These days, there’s no doubting the 6-foot-2-inch, 205-pound Eichel, who returns home to play at TD Garden on Saturday night for the first time as a professional winter wunderkind. His parents have reserved a couple of luxury boxes. A pal or two from the season he spent at Boston University, when the Terriers just missed winning a national title last spring, are expected to be part of the one-night Eichel return tour.

“I told them I’d play in the NHL my whole life, starting in the first and second grade,’’ recalled Eichel, 19, as he sat in the Buffalo Sabres dressing room, only thirtysomething games into fulfilling his schoolboy pledge. “Some believed me more than others.’’

BUFFALO — Long before he was Jack Eichel, emerging NHL star, 2015 Hobey Baker Award winner, presumptive heir to the role of “his generation’s best American-born center,’’ the ruddy-faced kid from North Chelmsford was tutoring his grammar school teachers on Career Development 101.

Eichel’s BU days, though brief, no doubt will be a hot topic the moment he sets foot on Causeway Street. This week, BU revealed that junior forward Nick Roberto was under investigation for gambling and had been suspended from the team for the remainder of the 2015-16 season by the NCAA. A day later, BU announced sophomore forward A.J. Greer, a draft pick of the Colorado Avalanche, chose to end his college career and play instead in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.


Meanwhile, rumors have run rampant across the local college hockey landscape that other players on the 2014-15 BU roster also gambled and, in some cases, incurred significant debt. Eichel, the centerpiece of that Frozen Four team, has refused to comment on the subject, a posture likely to continue fueling questions about how proliferate betting was among the 2014-15 Terriers.


Meanwhile, Eichel’s stat line (9-7—16 in 34 games) may not suggest that he has been an overwhelming offensive force in his rookie season, but his assimilation into the NHL game has been seamless. Everybody says they “Like Eich,’’ as evidenced by an ever-replenished stock of souvenir shirts featuring that slogan displayed prominently in the merchandise shop at First Niagara Center.

According to Mike Kaminska, the club’s director of merchandise, the run on Eichel items has been “just crazy.’’ Normally, he said, he might stock 144 sweaters ($180 each) and name-and-number T-shirts ($32) for any other Sabres player, and that would be enough for a full season. But the store already has sold 2,000 each of just those two Eichel items.

“I have been here 27 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,’’ said Kaminska. “Not with Dominik Hasek, not with Chris Drury, Pat LaFontaine, Danny Briere — no one’s come close. The sales are incredible. It’s definitely Eichelmania here.’’

‘He is one gifted player’

There is also an Eichel bobblehead, signed Eichel pucks, and sundry other No. 15 goodies, all part and parcel of a craze that exploded even before the Sabres made him the No. 2 overall pick in June’s amateur draft.

Then, of course, there is the on-ice version of Eich that everyone likes.

“No question, he’s going to be here a while,’’ said Harry Neale, the former NHL coach, general manager, and broadcast analyst, as he sat in the press box prior to a recent Sabres game against the Kings. “He’s got a great shot, good imagination, and when he comes down that wing, you think, ‘Geez, he’s flying,’ and then he takes it up even another gear. He is money in the bank.’’


Canadiens assistant GM Rick Dudley, who believed in Martin St. Louis’s abundant skills long before most NHL scouts and managers, has been impressed by Eichel’s legs (“dangerous’’) and wrist shot (“special; rarely seen today’’). Per Dudley’s eye, when Eichel masters the knack of deking around defensemen while controlling the puck on the rush, “then look out, because with his outside speed, he’ll draw penalty after penalty. He is one gifted player.’’

Then there is Dean Lombardi, the Kings GM, who has seen enough of Eichel in just a few months to consider him the best US-born pivot since a bumper crop in the 1980s yielded LaFontaine, Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick, and Craig Janney. Because of size, position, playing style, and skating, Modano is the most common Eichel comparison.

“I saw Jack up close at the World Championships last spring,’’ said Lombardi, “and I thought, ‘Holy smoke, what is this?!’

“His wrist shot and release are unbelievable. Great vision on the ice. Already understands the game defensively. Really, what can’t he do? If there’s anything, I’ve yet to see it.”

Craig Button, the former Calgary Flames GM who is now an analyst for the NHL Network and TSN, see hints of Mark Messier’s game in Eichel.

“We saw Mess evolve as this powerful, skilled player,’’ noted Button. “He has this almost unstoppable quality about him as he grew older. I don’t see that same kind of nastiness in Jack, but because of his skating, I think he has that skill to run over people, just be a bear to play against.


“It’s a force of will you don’t see in many players.’’

He can cut it

The big, baby-faced lug even mows the lawn. At least he did that not long ago, while working as at Zwicker’s skate and hockey shop in Bedford for three or four years before he entered BU. Store owner Wayne Zwicker and Eichel’s father Bob have been pals since school days, and Jack often wedged three-and four-hour shifts at the store between school, practices, and games.

“Most of the time he was on the floor, selling skates, sticks, and equipment for us,’’ said Zwicker, whose father sharpened the Bruins’ skates for 20 seasons until the mid ’50s. “A really level-headed kid. I’ve had kids come in from college looking for work and you want to say, ‘Go home and grow up.’ But not Jack.

“Mature. He really knew his stuff. Parents would come in with their kids, and they could tell right away, ‘This kid knows what’s he’s talking about.’ ’’

The willing, eager kid with the curly hair also had a deft hand with the lawn mower when he wasn’t selling Tacks and Eastons.

“We don’t have a lot of grass here, but yeah, he’d do it, and do it without complaining,’’ said Zwicker. “I’d just say to his dad, ‘Bob, I gotta get this lawn cut,’ and he’d say, ‘Hold on, I’ll send Jack right down there.’ ’’


In the richer, greener pastures of his budding NHL career, Eichel has had a variety of linemates, but of late has worked with Evander Kane at left wing and Matt Moulson at right wing. Moulson is also Eichel’s landlord, inviting the rookie to billet with his family in one of the city’s immediate suburbs.

“They’ve spoiled me,’’ said Eichel, who also billeted with a guest family for his two seasons with the National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. “I don’t cook. I don’t do laundry. Really, I don’t do a thing.

“I might get my own place next year, not sure, but I’ve liked being at Matt’s place so much I’d probably spend a lot of my time there anyway. He and his wife like to joke that I’m like their third kid.’’

Rare skating ability

On the ice, Eichel has progressed not in baby steps, but rather in what coach Dan Bylsma terms “long, long strides.’’ Predictably, he has not scored anywhere near his college pace, which led him to be the NCAA’s top scorer last year as a freshman (40 games: 26-45—71). He also needs to improve his faceoff work, as he has struggled to win half his draws.

The NHL is increasingly a grinding, defensive, marrow-sucking game, in part why Eichel’s scoring pace has dropped by approximately two-thirds. With his speed and shot, he could (should?) become a dominating offensive force, but points for even some of the league’s proven gifted scorers nowadays come in dribs and drabs rather than buckets.

Bylsma has been impressed most of all by Eichel’s improvement on defense.

“I know that doesn’t necessarily show in his plus-minus right now,’’ said Bylsma, with Eichel a minus-6. “But defensively he is a way better hockey player than he was at the start of the year. He is tracking down pucks. In the D zone, he is way better there in the last two months. And he’s been really attentive in trying to get better in that area.’’

Eichel’s mantra is that he needs to strive for consistency in overall execution and always look “to improve my game.’’ That is familiar to the ear of Kim Brandvold, who was named the Bruins’ skating coach earlier this year, and three or four years ago began working one-on-one with Eichel to enhance his skating.

Brandvold, who played four seasons at UMass-Lowell, figures Eichel’s skating — an exceptional blend of force and fluidity — is in part a God-given skill. He also has found Eichel to be a tireless worker, ever willing to build on those natural skating skills, which Brandvold believes rival those of Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey.

“Special skater, special athlete,’’ noted Brandvold, who is also the associate hockey coach at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence. “You see right away that this kid has a lot of potential. From the time I first saw him at 14, he’s continued to work on his skating, refine it, keep becoming a stronger, more efficient skater.

“I think anyone who walks into a rink, even if you never knew much about hockey and just watched, you’d say, ‘Wow, this is a beautiful skater.’ ’’

Teammate Ryan O’Reilly, the former Avalanche standout who for now holds the position as the Sabres’ No. 1 center, kidded recently, “If I ever got my speed up that fast, I would be panicking. ‘’

O’Reilly, a key part of the team’s restructuring under GM Tim Murray, said he has been amazed at how well Eichel has handled the transition from college to pro to team leader.

“It’s not easy for a kid to come to the team, especially one that that has struggled so much the last year or two, and put all the weight on his shoulders,’’ said Murray. “To handle it the way he does is just awesome. He is only getting better. He is definitely a massive piece of this puzzle.’’

Garden of his youth

Sam Reinhart, another young and highly talented Sabres center, is Eichel’s roommate on the road. Also chosen second overall in the draft (2014), Reinhart is a year older and, along with Eichel, noted that it takes time to adapt to the NHL’s grinding schedule, with frequent travel and three or four games a week.

“He’ll say he’s funnier than he is,’’ said Reinhart, asked to share an insider’s perspective of Eichel. “A lot funnier than he is. He’s the one laughing at his jokes.’’

To which Eichel countered, with a straight face, “I think I am a funny guy.’’

Boston humor, always an acquired taste.

Eichel’s first visit to Causeway Street was Oct. 28, 2000, memorable not only because it was the first time he witnessed big-time hockey, or the simple fact that it was his fourth birthday.

“Because it was my birthday and Mats Sundin scored the overtime winner for Toronto,’’ he said. “I was never a Sundin fan after that. Great player, but he screwed up my birthday.’’

Saturday night, years removed from telling one and all he one day would make a career on hockey’s biggest stage, Eichel has the chance to spoil a Garden party. It’s his first time back home since August, his first time on Causeway Street since wearing Terrier red and white.

“It is going to be a big game for us, because Boston’s obviously a tough team,’’ he said. “Personally it is, um, I don’t know, it is going to be a little weird for me with a lot of family there.

“I’ve been going to the Garden my whole life, watching the Bruins play, and now I am going to go there to play against the Bruins. It will be a little bit weird, I am just super excited for it. What a dream come true.’’

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.