Mooseheads’ Hischier magical, ‘worth the price of admission’
JOHN MacNEIL SPORTS REPORTER
Published November 17, 2016 - 7:46pm
Last Updated November 18, 2016 - 2:56pm
NHL Central Scouting director Dan Marr was so emphatic in his evaluation of Halifax Mooseheads wunderkind Nico Hischier that the veteran scout turned to the lingo of the young junior hockey players he was grading.
“It’s not often I use the word impressive, but this weekend he was awesome,” Marr said with a chuckle Saturday after watching Hischier’s hat-trick performance cap his nine-point weekend.
“There’s very few players that you go around and say, ‘This guy is worth the price of admission.’ And he’s one.”
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“But he hit the ground running and he hasn’t stopped. There’s points in every game, two or three times, where it’s ridiculous. Like the goal (Saturday against Charlottetown), where he flipped to the middle, cut in and found a way to put it in. It’s the game-winner and it also has everybody on the bench thinking, like, ‘What in the world is he doing?’
“It’s something you see in a bantam or a midget game, and you don’t get to see that in a (tighter-checking) major junior game. Yet he’s pulling it out of his hat. Every game, there’s more than a handful of scouts watching him.”
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Part of Hischier’s appeal is the moxie he mixes with his undeniable talent. An errant stick to the face didn’t slow his stride Saturday. It only spurred his resolve.
“You just saw that he is a natural competitor,” Marr agreed. “He doesn’t take no for an answer. He doesn’t like to finish second. He doesn’t like for anybody to get the better of him. You like that type of drive and determination in a player. He does it with so much composure and smarts.”
Marr watched Hischier skate with Switzerland in the Ivan Hlinka Memorial under-18 tournament last August in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. And before his Halifax visit, Marr saw the dynamic Moosehead during an October game in Quebec against the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.
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“Nico is a player that we’ve been tracking for a couple of years. He’s been high on the radar. He was at the Ivan Hlinka tournament and we started him off with an A ranking right off the bat (this season). And he just continues to climb. He’s right up near the top of the rankings. He’s shown that he’s in that category of a special talent.”
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“But you watch this weekend — he’s driven, he’s relentless. So when you combine that competitiveness with his skill-set and his smarts, that’s a very appealing package for an NHL team.”
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