What happens if Jack Eichel decides to stay in school?

How would you feel if your NHL team finished last overall this year, then finds out it won't get the chance to send Connor McDavid

or

Jack Eichel out onto the ice next season?

It could happen.

Are you listening, Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes?

The last-place team has a 20-percent chance at winning the first overall pick in the redesigned NHL draft lottery and is guaranteed of getting the No.2 pick if it misses out on No.1.

Presently, the Sabres have the inside track over the Coyotes when it comes to finishing with the fewest points in the league. But after posting their second consecutive win by beating the Maple Leafs on Wednesday, the gap has been narrowed to just two points with five games remaining for both Buffalo (52 points) and Arizona (54). Edmonton has the third-fewest points (59) but is dangerously close to falling out of the McDavid-Eichel sweepstakes.

McDavid, the Canadian-born, 19-year-old center for the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League, is the consensus No.1 pick.

Eichel, the American-born, 19-year-old center for Boston University, is the consensus No. 2 pick.

Eichel is the first NCAA freshman in 12 years to be named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, college hockey's equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. He's helped his team reach the Frozen Four and has a chance to lead BU to the national championship.

And that's where it gets interesting.

Though everyone seemingly assumes he will leave college to enter the NHL draft in June, the possibility remains that Eichel could decide to stay in school for at least another year. It probably won't happen, but what if it does?

His coach at BU, Dave Quinn, gently has been trying to suggest the idea to Eichel, and apparently he's listening. A few current NHL players have reached out to Eichel as well, telling him how valuable it was that they stayed in college an extra year or two. Others have also been whispering in his ear.

One of them is none other than Mike Eruzione, hero of the 1980 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic hockey team and a former Boston University player himself, who now works for the college as director of special outreach.

Eruzione told The Heat Index earlier this spring that he'd love to see Eichel remain in school for at least one more year, but of course, he's a little biased. So is Quinn.

"I have a horse in this race," Quinn told the New York Times. "And it's not just a horse. It's a thoroughbred. It's Secretariat."

So what happens if Secretariat decides to wait a year before turning pro?

Well, whichever team ends up with the No.2 overall pick will certainly still draft him. But then it would have to wait a full year before this can't-miss prospect comes aboard to be a franchise savior. It would be like staring at the ultimate Christmas present that's waiting for you under the tree except you have to wait another full 12 months to unwrap it.

Talk about a tease and a complete bubble burst.

Eichel is the type of player that could single-handedly help turn a team around overnight. He may not take you straight to the Stanley Cup as a rookie, but he'll at least put you on the path to get there. He makes everyone around him better. He will elevate everyone's play.

Unless, you know, you have to wait another year before he turns pro.

In the Times story in which Quinn is quoted, Nashville Predators center Colin Wilson credits having returned to Boston University after being drafted seventh overall in 2008 as the "best decision I ever made." Wilson and the Terriers went on to capture the NCAA title in 2009 and then he signed with the Predators.

"That second year at B.U. for me really changed my life," Wilson told the Times. "I found my game. I grew as a person and we won a championship. … Looking back, my only regret is that I didn't stay another year. Then again, I wasn't Jack Eichel."

Eichel and Boston University will meet North Dakota next Thursday in the NCAA semifinals at the TD Garden in Boston. The winner will meet either Omaha or Providence for the championship on April 11.

Suppose Eichel and the Terriers don't win it all. Will getting so close to a title make him seriously think about coming back for one more year to win a championship? It could.

It isn't unprecedented with elite-level prospects. Blackhawks star Jonathan Toews returned for his sophomore season at North Dakota after Chicago selected him with the No.3 pick in the 2006 NHL draft. Maple Leafs winger James van Riemsdyk played two years at New Hampshire after the Flyers made him the No.2 overall pick in 2007.

If Eichel were to return to Boston University for at least another year, you can't blame him, especially when he just told ESPN, "It's always been my dream to play college hockey."

In all likelihood, of course, Eichel will turn pro and like McDavid, make one lucky NHL team very, very happy. But will it be the Sabres or the Coyotes?

We'll find out a week from Saturday when the NHL regular season comes to an end on the same night they play the NCAA men's ice hockey championship.

Reach The Heat Index at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic.com . Follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Monday at 5:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Radio with Roc and Manuch on AZ Sports Talk.