CHELMSFORD — Jack Eichel had been begging his father, Bob, to put him on skates. He was just 3 years old at the time and watched his dad and sister, Jessie, who is older by four years, lace them up every week.
But Bob and his wife, Anne, told Jack he would have to wait until he was 4. So, on his fourth birthday — Oct. 28, 2000 — the family brought him to Skate 3 in Tyngsboro.
His first jersey number was 116, and he was placed at the end of the ice where the “learn to skate” group was assembled.
At the other end were the kids who were there to “learn to play hockey.”
Young Jack wasn’t interested in just learning to skate, so he left his group, skated down to the other end with the hockey hopefuls, and never returned.
Eichel, now 18 and hoping to help Boston University to an NCAA championship as the Frozen Four kicks off Thursday night at TD Garden, is never happier than when he is at the rink. It has always been that way. His family wanted him to expand his horizons and play other sports, and he did, for a while. But his heart was set on hockey and eventually, that won out.
Eichel grew up playing with older kids and still he always was among the most noticeable. His family has a box of jerseys he has worn over the years, and their home is full of medals, photos, trophies, and memorabilia that could soon require a new wing.
Eichel goes into the contest against North Dakota as the nation’s leading scorer with 67 points in 38 games. He and his linemates — senior left wing Evan Rodrigues and junior right wing Danny O’Regan — have a combined 176 points, 67 of which are goals.
Eichel, one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s best player, is expected to be one of the top two players (and the first American) selected in the NHL Draft in June.
He is this generation’s “Can’t Miss Kid,” which was Bobby Carpenter’s nickname in 1981 when he became the first US-born player to go right from high school (St. John’s Prep) to the NHL.
Eichel has taken a different path. After two years with the Junior Bruins, he left home to play in the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he went to Pioneer High School. After that, he spent the summer taking online classes and working with tutors so he could graduate from high school in three years to satisfy the academic requirements at BU.
Unlike Carpenter, who didn’t even attend the draft the year he was selected, Eichel has been under constant scrutiny across the continent leading up to a veritable NHL jackpot that may promise two probable superstars in Eichel and Canadian Connor McDavid.
But as the Eichels have seen, the road hasn’t always been smooth. BU coach David Quinn has said no one could have handled the attention and demands better than Eichel, but what Quinn didn’t say was how invasive and brutal the challenges have been at times.
As the Eichels learned at the World Junior Tournament in Toronto and Montreal, particularly the latter city, loving McDavid required hating Eichel.
“He was treated really bad,” said his mother. “The Canadians weren’t really welcoming.”
Some of the fans didn’t appreciate the Eichel family and friends wearing his jerseys. In fact, it was like wearing a bull’s-eye, particularly for Eichel’s sister, who is graduating from Merrimack next month.
“It was ugly,” said Anne.
After the US team lost to Russia, walking back to the hotel a short distance away was a nightmare.
“There was a guy my father’s age in front of me saying all this bad stuff about him and I just wanted to jump out of my skin,” said Bob. “Jack came into the hotel and he was white as a ghost. I had never seen him like that. He said his Twitter blew up. People were swearing at him.”
Bob and Anne saw a dramatic change in their son when he came home, though. He was surrounded by support and he knew it.
“He was himself again,” said Anne.
Ahead of his peers
One person who has benefited from the spotlight being on Eichel is Boston College defenseman Noah Hanifin, another top prospect who has flown under the radar.
“I don’t know how Jack deals with it all,” said Hanifin, who was Eichel’s teammate at the World Juniors. “It’s very stressful. Having all that much hype on you, it’s got to be pretty tough for him.
“I like Jack a lot. I hope Jack does unbelievable. He’s a great kid and a great player and he was an awesome teammate to have.”
Eichel’s parents said they are under no illusions that opposing fans are going to react to Jack in positive ways.
“You expect them to boo him and yell that he’s overrated,” said Bob. “That is just fans being fans.”
But sometimes outrageous actions require a response. For example, Bob tells the story of a Canadian newscaster who posted a video on his Facebook page. The newscaster, who said he was reporting from Chelmsford, conducted a man-on-the-street poll asking people if they knew who Jack Eichel was. After many no answers, the newscaster declared that no one in Chelmsford knew who Jack Eichel was.
After an investigation by the Eichel family and friends, it was clear that the photos weren’t taken in Chelmsford, and after being called out on Facebook, the newscaster took down all the posts.
On social media, a short video emerged a few weeks back showing Eichel chugging something out of a can and saying, “Buffalo, I’m comin’ for ya.” Many who viewed it believed he was talking about the draft, in which the Sabres are expected to be among the candidates for Eichel’s services. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“That video was done in September; he was going to play in the prospects game,” said Bob. “He was at a party and there were people from Buffalo there who were big fans of his. It wasn’t like he was going to Buffalo for the Sabres. He was asked to say something to their friends in Buffalo and that is why he said, ‘Buffalo, I’m comin’ for ya.’ It had nothing to do with the draft.”
Another photo showed Eichel sound asleep on a table, and the post said Eichel was passed out at a party. But the truth was he was taking a nap during study hall after a particularly grueling week.
If there have been some valleys during Eichel’s journey this year, there have been far more peaks. Eichel’s parents said Quinn and BU have been a stabilizing, positive force in their son’s life and strangers have approached them at Agganis Arena to tell them how much they have enjoyed having Eichel at the school and on the team.
No matter how many points he scores, Anne Eichel said, her son has always remained grounded.
“It was easy with him,” said his mother. “He would never talk about himself. Even though he was probably scoring more, he never made it seem like he was more important than anyone else.”
For those who have watched Eichel grow up from the outside, no one is surprised that he is blossoming into a force of nature.
“Jack was very talented, very gifted with the puck,” said Harvard coach Ted Donato, who has known Eichel since he was 12, when he played on some teams with Donato’s eldest son, Ryan. “All of a sudden at 13 or 14, he grew from a little kid to a big kid.
“I remember he was a good skater, but from, say, 13 to 16, all of a sudden, he became one of the best skaters in the world for his age group. His skating now will put him at the elite level at the NHL level as well.
“I have had a chance to see him play against the local college guys and the local NHL players in the summer leagues in Foxborough and you could see he has got generational talent. I was fortunate enough to come out around the same time as [Jeremy] Roenick and [Mike] Modano and that to me is the kind of talent that he has.
“He is somewhat freakish as far as his explosiveness and strength for his age. That is usually the part that takes years to get to that level. He seems to be that much ahead of his peers.”
Although Eichel was born with certain abilities, said Donato, he wouldn’t be nearly as good without putting in a tremendous amount of work.
“He is so strong,” said Donato. “He is NHL strong right now as an 18½ year old. That is impressive. There is some sort of God-given dynamic there, but there is a lot of hard work that went into that.
“Two superstars in one draft is kind of exciting to see. Both those guys, to me, are the real deal.”
BC coach Jerry York, who has mentored a number of NHL stars, said it’s always exciting to see such remarkable homegrown talent.
Hanifin and Eichel, he said, “are two really top-end young guys coming out of Massachusetts which we haven’t seen [in recent years]. It captures the imagination of the people who really follow hockey.”
Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at nancy.marrapese-burrell@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @Elle1027.