Courtesy Draftin Europe
Strengths
Hamara is a defenseman that can recognize the available time and space to handle the puck. That, paired with decent puck skills and good puck protection allow him to remain poised under pressure and to be reliable when he has to deal with forecheckers. In fact, despite not being the quickest skater, Hamara is able to generate controlled zone exits for his team on nearly regular basis. Using deceptive moves and body fakes, he can take advantage of the split second the opponent gets confused in. When skating the puck himself is not a viable option, Hamara offers a precise passing ability, which combined with his vision allows him to make sound breakout passes. In fact, he reacts quickly to the situation and if a chance arises, he doesn't hesitate to send an eye-seeing pass through the whole ice. He is an overall smart player, when he isn't faster than the opponent he doesn't force the play and curls back instead, looking for a better play. Hamara plays a competent game at both ends of the ice. He can contribute during puck possession beyond his own zone as well. While not a dynamic presence on the powerplay, he uses some deception to be effective at moving the puck to teammates that are more threatening shooters than he is. Be it in the defensive zone or offensive zone, he doesn't force fancy stuff and when he needs to, is content with making the simplest of plays, as long as it's the right one.
Weaknesses
Hamara doesn't have the size nor mean streak to be a physically intimidating defenseman, and frankly with his style of play he doesn't even need that to make an impact. He could however be more aggressive, especially when along the boards. He doesn't go full force and battle, which doesn't need to be a negative as long as he does his job defensively, but for a defenseman the ability of wearing down his opponents is always handy and Hamara lacks in that regard. Despite his skill and deceptive moves, we question whether Tomas has enough speed in his game to be as effective going forward, when moving to tougher leagues. His impact this past season was not nearly as big as it was two seasons ago, usually not being able to outskate the opponent and having to curl back and make a simple play rather than skating the puck out himself. It’s like his competition has caught up to him and he doesn’t have an edge in skating anymore. His sound puck handling skills haven't improved further either, and while he is still a decent stickhandler, he no longer seems able to make a difference through that, although that may be a side-effect of his lack of separation speed. Tomas has shown solid ability to quarterback a power play, however in order to be even more dangerous from the point and to be a legitimate option for that position in the future, he needs to improve his shot. The power behind it in particular. Also needs to develop a better one-timer ability, which goes a long way on the man advantage.
