C Blake Murray - Sudbury Wolves, OHL (2019, 183rd, CAR)

[Chuck Downie]

Scored a hattrick in his third OHL game last night. Sudbury's first round pick (seventh overall) in 2017.

http://ontariohockeyleague.com/players/7838

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[HasbeenHallzy]

Great player- excited to watch him progress.

 

[hockeynorth]

As a Sudbury Wolves fan I got to watch a lot of Blake Murray this season, and I have to say I came away from the season extremely pleased, in a way I haven't for a rookie in a long time. Blake has all the tools to be a successful pivot, from the frame to the skating ability to his positioning at both ends and his two way game. He possesses a deceptive shot that goalies had a hard time following when he was coming in off the rush, but he can also slide a quick writer over the pads (his trademark this season) or a nice snapshot from the slot on the power play for a one timer. His strength is also noteworthy because he was able to regularly keep opposing players off the puck, or strip it away, in a fashion that isn't too common for a rookie in the OHL. His north south speed is above average, and has only gotten better in the off season (it's been on display in camps, as has his strength) which is exciting because it was already an asset. His east west speed could use some work, and he can get caught flat footed at times but overall it wasn't too big a worry. He isn't overly physical yet he typically comes out of corner battles successful. He has good hands, not too noteworthy but definitely a good skill of his. However out of all this, including his shot (which was the best besides Sokolov for us, and was exciting on a bad team) his biggest assists are his hockey sense and positioning. This kid is constantly in the right place on the ice, ready to tap in a dirty rebound, or block a one timer on the PK. His vision was able to turn the Pilon twins into offensive contributors as well which was an amazing feat, and showed that he can elevate the play of others around him. This kid is in a very similar place to Ty Dellandrea last season and plays similar too, another player he reminds me of is Eric Staal during his OHL career. He is currently ranked as high as top 10 for next year and as low as early to mid second round, so he should end up a first rounder in some form. I think this kid is going to be a star, so I suggest that more people start keeping tabs on him.


FYI this is not my video, and I don't know who made it but lots of his highlights are here and I know it's young so some may say I'm just doing this to push views there but in all honesty I've been looking for highlights for weeks and they finally got put on Youtube to my pleasure.

And here is a chart I made showing the PPG of U17 OHL players in the last ten, which Murray was second best this year (ahead of Suzuki), and 17th best in the last ten, counting both of McDavids years. This shows notable players as well a ALL FORWARDS better then him by PPG. And heres the link if you want to go in and see better: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...P1/pubchart?oid=1765295015&format=interactive

Blake had 21 Goals and 23 Assists, and 8 PIM in 57 games this season. He was also a minus 17 however Sudbury was bad, really bad, and so you can't pin all that on a rookie.

 

[Daximus]

Be interesting to see what him, Lipanov and Byfield can do together.

 

[Habs76]

I will say that watching that video, his release looks slow, I don't expect those snapshots to work at the NHL level unless he learns to get it away quicker.

 

[hockeynorth]

Be interesting to see what him, Lipanov and Byfield can do together.

Not many people are expecting Lipanov back next year

 

[Daximus]

Not many people are expecting Lipanov back next year

I doubt he makes the Lightning. It's not like he tore up the OHL or the AHL either so I doubt he makes the AHL as well.

 

[hockeynorth]

I doubt he makes the Lightning. It's not like he tore up the OHL or the AHL either so I doubt he makes the AHL as well.

Yeah, his status for next season is very in question. We draft Luokkonen so that we had a solid goalie for this year, and we need Malik on the backend so we don't have an open slot

 

[landy92mack29]

 

[Tryamkin]

Slaps in another nice goal for his 3rd of the season and 5th point. Working well with David Levin and Kirill Nizhnikov on his wings.

 

[WaW]

After a slow start and largely caused his stock to plummet to #111 on the Central Scouting NA Skaters list, and being excluded from the top prospects game, he has really turned his season around. I think he started with 11 pts in his first 20 games. He now sits at 41 in 51, including 26 goals, and his two way game has been great the last couple weeks.

He keeps this play up and I can see him potentially jumping into the 2nd round.

 

[MMC]

Welcome to Carolina!