Photo Credit: Marissa Baecker / Kelowna Rockets
Scouting Report written by Josh Tessler
Trevor Wong is a 2021 NHL Draft eligible prospect, who hails from Vancouver, British Columbia.
Wong played youth hockey for the Burnaby Winter Club and played alongside Florida Panthers prospect Justin Sourdif, Vincent Iorio (2021 eligible prospect) and Caedan Bankier (2021 eligible prospect) during his time with Burnaby.
Following his time with the Burnaby Winter Club, he played varsity hockey for St. George’s School U15 club (a prep school in the Vancouver area) and the Greater Vancouver Canadians U18 AAA club. Prior to his season with Greater Vancouver Canadians U18 AAA club, he was selected 18th overall in the 2018 Western Hockey League (WHL) Bantam Draft by the Kelowna Rockets. Once the 2018-2019 Greater Vancouver Canadians U18 AAA season ended, he made his WHL debut and joined Kelowna for four games.
This past season, Wong played in 16 games with the Rockets. It was a shortened season due to COVID-19, but Wong still managed to make the best out of it. He was a point-per-game player and tallied six goals and ten assists.
During his time with Kelowna, he has been coached by a few former NHLers. Former Colorado Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote (who previously served as head coach) and former Dallas Stars forward Vernon Fiddler (currently an assistant coach for Kelowna) have been part of the coaching staff during Wong’s time with the Rockets.
Player Profile
D.O.B – May 4, 2003
Nationality – Canada
Draft Eligibility – 2021
Height –5’8
Weight –154 lbs
Position – Center
Handedness – Left
Wong’s Style Of Play
Offense
Almost every shift, Wong skates hard to the slot to provide a passing lane to his teammates in high danger. If he brings a defender with him, he’ll extend his shoulder out towards the defender to try to push him off. When in the slot, he reacts extremely well to puck movement and constantly looks to give his teammates an open man in the slot. Yet, he won’t just look to create passing opportunities in the slot. If his teammate is tied up in a puck battle behind the red line, he will come towards the teammate and offer a passing option down low.
Wong will face difficulty with shooting off the rush. His snap shot won’t have enough weight transfer and he will miss the net wide. In general, Wong struggles with accuracy from long-range and tends to be stronger at putting pucks in the back of the net when down low at net-front.
But, he prefers to pass versus shoot from further out. So, he will instead look to complete excellent lateral cross-ice feeds from half-wall to half-wall. Wong does an excellent job of firing crisp and accurate cross-ice seam passes.
Wong struggles with acceleration on the forecheck. He slows down on the forecheck and that allows the puck carrier to identify a way to beat him before Wong reaches him. Wong will looks to go in for a bodycheck along the boards to gain possession, but is too slow and misses connecting with the attacker completely. For the most part when on the forecheck, he typically will look to use an active stick on the forecheck, especially when he doesn’t have the acceleration needed to get to the puck in time. He also will do the same when looking to net a loose puck.
Speaking of loose pucks, I’d like to see him add to his upper body strength to allow to him to be more of a pest in loose puck battles. When he goes in for a loose puck, he struggles to assert enough pressure to gain possession of the puck.
When stuck in traffic in the offensive zone, he will complete behind the back light tap passes from the perimeter to his defenseman at the point. Yet, there are moments, in which he needs to be more cautious when looking to fend off the back-check and completing a pass behind his back with the puck extended further out. Should look to improve his stick-handling or use pivots instead as passing behind the back with the attack glued to you can be extremely dangerous.
If he bobbles a puck upon picking it up in the offensive zone and he’s along the half-wall, he’ll skate to the corner, bring the attacker with him and then pass to the point, clearing the attackers from playing his defensemen at the point.
Defense
In the defensive zone, he will drop back for his pinching defenseman who is out of position. Wong will utilize an active stick to shut down the rush. If his opponent tries to position the puck left, Wong will use his stick-blade to put pressure on the opponents stick-blade and that allows Wong to create a turnover in possession. At the point, he does an excellent job of using his active stick and causing turnovers on defenders, who tend to be slightly weaker with their puck security.
In terms of positioning, Wong will defend the slot and try to keep the attack away from high danger by standing at the face-off hash marks. Wong patrols the slot and looks to take away passing lanes. That has led to interceptions and breakouts.
Speaking of breakouts, Wong will look to complete bounce passes off the boards to a teammate when there is an attacker in between Wong and his teammate and not other clear passing option.
He won’t often go into puck battles along the defensive half-walls. Instead, he opts to stand outside for insurance and offer a passing lane. While he won’t go into puck battles along the half-wall, he will engage in loose puck battles down low behind his goaltender. But, if there are already quite a few teammates down low, he will drop low in the slot and provide a breakout pass lane.
Occasionally, he will struggle with spacial awareness. Wong will hold his stick out in front of him and try to force his attackers play in low danger along the boards, but he gives them a lot of time and space. But, then there are situations in which he will position himself in front of the puck carrier in low danger and takes away space to keep the attacker in low danger.
Skating
Wong deploys quality ankle flexion. When looking to garner appropriate speed especially in transition, he will complete two lengthier skate extensions and then he shortens up his extensions when he’s garnered enough speed. In addition, he will deploy quality crossovers to help facilitate the necessary acceleration. His crossovers allows him to generate speed when he uses multiple crossovers before using lengthier skate extensions. Wong will also deploy quality lateral crossovers when shifting from backwards skating to forwards skating when reacting to changes in puck possession in the neutral zone. While he does possess the ability to garner quality speed when skating up and down the ice, he will struggle at generating necessary speed to react to puck movement on the forecheck.
While he has a quality stride and crossovers, he will face challenges with his edges and ability to stop. When he looks to complete a hockey stop, he will widens his skates too far out as if he was making a split. That often occurs when trying to grab a hold of a pass that went too far wide. In situations where he deploys inside edges, he will struggle with balance and opts to put his left glove on the ice while completing the turn to keep himself stable. While trying to fend off the back-check in low danger, he will have stability issues when deploying inside edges. Ultimately, he needs to work on hockey stops and improving his mobility.
Transitional Play
Similar to his play in the defensive zone, he will covers for his defenseman, who is in the middle of a line change, drops back for him at the defensive blue-line.
Wong will look to use an active stick in transition when looking to stop the rush from driving into his zone, but it often doesn’t lead to a turnover and enough pressure as he doesn’t have a ton of speed when countering puck movement.
When there are puck battles along the boards, he doesn’t tend to draw in and assert pressure. Instead, he will hang back and offer a passing lane.
When moving up the ice, he thrives in transition when going zone to zone. Wong will use a lot of upper body strength to extend the puck out and cut in front of his opponent who is asserting pressure on him in the neutral zone, manages to cut through pressure and drive from zone to zone. He will sometimes look to use the boards when driving through the neutral zone zone-to-zone and looking to avoid a confrontation with an attacker. Instead of a confrontation, he will pass the puck off the boards to himself.
Projection
Third Line Center (NHL).
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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