Watched him live this afternoon..
The good:
- His hands are truly special, you just can't teach the handles he has. In tight, with space, doesn't matter - he will figure out a way to make the opposition look stupid. Through the legs, little toe drags, on the halfwall, just amazing control of the puck. Reminds me of watching Drouin in Jr in that sense - and those who saw Drouin live in Halifax should know what I'm referring to (ps: that's not an upside comparison).
- In keeping with that, he finds ways to creatively open lanes on zone exits and entries. If you give him room, he's skating with the puck. If he's in tight, he figured out a way to slow things down and open a lane. Tons of of head fakes, little bobs and weaves to gain the zone, and Vernon's guys were hard pressed to take the puck off of him. They had 2 guys shadowing him for most of the game but he still left them in the dust most of the time he had the puck. Teammates just not on his level at all, unfortunately.
- Strong faceoff guy already - counted one lost FO all game.
- Creates on his own, which could be a good/bad quality depending on how you look at it. At a higher level, I suspect this becomes a positive as teams will have to choose which guy to shut down, leaving him more room to create out of nothing. He's always looking for the pass, so I'm not too worried about tunnel vision.
The bad:
- Often the last man back in his own zone, as a C. Almost like Trail is deploying him at C to take draws and then shifting him out to the wing to cherry-pick.
- Stride and technique wise, he is good but not great. And his lack of strength and intensity showed today. Not sure if that is an ongoing trait, or just a product of travel and a heavy game schedule. But the body language was telling me his head wasn't in it. Still finished with a sick sequence that led to a goal so take that at face value..
- Despite the goal totals, shot is a bit lacklustre. He's very slim, so I imagine that improves with added strength and some weighted puck work.
- Tried one too many moves on a number of occasions - definitely playing a 'junior' game right now - but he's also 17 and in the BCHL. A good coach and some buy-in from his end gets that out of his system quickly.
Overall, I imagine he'd feel his performance today was underwhelming, but he still scored a goal that nearly spurred a comeback win (they were down 4-1 at the end of the 1st). Any time he had the puck on his stick, the entire arena was on pins and needles. This kid is simply special with the puck on his stick. I'd love to catch more live showings but this'll unfortunately probably be it for the year with my work schedule. Would love to hear others' opinions if they catch a game live.
