he makes his purposeful strides toward the 2015 NHL draft in Sunrise, Florida.

Eichel's name will be the first or second called next June 26. He will hold up an NHL jersey (Buffalo's? Carolina's? Winnipeg's? Arizona's? Florida's? Toronto's?), smile and begin his NHL career soon after.

It's hard to picture him not playing in the NHL next season. A few NHL scouts today believe Eichel could step in and be a No. 1 center this season. Eichel is expected to go either first or second overall, depending on where Connor McDavid, who is playing for the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League, goes.

This has been predicted for a while now. This has NHL scouts and GMs salivating.

And perhaps to dissuade teams from going the tanking route to improve theirdraft position, the league decreased the worst team's chances for the first pick from 25 percent to 20 percent. The team with the second-fewest points will have a 13.5 percent chance at the top pick, a reduction from 18.8 percent. Reduce all they want, the best chance to get the first-overall pick is to finish last.

Now, unlike a lava lamp, Eichel has major wattage. Because of the NHL draft forecast, he has cast a bright light back on the hockey program of Boston University, a team that was an irrelevant 10-21-4 last season in head coach David Quinn's first season succeeding Jack Parker's 40-year, 897-win, three-national-championship run.

They appear to be an NCAA tournament team this season. Eichel's heat source is a competitive streak and a life around a