Kevin Allen

USA TODAY Sports

Former Calgary Flames general manager Craig Button recalls former NHL defenseman Brad McCrimmon once saying that trying to hit Wayne Gretzky was like trying to hug fog.

McCrimmon couldn't seem to get his arms around Gretzky, even if he had him in his sights.

"I think of that when I see Connor McDavid play," Button said. "He is a very elusive. ... It looks like you have him, and then he's gone. That was Gretzky."

As teams gear up for their opportunity to win the 2014-15 Stanley Cup championship, there is another NHL competition that promises to draw considerable interest.

While it's always a good time to win a title, this season it also will be a good time to be a bad hockey club. At the end of this season, two non-playoff teams will be rewarded with teen prospects who could change the direction of their franchises.

It's the Connor McDavid-Jack Eichel sweepstakes.

McDavid is a Toronto-born, dynamic center for the Ontario Hockey League's Erie (Pa.) Otters. Last season, he wowed NHL scouts by producing 28 goals and 71 assists in 56 games.

Eichel is a Massachusetts-born, muscular center who netted 20 goals in 24 games while playing for the U.S. National Team Development Program in the U.S. Hockey League. He will play this season at Boston University.

"I am now of the mind-set that we have two generational talents in this draft," said Button, a television draft analyst.

Because the NHL has a draft lottery, there are no true preseason odds for landing the No. 1 pick. But the Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators and Flames are the teams with the worst odds (75-1 each) of winning the Stanley Cup, according to Bovada.com. That would suggest they are considered the likeliest to be at the bottom of the standings.

The Edmonton Oilers, Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators are also mentioned as possibilities to be to be in the McDavid-Eichel sweepstakes. The Sabres also own the New York Islanders' first-round pick.

The NHL recently altered the draft lottery rules, giving the majority of non-playoff teams better odds of winning the lottery this season.

The worst team now has a 20% chance of winning the lottery, down from 25%. The second-worst team has a 13.5% chance, reduced from 18.8%. The third-worst team has an 11.5% chance to win the lottery, and the fourth-worst is at 9.5%. The other 10 non-playoff qualifiers will have shots ranging from 1% to 8.5%.

The lottery was instituted to prevent teams from tanking to land a premium prospect. But because the worst team can pick no worse than second, the worst team is guaranteed to land a franchise player in June.

Although McDavid and Eichel have different styles, both are projected to be elite-level scoring centers.

"There is little to pick between the two," Flames general manager Brad Treliving said. "They are both just talents. ... They are both gifted offensively.

"Eichel is a prototypical big centerman with the long reach. He shoots the puck a ton. McDavid is an elite thinker."

Red Line Report, an independent scouting newsletter, had McDavid rated No. 1 and Eichel No. 2 this summer. But Button has them rated even.

Button said he had talked to six or seven prominent scouts who thought both centers were the kind of players who come along once every couple of decades.

Button said one scout told him that when he saw Eichel at the U.S. national junior team evaluation camp this summer he thought, "No one is better than this guy."

"Then he went to Canada and saw McDavid and said, 'No one is better than this guy,'" Button said. "He told me, 'It's whoever I see last that I think is better.'"

McDavid is 6-0, and Eichel is 6-2. Eichel might be more powerful, McDavid slicker. But Eichel can look slick, and McDavid can seem powerful.

"The one thing that stands out with both players is that they both know how to maximize their skill and their physical traits," Button said.

The fact that one player is in junior hockey and the other is playing college hockey adds spice in the race for the No. 1 overall spot in the draft.

"The game just stops when Eichel has the puck," said Jim Johannson, USA Hockey's assistant director of hockey operations. "His first two strides are explosive."

Johannson said Eichel had "a violent stick."

He can knock a puck away from an opponent and be flying up the ice before anyone has reacted.

"He can take over a game at any time," Johannson said.

Button said he never had seen a player move laterally the way Eichel could.

"Then you have Connor with vision," Button said. "He not only has the vision to sense where opportunity is, he also understands where danger is and understands where vulnerability is, not only for himself but for an opponent. He knows how to exploit."

Button said McDavid is a next-generation processor of the game.

"He can get to the next gear now," Treliving said. "He is so dynamic."

Button is waiting to find out whether Eichel has meanness to his game.

He hasn't played in an environment in which he has needed that attribute.

"I'm not going to suggest he does or doesn't have it, but if he does have a mean streak, you might say Mark Messier (as a comparison)," Button said. "(Eichel) has a power in his game that can overwhelm you."