Jack Eichel is not the most well-known American in hockey. He’s not even the most famous center from his country, thanks to captain Auston Matthews and his star power.

He’s just the United States’ best and most important player, less than two years removed from keying the Vegas Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup run and yet still somehow underappreciated beyond the most dedicated watchers of the sport and those around him.

Drafted second behind Connor McDavid a decade ago and having persevered through a neck injury that threatened to derail his career, the international stage of the 4 Nations Face-Off with the Milan Olympics a year away is another chance for Eichel to play his way out of that shadow and show off how much he has evolved.

“He’s elite in so many capacities,” U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said Wednesday. “He’s always had an offensive dimension to his game. The physical attributes that he has, just with his size, his skating ability, his puck-handling ability, his vision, he can play any type of game. He can beat you a number of different ways.”

And he does. Eichel, at 6-foot-2 and just over 200 pounds, has the size to overpower opponents and a skating stride so effortless that he blows by defenders. Vegas captain Mark Stone said, “It doesn’t look like he’s going very fast” but Eichel can turn on the afterburners with ease.

“He might not be miles an hour the fastest guy in the league, but if he needs to take two hard steps and beat a guy, he’s beating him — the guy’s not catching him,” Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill said. “He’s so strong and just a freak athlete.”

What makes Eichel elite is how he augments that athleticism with keen awareness of who’s around him on the ice, where the puck is and how to navigate just about every situation in a game. U.S. teammate Chris Kreider marvels at Eichel’s “ability to take over the game and make everyone play at his speed.”

“His skating’s so smooth with how he handles the puck and his ability to scan and take in information and then make the right plays, there’s really not anything he can’t do,” Kreider said.

Eichel scored 26 goals and recorded 45 assists in 40 games in his one season of college hockey at Boston University, and he quickly became a point-a-game player a few years into the NHL with Buffalo. But the defensive prowess that sets him apart from his peers came more recently, after Bruce Cassidy began coaching him in Vegas after having six-time Selke Trophy-winning center Patrice Bergeron in Boston.

“As I’ve gotten older and wanted to build my game, it’s a detail that I think I’ve learned to focus on a bit more,” Eichel said. “It’s something that helps you win games, and I realized how important it was if I wanted to gain the coach’s trust and to be out on the ice in big moments that I needed him to be able to trust me in those situations, and that meant being responsible defensively.”

CANADA BEATS SWEDEN: Nathan MacKinnon scored on the power play 56 seconds in off a no-look pass from Sidney Crosby, Mitch Marner got the overtime winner after Sweden rallied to tie it and Canada opened the 4 Nations Face-Off with a thrilling 4-3 victory on Wednesday night at Montreal.

Marner scored at 6:06 of the 3-on-3 OT to help Canada escape without a loss that could prove decisive in such a short tournament. Instead, a sellout crowd of 21,105 got to celebrate the return of elite international competition with the NHL’s best players.

WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY RETURNING: The World Cup of Hockey is returning three years from now.

The NHL and NHL Players’ Association unveiled plans to host a tournament in early 2028, aiming for February. The goal is to have an international tournament every other year, with players going to the Olympics in 2026 and ’30.