By Chris Ryndak @ChrisRyndak / Sabres.com–
For the third year in a row, Jack Eichel will represent the Buffalo Sabres at the NHL’s All-Star Weekend.
This year’s festivities will take place on Jan. 24 and 25 in St. Louis. The Skills Challenge will take place Friday night and the All-Star Game will be played on Saturday. The NHL announced the rosters for the Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central and Pacific division teams this afternoon.
Eichel, in his second season as team captain, leads the Sabres with 24 goals, 28 assists and 52 points.
His season has been highlighted by an 18-game personal point streak, which tied the franchise record set by Gilbert Perreault in 1971-72. Eichel recorded 32 points (16+16) in that stretch.
The streak was the NHL’s fifth-longest personal point streak in the last decade, trailing only Taylor Hall (26 in 2017-18), Patrick Kane (26 in 2015-16 and 20 in 2018-19) and Sidney Crosby (25 in 2010-11).
With 24 goals in 39 games so far this season, Eichel is only four goals away from matching his previous best goal total of 28, set last season. Eichel’s output through 40 team games currently has him on pace to finish the season with 50 goals and 108 points, which would be the highest goal and point totals by a Sabre since Pat LaFontaine (53+95) and Alexander Mogilny (76+51) in 1992-93.
He could become just the fifth player in franchise history to score 50 goals. LaFontaine, Mogilny, Rick Martin (2x) and Danny Gare (2x) are the others.
Eichel also has recorded 15 multi-point games this season, tying for ninth-most in the NHL. He’s second in the NHL with six multi-goal games and his eight multi-assist games are tied for fifth-most. And he’s already recorded at least three points seven times this season, topping his previous career-high total (6) set in 2016-17.
With his 50th point of the season on Dec. 17 at Toronto, Eichel became the first Sabre to reach 50 points in 35 or fewer games since 1992-93 (LaFontaine and Mogilny). He joins Martin as the only other player in franchise history to record at least 20 goals and 50 points in each of his first five NHL seasons.
