I think this is an excellent pick by you guys. I had him ranked 7th, but I think he could end up the best player from this draft. I think he has the highest scoring upside of any forward in this draft. He reminds me of Leon Draisaitl a little. His shooting/passing ability is elite. As soon as you see a high danger scoring chance developing with McGroarty part of it, you know the puck is going in the net because his passing is that precise and good at giving his teammates good chances to score, and his shot is that hard and accurate. He's also very good at finding space in the offensive zone and good with quick give and go type plays. I think he has very good hockey sense. Also has a very high skill level, although I wouldn't say he's one of these danglers that'll hold onto the puck for long amounts of time. He uses his skill more to score and less for flash. People say his skating is bad, but I have never seen it as a weakness. I'm not saying it's good, but I've always seen it as average. It doesn't impede him or help him. He's also good defensively. Plays the PK. Good in all situations. He has some grit and physicality to his game.
I also think there's a chance he could play center. He hasn't played any at the USNTDP, but he was a natural center before then. They couldn't have everyone play center because his team must've had close to 10 natural centers. I thought they did a pretty bad job of picking who should play center, as I don't see what's keeping him from playing center. He was also the captain of the USNTDP, and usually they don't name it so early on and keep it so set, but he's one of those players that is the leader of teams he plays for. His father was a minor league player, and then a coach and now GM in the USHL. He grew up in a hockey rink. I have a feeling he's going to only continue to get better. I'm not guaranteeing this, but it would not surprise me if he hits 100 points once or twice in his career. I think his scoring ability is that good.
