Photo Credit – Rena Laverty
Ian Moore is a 2020 NHL Draft eligible defensive prospect and he hails from Concord, Massachusetts (between Boston and Framingham). He grew up in a hockey family as his father, Michael Moore coaches a local youth hockey team, the Minutemen Flames and his brother, Nolan Moore is a defenseman for the NCDC’s Boston Jr. Bruins.
Over the course of the last few seasons, Moore has played for St. Mark’s School (a preparatory school in Southborough, Massachusetts), the Boston Little Bruins 18U AAA (EHF 18U Elite) and the Boston Jr. Bruins (NCDC). In addition, he suited up for the USNTDP in a game against Lake Superior State University earlier this year.
During his time at St. Mark’s, he has been coached by former NHLer (Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks) and Framingham, Massachusetts native Carl Corazzini. Throughout Corazzini’s time at St. Mark’s, he has coached Henry Thrun (Anaheim Ducks prospect, Harvard University/Dubuque Fighting Saints), Sean Farrell (2020 NHL Draft eligible prospect, Chicago Steel/Harvard) and Moore. Like Farrell and Thrun, Moore will be headed to Harvard Yard down the road. Per Elite Prospects, Moore is committed to joining Harvard University for the 2021-2022 season. Before he suits up for the Crimson, Moore will spend the 2020-2021 season playing for the USHL’s Chicago Steel.
This past season, he played ten games for the Boston Little Bruins 18U AAA, in which he recorded six goals and five assists. In addition, he suited up in two games for the Boston Jr. Bruins and one game for the USNTDP, but he was kept off the scoresheet in all three games. But, Moore spent the most amount of his ice time with St. Mark’s and mustered up 12 goals and 34 assists in 28 games played.
Player Profile
D.O.B – January 4, 2002
Nationality – USA
Draft Eligibility – 2020
Height –6’3
Weight –165 lbs
Position – Defense
Handedness – Right
Moore’s Style Of Play
When you watch game tape of Ian Moore, you quickly notice how strong he is at eliminating open lanes, limiting the amount of ice that his attacker has at his disposal and creating a barrier to prevent a rush, shot or a pass. Moore thrives when deploying man-on-man preventive defense. His man-on-man prevent echoes what several NFL cornerbacks use when defending against a wide receiver. With Moore following his forward like a cornerback, he reduces the probability of an opponent skating up the right side of the ice and delivering a pass to the left (the winger that Moore was following).
Aside from preventative defense, Moore does a good job at silencing the rush. Depending on the shift and the situation at hand, Moore can and will step up in the neutral zone and neutralize an attacker’s breakout. Moore will step into a shut down role and act as a barrier at center ice. His opponent has no choice but to double back.
While Moore’s gap control at the point of entry is a bit loose, his placement/positioning pushes the attacker to the left side of the ice. By pushing his attacker to the left, Moore provides not much room for comfort for the attacker as the attacker loses space because of how close he is to the boards. At that point, Moore tries to pokecheck and shut down the attack. The attacker fails to hold onto the puck and Moore is able to secure the loose puck.
Let’s move to Moore’s skating. From a fundamental perspective, I don’t see many issues with Moore’s stride. His extension and skate placement are right where you want them to be. The foot extension is not too long and is not too short. From a feet placement perspective, the feet are not too wide apart even when gliding. The one thing that Moore needs to work on is his acceleration. Moore needs to work on deploying crossovers to push him faster up the ice. Moore does not use crossovers as his driver. Instead, he tries to complete multiple extensions with his left foot to help push him into gear. Without deploying crossovers, he becomes slower in transition. But, when you watch Moore, it is evident that he knows that speed and acceleration is a weakness, so he opts to make a breakout pass instead of controlling the puck from zone to zone.
In the offensive zone, Moore’s passing is efficient and crisp. I don’t see any issues with Moore’s ability to fire precise tape-to-tape feeds. But, I would like to see Moore become quicker with his release. There is offensive upside with Moore and there is potential for him to be an asset on the power play, but the distribution needs to be quicker. Also, in order for Moore to be dominant on the power play, lateral movements will need to be paramount and crossovers are a big part of lateral movement. If Moore can work on crossovers, his lateral movement will allow him to move along the blue line at a quick pace and fire passes to his wings on the power play.
Let’s move to his shot. Moore’s shot could use a bit of fine tuning and I’m confident in the Chicago Steel and their ability to help with the refinement.
In the clip (from Brandon Holmes – @BHolmes_Hockey), we see Moore fire a one-timer shot for a goal in a prep school game. Moore’s right skate extension on the one-timer gives him all the power that he needs to ensure that he is delivering a quick feed to the net. I’m quite content with Moore’s shot in this situation. The balance issue that you will see towards the tale end of the clip has nothing to do with the shot itself. It has more to do with Moore completing his extension than anything.
Before I go on, I want to quickly point out that Moore did not have any issues when shooting from the perimeter, but when you see Moore shoot from further out, we start seeing some areas for improvement. That is normal for any player. Your range tends to get worse when you go further out. Moore’s accuracy can be shaky, especially when he is a winger right in front of him. In those situations, when Moore is at the point and facing tight pressure. He seems to be more off-target when an attacker is glued to him and his shot goes wide right. While it is harder to fire a shot with an attacker in front of you, as a defenseman, it is normal/on-par for defensemen to face wingers who are blocking their sight lines.
While his shot is goes wide of the net, his stick blade is consistently open (versus closed). What that means is that he has better control of where the puck is going and he can control whether the shot will have height or not.
If Moore can refine his shot, his offensive upside will keep growing. But, what I really like about Moore is his defensive play. As we touched on earlier, Moore does not give you room to attack his net. He will opt to become a barrier in the neutral zone or push you to the boards in order to restrict your movement on the rush. That is his calling card. Plus, don’t forget that he loves to play man-on-man defense and shut down open lanes.
Comparison
Mike Weaver, RHD, Retired (Atlanta Thrashers, Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Montréal Canadiens and Florida Panthers)
While Mike Weaver is a bit shorter than Ian Moore, Weaver was a pesky defenseman who was able to shut down some of the games’ best offensive producers like Alexander Ovechkin. Weaver’s gap control and has ability to shut down the rush reminds me quite a bit of Moore.
stats from InStat 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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