The whole "good skater for a guy his size" thing is a huge red flag to me. Skating is the thing in the NHL. Seems like you need to be at least slightly above-average as a skater to be any kind of impact player in the NHL. If you're a big guy, and your skating is labeled as fine for a guy your size, that has always meant that in actuality you're not that good of a skater compared to the guys who are smaller than you.
Now, full disclosure, I don't know anything about this guy. I'm just saying--if his scouting report includes things like "big guy who is an okay skater for his size" I'm pretty much immediately not interested.
No, he's an above average skater in general. Just especially so for his size. He's not Brian boyle.
He's a big kid who can get up and down the ice quickly. He still looks a tad awkward doing it cause he's 6'5 at 17. Still a lot he could do with getting a cleaner stride and being slightly less lanky, but he's a kid. This would of course be a project pick. Then again, so was kreider.
He's a decent puck handler, a good skater and a great athlete in general. High work ethic. He's about average for an nhl player everywhere except his athleticism, which is well above average. That all sounds pretty good for a 6'5 guy who is an August bday.
He's got loads of question marks of course. But if he doesn't make it, it'll be less because of any physical attribute than his sometimes questionable reads and decisions.