#28 Giorgio Estephan
Team: Lethbridge Hurricanes
Position: C
Shoots: R
Height: 6’0
Weight: 188
GP: 64
Goals: 23
Assists: 28
Points: 51
Pts/Gm: 0.79
PIM: 18
Player Analysis: Giorgio Estephan is an extremely skilled offensive pivot for the Lethbridge Hurricanes…skating stride is quite wide, which seems to give him good balance…top speed is good but not great for a player of his size and skillset…while the wide stance to his stride gives him good balance, it seems to hurt his acceleration which is also only good but definitely not great…overall skating and mobility will need to be taken up a notch or two to make a successful jump to the next level…possesses extremely soft hands with the ability to corral very tough passes on a regular basis…is a very good stickhandler with a large bag of tricks at his disposal to beat players on 1-on-1 plays both in the neutral zone and off the cycle…also has an extremely good shot…has a very quick release…
knows how to find soft spots offensively and how to get into proper shooting position quickly for bang-bang chances, making him even more dangerous off the cycle…one-timer is a major threat on the PP while also being dangerous if he can find open space in the offensive zone at even strength…I did question his vision at times during my viewings of him…seemed to have some tunnel vision from time to time, failing to notice players who were wide open in scoring areas…also tended to try and be a bit too fancy at times when trying to make plays…could stand to be a bit more north-south at times and go to the net with a bit more regularity…away from the puck he’s smart positionally on the forecheck…also showed some good hustle with regularity on the backcheck…has some good footwork defensively and does a pretty good job interrupting passing and shooting lanes with his stick, making up for his slight lack of speed and mobility…has a decent level of physicality and compete on the defensive side of the puck, even though he projects far more as an offensive player going forward…has a bit of chippiness to his game but I wouldn’t call him a mean or overly aggressive player…he spent the last part of the year in the middle of Brayden Burke and Tyler Wong and their line was one of the hottest in the WHL due to their fantastic chemistry with each other…along with spending the majority of the year as their #1 centre Estephan was also their main powerplay threat and also saw time as a penalty killer…the coaching change partway through the year seemed to lift major weight off his shoulders as my viewings of him in the second half were night and day compared to the first half…
this year he more than doubled his point totals from 2013-14 where he put up 24 points in 64 games as a rookie on a very bad Hurricanes club…his offensive progression this year regarding actual production was staggering as the year wore on…he put up only 0.47 points-per-game in the first half of the year, more than doubling that to 1.09 from January 1st through the end of the year…that was an increase of over 130%, one of the highest such marks of any draft-eligible WHL skater…his 23 goals during the regular season was good T-5th best among first-year draft-eligible WHL forwards while he finished 9th in points and PPG among that group…scored 12.57% of all Hurricanes goals this season, the 4th highest such mark of any first-year draft-eligible WHL forward…either scored or assisted on 27.32% of all Lethbridge goals this year, good for 7th best among all first-year draft-eligible WHL forwards…was recognized by the Hurricanes this season for his perseverance, dedication and sportsmanship…he was picked 4th overall by the Hurricanes in the 2012 WHL Bantam Draft…overall I see Estephan as a talented kid who is trending in the right direction…despite having some concerns with his skating and pure hockey sense, there is no doubt that he has the skill to project as a top 9 forward at the NHL level if his development goes well…for me, his somewhat bizarre choices with the puck at times and skating issues (albeit fixable) hold me back from ranking him much higher than a 5th rounder…ultimately I expect we’ll see him come off the board in or around the 6th round of the 2015 NHL Draft…