Eberle has gotten better and better with each game.
But.
As good as he has gotten and is, his skill set is somewhat replaceable.
He is mostly offense and as good as he is positionaly his stick/backcheck is weak at best. He gets demolished periodicaly.
In short he is another small offensive minded forward on a team chalked full of small offensive minded forwards.
I still would prefer him to Yak at this moment, or Hemsky, but he is what he is.
There is such a nonsensical emphasis on a player being small on these boards. Sure, size is very important if bigger, stronger defencemen can shut you down, skate faster, knock you off the puck easily and so on. Then it's important.
Eberle has very good stats and most of his career he has been playing the opposition's best defencemen. He's not out there picking up easy points against a bunch of midget defencemen, is he?
Sure, he doesn't play like a power forward, throwing punishing bodychecks and so on, but last I checked there were many big forwards who don't do this either. Fact of the matter is that Eberle's role is of a skilled forward. He fulfills this role, and his size does not stop him from doing this, it's irritating that people talk about him like it does.
Martin St. Louis is shorter and a better hockey player, I don't hear people pontificating about his size as if it somehow makes him a lesser player than say some large doofus like Dustin Penner. Judge players based on how good they are, how does that sound?