship. In addition, most of McDavid and Draisaitl’s points come on the power play, making them one of the NHL’s lethal duos on special teams.
In Vegas, Eichel has turned into a reliable 90-point player who can easily score over 20 or 25 goals every year and score meaningful ones, too, with 16 game-winners over the past three seasons. He's on the verge of surpassing the offensive numbers he produced during six seasons in Buffalo. Moreover, Eichel went from a minus-69 player to plus-88 on a division championship team.
Meanwhile, Karlsson found his calling with the Golden Knights, becoming a 30- and 40-goal scorer, and remains one of the few Original Misfits still in the lineup who has played in all three of the team's Stanley Cup Finals. Although injuries have derailed his past two seasons, Karlsson is a valued skater in the lineup with an almost irreplaceable role, and his absence was one of the reasons the Golden Knights lost in the 2026 Final.
Regarding the Sharks, Celebrini and Misa have enormous potential, but they have yet to match the success Eichel and Karlsson have enjoyed together. Celebrini is the future face of the NHL, breaking through last year to finish in the Top 5 in scoring with 115 points, but even with his individual successes, San Jose was nowhere near a playoff spot. Despite boasting one of the game’s future superstars, the Sharks are an up-and-coming team without the successes of Eichel and Karlsson.
Also ranked higher than Vegas’ top duo are the New Jersey Devils (Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier) and Toronto Maple Leafs (Auston Matthews and John Tavares). Once again, these are some curious decisions because the Maple Leafs have won two playoff series in Matthews’ entire career and the Devils haven’t achieved much with Hughes in the lineup, who has topped 77 points just once, back in 2022-23.
Why Jack Eichel and William Karlsson's rankings are surprising
Of course, these rankings take into account many aspects of a player’s game, which is why Matthews finds himself among the elites. He can score 50 to 60 goals on his own, but he no longer has Mitch Marner on his line, which led to the worst offensive campaign of his career in 2025-26, with just 53 points.
We could go into a much deeper analysis of why Eichel and Karlsson’s lower rankings are quite surprising, but fans around the league already know that’s the case. If anyone read the comments on The Athletic’s social media post announcing the list, many pointed out that despite the greatness of McDavid and Draisaitl, they are not “generational” in the playoffs, the most important part of the season.
In the end, there is no way to please everyone with these rankings, because diehards will believe their centers are the best. Yet, when it comes to the Golden Knights, one of the NHL’s best teams for the past decade, ranking Eichel and Karlsson lower than teams that don’t win behind their top centers is a little insulting. Ultimately, these rankings should be bulletin board material and motivation to prove the doubters wrong in 2026-27.
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