Watched him all season and he has potential to be a horse. Big solid athlete who never played high level till late in his teens. Has very good individual skill. Can stick handle in traffic, has accurate, heavy shot, uses body well to shield the puck and is a strong skater. Needs to improve pivot as sometimes can over-rotate and lose balance. But overall has no trouble getting into the play and can use speed to break around the defense. However, would not call him a smooth skater.
Optimally you could see him being a Ryan Getlaff type player. That would be my comparison although there I realize that's an extremely hopefully one and MacEwen has along way to go before anything like that becomes a reality. Thing is that they are both real athletes who would have been good in many sports but who happened to end up playing hockey.
Would say that he sometimes lacks defensive awareness and tends to jump to the offense too quickly. Yet he is good on the PK and decent along the boards in his own end.
As I have said in other threads I do think MacEwen does create a bit of dilemma for the Canucks. Probably his best position is near a top line center (and I know he has only been use here in a limited way by the Comets). Keeps him in the middle of the ice where he does his best work and allows him to ramble around and make use of his offensive and overall coverage skills he has. Kind of like "letting the big dog run" - just let his athleticism have some free range. And MacEwen does have the skill and vision to make plays on the move justifying taking this approach. However, there are still glitches in his play and you wonder if he might start making dangerous turnovers and have defensive issues if you allow him to play this way.
The other approach - trying to turn him into some sort responsible 3rd winger who sticks to certain patterns (like they are trying to do with Virtanen) might be the way to go but you wonder if this is really his game. Indeed, this approach might negate the best aspects of MacEwen game. When this was tried in Utica, it didn't really work.
The big fear I have is that Green will try to button hole him into some disciplined wing role which he might not succeed in. If he doesn't then they might never give him the chance to see his true upside.
My other big fear is that Canuck management may be tempted to move MacEwen for some short term rental or such to get into the playoffs. It's terrible that you have such mistrust in the management group but their moves in the past and their over-riding concern with making the playoffs make such worries unavoidable - especially seeing he was brought up so near the TD.
My hope is that they give MacEwen some time rather than burying him in the press box and at least consider the possibility that he could be a good offensive player at NHL level (at present I think he would be better than Goldobin). There is something here and hopefully the team gives MacEwen the time to show what his potential is.