Photo Credit: Terry Wilson/OHL Images, Aaron Bell/CHL Images
Jack Quinn grew up just outside of Ottawa, Ontario/Gatineau, Quebec in the town of Cobden, Ontario. Quinn played bantam hockey with the Upper OV Aces and bantam/midget hockey with the Kanata Lasers. During his stint with the Kanata Lasers, he played with Ottawa 67’s head coach André Tourigny’s sons, Félix and Jean-Philippe.
With the #39th pick in the 2017 OHL Priority Selection Draft, the 67’s selected Quinn. The 67’s also took Graeme Clarke (New Jersey Devils prospect) in the same draft. While Quinn and Clarke are both dominant offensive producers, the 67’s also brought in Marco Rossi to town in the 2018 CHL Import Draft. In addition, the 67’s added Kevin Bahl (New Jersey Devils prospect), Mitchell Hoelscher (New Jersey Devils prospect) and Nikita Okhotyuk (New Jersey Devils prospect). With this excellent core of talent, the 67’s were unstoppable this past season, but their season came to a close earlier than expected because of COVID-19.
Before I go on and look at Quinn’s stats from this past season, I just want to note that there is a connection between the New Jersey Devils and the Ottawa 67’s. Earlier this year, I wrote a post for DobberProspects on the subject and mentioned that it is plausible that the Devils scoop up Rossi and/or Quinn. The Devils have three first rounders (they have Vancouver’s first rounder and Arizona’s first rounder).
But, let’s go back to Quinn. This past season, Quinn managed to score 52 goals. His goal totals were the second highest in the OHL and he was only four goals short of being the leading goal scorer. Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Nick Robertson (who made his NHL debut during the qualifiers) had tallied three more goals than Quinn. Oddly enough, Robertson was one of the youngest players that was taken in the 2019 NHL Draft and Quinn is one of the oldest players in the 2020 NHL Draft. Quinn was born eight days later than Robertson and if he was born prior to September 15th, he would have been eligible for the 2019 NHL Draft.
While Quinn managed to light up the lamp quite a bit this season, he also tallied 37 assists in 62 games. Given how dominant Quinn is when passing in the slot, there is potential for Quinn to surpass his 37 assist total in 2020-2021. My expectation is that Quinn will post a 50 goal/45 assist season in 2020-2021 and become more well-balanced.
Player Profile
D.O.B – September 19, 2001
Nationality – Canada
Draft Eligibility – 2020
Height –5’11
Weight –176 lbs
Position – Right Wing
Handedness – Right
Quinn’s Style Of Play
When you flip on an Ottawa 67’s game and look for Jack Quinn, at times you might believe that Quinn is running instead of completing a proper extension, but he is executing a proper extension and he is just completing his extension a lot faster than most. It’s deceptive, but when you slow down the game tape, you notice the quickness of his stride.
In the defensive zone, Quinn loves the slot. He patrols the slot extremely well. At times, he will hover back and forth along the slot similar to defensive style of Alexander Holtz as Quinn attempts to shut down the lane and ensure that his opposition can not complete cross ice passes or centered passes. When Quinn sees an attacked entering the zone and choosing the skate through the slot, he deploys cornerback-like man-on-man defense to shut down the attacker and give him no room to collect a pass.
Not only does his positioning in the slot allow him to limit scoring chances by taking away ice, but Quinn’s defensive slot fundamentals pave the way for interceptions. As I mentioned earlier, by patrolling the slot, he is able to shut down cross ice and centered passing. Quinn is manages to pull off quality interceptions and silence the cycle.
When it comes to transitional play, Quinn is not known for his puck movement. But, it is certainly worth talking about. Will Scouch of Scouching.ca has done a ton of tracking on Quinn and has come up with the following numbers on the 2020 eligible prospect.
1.78 BL2BL (measured in seconds) – Blueline To Blueline Time
64.95 OCZT% – Offensive Controlled Zone Transition Percentage
54.29 DCZT% – Defensive Controlled Zone Transition Percentage
This data is a tad challenging to read unless you have some comparables to go along with it, so let’s look at how he measures up against other 2020 NHL Draft eligible prospect. When looking at BL2BL, Quinn is faster in transition than Alexis Lafrenière, Marat Khusnutdinov, Justin Sourdif, Jake Neighbours and Ozzy Wiesblatt. But, there are a large number of prospects who are faster than Quinn including Roby Järventie, Marco Rossi, Seth Jarvis, Jean-Luc Foudy, John-Jason Peterka and Alexander Pashin.
When you compare Quinn’s OCZT% to his DCZT%, you will notice that he is strong at maintaining control when crossing the offensive blueline, but he is allowing quite a bit of control defensive transitions. There are a few 2020 NHL Draft eligible prospects like Daniel Torgersson, Noel Gunler and Kasper Simontaival who are in a similar boat. But, there are quite a few prospects who are a bit more well-balanced.
Aside from the transition data, one of the things that I noticed about Quinn that I love is how he utilizes the boards when in transition. Quinn’s ability to quickly read his opposition and find the small gap to push the puck to the wall in order to out-work his attacker is just smaht (smart for you non-New Englanders). It reminds me quite a bit of Seth Jarvis and how Jarvis will also use the boards as a security blanket when controlling the puck.
Quinn’s passing game is an interesting one to dissect. When you look at his passing completion percentage of 65.93% (Scouching.ca data), you might raise your eyebrows. But, before you do, you need to realize that Quinn loves to complete dangerous passes down low. In fact, per Will Scouch, Quinn owns a dangerous passing per 60 of 21.93 passes. Quinn might not have the highest dangerous passing per 60 (per Scouch’s data), but he is quite close. Thomas Bordeleau and Jean-Luc Foudy have slightly higher numbers. So, do not write off Quinn because of his passing completion percentage. When you are passing in danger, you are susceptible to incomplete passing. Plus, Quinn is quite strong at dangerous passing. He does an excellent job threading the needle when he is in the mid-slot and doorstep. Quinn’s release is rather light. He does not put too much force on it. It’s one swift motion.
Quinn’s shot is also quite good. He lives and breathes on his snap shot. It is his lifeline. His leg extension is timed perfectly and his stick blade is open. When Quinn leaves his stick blade open, he can pretty much dictate where he wants the puck to go versus when the blade is closed. Quinn can pick corners quite well with his shot and it does not seem to matter when he is in the offensive zone. His fluid shot and ability to beat net-minders by going top shelf is quite effective in the slot or beyond the perimeter.
With that being said, there are some concerns with his shot. Sometimes, he will deploy a wider glide when shooting the puck. It could be that Quinn forgets to extend his leg when completing a snap shot and if that is the case then it can be easily addressed. But, when your skates are wide apart, it’s a challenge to get the puck where you want it to go. If it’s hard to visualize what I’m saying then the easiest way to think about it (golf example) is taking your driver and spreading your feet far apart at the tee. At that point, try to complete a swing. Your golf ball won’t get very far. It won’t touch the green when your feet are that far apart. Similar situation in hockey. Your feet need to be a bit tighter, otherwise you lose control of your power and shot direction.
The other thing that I noticed about Quinn is that sometimes he struggles to get away from tight pressure. When he is facing tight pressure along the boards, sometimes he gets trapped and has nowhere to go. Quinn needs to work on fending off his attacker and using quick pivots to draw them off. Without working on deploying pivots, he will get sandwiched in the NHL and will struggle at working the cycle.
While there are some things that need to be addressed, Quinn has proven to be a highly effective goal scorer and a robust playmaker. The sky is the limit with Quinn.
Comparison
David Pastrnak, Right Wing, Boston Bruins
Like Pastrnak, Quinn is a dynamic goal scorer and can light the lamp from all over the offensive zone. Pastrnak also does a fantastic job deploying man-on-man defense, which we touched on earlier in the report. While it is hard to predict that Quinn will be one of the league’s most prolific scorers, it could happen. Don’t count out Quinn.
stats from Scouching.ca and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.
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