Intangir
Registered User
The main concerns offensively are : suspect play selection with the puck which leads to many non-optimal or unsafe plays, passing up grade-A playmaking opportunities for low-chance shots regularly, puck-hogging at times (most notably at the Ivan-Hlinka a couple years ago), and badly-timed puck carries which lead to turnovers or loss of possession. His passing itself is also a question mark as the passes leaving his stick can be erratic, oddly-timed, and often come either too strong on a teammate's stick for him to handle comfortably or too slow and get picked off. Broberg also lacks elite skill offensively which would negate a lot of those perceived faults to his game; his stick-handling is deft but he's no Datsyuk.
The best thing about his game in the offensive zone right now, aside from his ++ skating of course, is his heavy shot combined with a pretty good release. Those attributes ensure that Broberg will be able to score some goals in the NHL.
Defensively it is the same story. Broberg exhibits similarly unimpressive IQ at times that make you wonder if he's not hiding most of his flaws with his excellent skating and excellent set of tools ala Jeff Petry early on in his career. Most of the time he will play a solid defensive game, be hard to beat on 2-on-1s, with great gap control, but then he'll make a bonehead play that gets you cringing, like doubling coverage on an oncoming forward (and letting somebody open), getting caught puck-watching, trying too hard to block the passing lanes with his stick and incidentally losing coverage of a forward near his goaltender, or just position himself badly. Those instances happen too consistently in Broberg's game for me to just brush them off as the mistakes made by a young D that's still a bit raw.
I mean, the good outweighs the bad handily with Broberg, and he is extremely safe as a prospect because of his tools and great skating, but I argue that his hockey IQ isn't where it needs to be if he wants to be a dominant defenseman in the NHL, which is why I think he probably ends up being a #3-4 defenseman if he reaches his full potential instead of the top-pairing guy many people seem to see in him. Of all the defensemen in the league, he reminds me the most of Jeff Petry stylistically, but I think he has obviously better tools and a slightly lesser hockey brain.
Anyways, that's how I see Philip Broberg as a player. In a couple years we'll see if I was right or wrong, as I often am. If that's the case I'll happily eat crow.
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