I've seen him ranked anywhere between late lottery to early-ish 2nd round. He's a bit streaky so his stock tends to fluctuate, but he also seems to be at the whims of other players sliding up and down the board. On the NHL Central Scouting "Players to watch" list, which was last updated in November, Sourif was one of 5 WHL players to get an "A" grade that signifies potential 1st round talent.
He's a versatile all-situations winger. At his best he competes hard and gets to the net, but also has the skill and shot to punish defenders that let him get a step on them. He's no a dazzling east-west skill player, but he has enough that he also isn't totally at he mercy of what the D gives him. When he's off his game he still gets around the net, but the puck doesn't find its way to him and he can be boxed out on rebounds. I guess it's a little bit of an effort thing, but that also doesn't mean he's a total coaster when he's not engaged. He is also capable of making solid passes (good ones, not elite ones) though sometimes, especially when he's in a goals funk, he can be guilty of trying to force it to make up for his lack of contribution.
I think sometimes there's maybe a bit of a temptation to make the Evander Kane comparison because of the lazy, obvious fact that he's a goal-scoring Vancouver Giant who's a local product (he's from nearby Surrey, home of Scott Hannan and Brenden Dillon) and also black, but though Sourdif does have enough physicality to fight through checks, get into high-traffic areas, and dish out some punishment when he's working at full capacity, I don't see that rugged edge that Kane has being part of his regular game.
To draw a Shark-ish parallel, I feel like the upside of him is the good version of Devin Setoguchi. The one that had the 30-30 season (though maybe not
quite to that extend. More like a 25-25 guy?). Maybe a bit more defensively responsible though. Not a team-carrying offensive player, but a good 2nd liner that can get some PP time and could even PK if you needed him to.
The downside is that he's not quite a boom-or-bust guy. He's not likely going to be the one you draft and he turns into Pavelski. Maybe there's the slimmest chance he does because there's always the slimmest chance that any prospect becomes anything, but it seems like maximizing his skills gets you a very good player just not one with a path to being a "great" one. I don't like saying "low-ceiling" because that's usually scouting euphemism for liking a guy's scouting report more for intangibles and secondary stuff than raw talent (whereas Sourdif's talent is unquestionably a thing and not a bunch of "grit/intensity/leadership/gets-the-most-from-what-he-has" platitudes) but he's not a home-run swing. He's more like a solid double to the gap.
I don't have a lot else to add from the draft-eligible Giants I watch regularly. C/W Cole Shepard is the only other one on the WHL watch-list. He had a "C" grade, which is basically earmarking for the back half of the draft (rounds 4+). He has OK skill and flashes puck control and a shot, but he also tends to float and is allergic to contact. Tristen Nielsen is a PPG undrafted 19-year-old who's a bit on the small side but is a big-heart guy with a ton of offensive drive (occasionally to the point of tunnel-vision) and is a rambunctious bundle of energy. I could see him as an interesting Cuda signing in the mold of Jayden Halbgewachs. The only other draft eligible players are Krz Plummer, Jacob Gendron, and Kaden Kohle, all of whom are varying degress of low-end depth guy at the WHL level. In other words they're pretty much non-starters from an NHL prospect point-of-view. Calgary D-man Luke Prokop and goalie Jack McNaughton were the only Hitmen on the CSB list, each earning "B" grades (rounds 2/3 projection) but it was such a crazy game and I suck at goalie evaluation so I'm not comfortable discussing the latter, and while the former was a -1 with no points. I thought he looked alright and he's a big body. But I hadn't recognized him as a notable draft prospect before the game so I wasn't watching that closely.
this was also the only game the two teams play this season, so no repeat viewings of Calgary for me short of a WHL Finals matchup.
I'm gonna try and make more of an effort over this last month of regular season play to pre-select potentially interesting players on visiting teams for me to keep an eye on.
As an aside, Calgary did have an 80-grade name in forward Orca Wiesblatt, brother of projected top-60ish 2020 draft eligible forward Ozzie Wiesblatt and potential 2022 draft eligible Oasiz Wiesblatt. They also have an older brother named Ocean. I swear I'm not making any of this up.
I also miss the pink on the Hitmen unis. They're all black/dark red/copper now. I want them to acknowledge their roots and bring back the pink.