F Chaz Lucius - USNTDP, USHL (2021, 18th, WPG)

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I was surprised to see he didn't have a thread. Great goal scorer. Excellent hands, great shot, knows where to find space on the ice. Good size, as well. He's definitely more of a goal scorer than assist guy. However, his passing looks adequate and I didn't notice any hockey IQ problems either. His skating looks around average, but it was better than I expected, given what I had read about his skating.

Let's call him a forward instead of putting down a specific forward position. He plays center with the NTDP, but I don't think his game is suited for the middle of the ice. I think he's more likely a winger, but he plays center for now. Looks like a first round prospect pretty easily.

Chaz Lucius at eliteprospects.com

Click to read more...

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Dude is gonna be elite 1st/2nd liner in the NHL, you better believe it. Then again, it's my opinion, so, yeah.
I have followed him (box score stats) from late last season on,
what an awesome season so far for the US national development program.

 

[MichaelFarrell]

Chaz and Cruz are the next big brother duo. I’m so excited to see how their career progresses.

 

[Tube Skates]

Quite surprised that Cruz is doing very well without big brother. Cruz listed at 5’8” now. That’s a 4 inch spurt in a year. Great names. Hope they do really well.

 

[Eple]

Solid contender in the category of the greatest hockey names this millenium.

 

[Tube Skates]

If hockey doesn’t work out for them they should become a wrestling tag team duo

 

[William H Bonney]

He definitely looks the part of a high draft pick. I hope he's able to improve his skating. It's not awful, but if he can get better there he'd be consistently pretty tough to contain and the sky would be the limit on how high he could go in the draft.

Also a good sign for the '04 class that Chaz is living up to the hype as his '04 brother Cruz is similarly putting up gaudy stats. They've been hyped for a couple of years, but it was more of a wait-and-see than normal given that they were playing on stacked teams in average leagues with access to a lot of resources (parents are loaded). The fact that Chaz hasn't missed a beat bodes well for Cruz, especially as he's hitting his growth spurts. He also seems to be the playmaking version of the two.

 

[Bonin21]

with access to a lot of resources (parents are loaded)

Understatement. Their parents built a massive private arena on their property for these two, as well as opening a hockey school for them.

 

[HOPE]

read somewhere that if someone can beat Caufield's USDP record, it's him! i will have to start watching the kid!

 

[William H Bonney]

Understatement. Their parents built a massive private arena on their property for these two, as well as opening a hockey school for them.

Yeah. I wondered early on if there parents would even let them leave Gentry for the NTDP for that reason, but thankfully that proved meritless.

 

[tealhockey]

Yeah. I wondered early on if there parents would even let them leave Gentry for the NTDP for that reason, but thankfully that proved meritless.

I've heard Gentry may be scaling back operations when Cruz leaves, so I think this was always the plan

 

[William H Bonney]

I've heard Gentry may be scaling back operations when Cruz leaves, so I think this was always the plan

Money to burn is a nice problem to have I guess.

 

[Dominance]

I like Duke, Devine, and Janicke a lot more for the Americans after three games.

Or, at least I think I do. Sometimes hard to tell who’s who with no commentary and a single camera angle.

 

[Garyboy]

Dude is gonna be elite 1st/2nd liner in the NHL, you better believe it. Then again, it's my opinion, so, yeah.
I have followed him (box score stats) from late last season on,
what an awesome season so far for the US national development program.

Are you calling a guy you’ve never seen play a surefire top 6 forward? I can appreciate the enthusiasm you have, and he’s a great player/prospect, but the clunky skating could be an issue at the highest level. On the bright side, it’s a lot easier to improve your skating than it is to improve your scoring touch/hockey IQ.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Hatty for the hottest stick right now in hockey...

 

[Artorius Horus T]

WHC-17 Pre tournament game: 2 goals 1 assist
4 games in the WHC-17 so far: 6 goals, 3 assists
= 5 games: 8 goals, 4 assists

 

[Artorius Horus T]

BTW. he was born in Grant, Minnesota. Population of 4000 and change (St.Paul suburbia).

 

[North Country]

A few chuckled on here a couple years ago when I said he would be in the running for first overall. Possibly the best prospect out of Minnesota since Broten?

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

A few chuckled on here a couple years ago when I said he would be in the running for first overall. Possibly the best prospect out of Minnesota since Broten?

They should still chuckle. I've not seen anyone state he's in contention to be the 1st pick, and there are some Hall of Famers from Minnesota since Broten, so it still seems way off.

 

[North Country]

They should still chuckle. I've not seen anyone state he's in contention to be the 1st pick, and there are some Hall of Famers from Minnesota since Broten, so it still seems way off.

If you must, but I think he should be (or will be soon) in the top 5 being talked about.
I never said anything about other hall of famers.? I said he might end up the best out of Minnesota since Broten. Who do you have - having a better career since he retired?

 

[57special]

Off the top of my head;

Parise
Wheeler
McDonagh
Backes
Boeser
Lee
Leddy
Mittelstadt?
Guentzel
Schmidt?

And that's just active guys.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

A few chuckled on here a couple years ago when I said he would be in the running for first overall. Possibly the best prospect out of Minnesota since Broten?

04's have a top prospect from Minnesota as well ; Maddox Fleming (Shattuck St. Mary's U18, USHL-Prep)
After a slow start, Maddox has 27 points in his last 16 games for Shattuck as a 15 year old. (1.70 ppg in his last 16 games)
- he has lots room to improve in this season thou, i believe that his pace goes even higher at one point this season,
should at least tickle the idea of 100 point season, the last Shattuck U18 team 15 year old player who had 100 point season?
Sidney Crosby (Nathan MacKinnon was 16, he didn't make the team at 15).

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Chaz in my mind at least, is the top goal scorer of the 03's in the entire draft

 

[Garyboy]

He’s reminding me of Jeff O’Neil when he was a top prospect in the early/mid 90’s.. Visually not that impressive and you wonder what everyone is excited about, then you look at his stats and he has multiple goals/points most games. Extremely opportunistic with a great feel for the game. Will be fun to track.

 

[Dominance]

04's have a top prospect from Minnesota as well ; Maddox Fleming (Shattuck St. Mary's U18, USHL-Prep)
After a slow start, Maddox has 27 points in his last 16 games for Shattuck as a 15 year old. (1.70 ppg in his last 16 games)
- he has lots room to improve in this season thou, i believe that his pace goes even higher at one point this season,
should at least tickle the idea of 100 point season, the last Shattuck U18 team 15 year old player who had 100 point season?
Sidney Crosby (Nathan MacKinnon was 16, he didn't make the team at 15).

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Chaz in my mind at least, is the top goal scorer of the 03's in the entire draft

You haven’t even watched him at all by your own account, so how can you make such a statement????

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

If you must, but I think he should be (or will be soon) in the top 5 being talked about.
I never said anything about other hall of famers.? I said he might end up the best out of Minnesota since Broten. Who do you have - having a better career since he retired?

I wouldn’t laugh at it. I think doing that would be childish. I take your statement at face value that you believe that, and I won’t belittle you for having an opinion I disagree with. Some others operate differently, and to each their own. I’m merely stating that I don’t think those people who laughed at it then are going to stop doing so yet because he’s a top 10-20 16 year old hockey player in the world.