Is McDavid the only difference between Buffalo and Edmonton's trajectory?

[Dr Salt]

While I disagree with the full premise of the OP; there is definitely something to the idea of Buffalo being far better with McDavid.

Tim Murray built the Sabres for McDavid, not Eichel. Evander Kane being the easiest proof of that since watching games from Eichel's time with Kane shows two players with very similar positioning approaches which tended to put them into weird situations where both were in the same part of the zone. Additionally Kane would tend to just shoot from distance for no discernable reason . The biggest part however was off the ice where Kane had influence with Eichel and Reinhart through Eichel for that manner. Kane's personality meshed well with Eichel's Boston boy upbringing whereas McDavid's good ole Canadian boy persona would of gravitated to ROR or even Gionta.




If I remember correctly, Eichel was rumored to stay in college if drafted by the Coyotes. Whether he would of carried through on his threat is another story altogether.

This wasn't exclusive to Arizona from Buffalo

 

[Hockeyville USA]

I would have liked to see Arizona have won the McDavid lottery. Franchise direction completes changes if that happened

 

[tsujimoto74]

BUF traded their McDavid and Draisaitl for Tuch, Krebs, picks, Devon Levi and Jiri Kulich.
Both Reinhart and EIchel are now cup winners.

Neither of those guys is in the same stratosphere as their Oiler counterparts, and it’s disingenuous to pretend otherwise.

 

[LTIR]

Neither of those guys is in the same stratosphere as their Oiler counterparts, and it’s disingenuous to pretend otherwise.

yet most of those guys now have their names on the SC being key contributors. I will take overall game of ROR over Draisaitl cheat code slapper on PP in playoffs. Eichel is in the same tier as Draisaitl as well. Sam with a 57G 94pt season isnt bad either.
You dont need to be McDavid to win cups. Bottom line is that Edmonton has managed to keep all its top talent while BUF and OTT had to give them up for one reason or another.