Scouting Report: Ivan Miroshnichenko

Photo Credit: Avangard Omsk

Scouting Report written by Josh Tessler

Ivan Miroshnichenko is a top 2022 NHL Draft prospect and hails from Ussuriysk, Russia. Ussuriysk is located in Siberia and isn’t far from both the Chinese/Russian border and is due north of Vladivostok. While he was born in Siberia, he moved west towards Moscow as a youth and played youth hockey in the Buran Voronezh organization. Following his time with Buran Voronezh, he played U16, U17 and U18 hockey with Vityaz Podolsk. After a few seasons with Vityaz Podolsk, he joined the Avangard Omsk system (based in Omsk, Russia). Per Sport24.ru, in November of 2020, Avangard Omsk purchased Miroshnichenko’s rights from Vityaz Podolsk for ₽700,000 rubles ($9,500 USD).

In his 2020-2021 campaign, Miroshnichenko spent his time playing in the MHL with Avangard Omsk’s affiliate, Omskie Yastreby. In 20 games played, he recorded five goals and 10 assists. He also suited up for Russia at the U18s in Northern Texas (Plano, Texas and Frisco, Texas). Miroshnichenko was a key contributor for the Russians as he tallied six goals and two assists in seven games played.

While Miroshnichenko did play for Russia at the U18s, no one was positive on whether he’d play until the last minute. This had nothing to do with injury. Instead, it had to do with the US Border Protection Agency. The US government reversed course and approved Miroshnichenko for entry prior to the tournament. But, it wasn’t the first time that Miroshnichenko had been denied entry into the United States. In late April of 2020, Miroshnichenko had signed a tender agreement with the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks but was unable to get a visa to enter the United States. The United States isn’t the only country that Miroshnichenko has had issues entering. Previously, he had also been denied entry into Canada. Neither the American government nor the Canadian government has explained why Miroshnichenko had been denied multiple times. 

This season, he has spent the majority of his time playing at the VHL level and was named to the Russian Preliminary World Juniors roster. 

Player Profile

D.O.B – February 4, 2004
Nationality – Russia
Draft Eligibility – 2022
Height –6’1
Weight –185 lbs
Position – Left Wing
Handedness – Right

Miroshnichenko’s Style Of Play

Offense

Miroshnichenko is very well-rounded when it comes to his shooting selection. He will score rebound goals, wrist shot goals from the perimeter and one-timers from distance. When scoring a rebound goal, sometimes he will take additional time to get himself more centered to the crease before a shot attempt in order to have a better chance of scoring.

From the perimeter, he will score top shelf wrist shot goals and will look to go blocker side. Since he is normally skating up the left side of the ice, he will look to go blocker side on most goaltenders (assuming that he is a facing a left handed goaltender or a right handed goaltender who gloves with his left hand). If he is looking to complete a one-timer, he will look to establish ice near net-front and go down on one knee to generate power for his shot. 

While he has had success with his shot, there is still more development that needs to be done. He will struggle to get good direction on his wrist shot in medium danger. Miroshnichenko needs to work on where he lines his feet up when firing a shot. Off of a t-stop, he turns his feet towards the corner when looking to take a shot in high danger and the shot went to the corner, not on net. When it comes to height, Miroshnichenko can get the puck to the chest, glove and blocker but can’t hit the corner of the net. Miroshnichenko needs to work on shooting up towards the bar. He will struggle to net the top corners.

When it comes to stick-handling, he will struggle with cradling the puck at net front to his backhand to get a quality shot off when all alone with the opposing net-minder. He struggles to swing the puck around defenders at open ice. If is he cradling the puck from side to side, he will struggle with puck security and looses possession a decent amount as he likes to control the puck towards the toe of his stick blade. His inconsistent puck security issues leads to a decent amount of bobbled pucks in the offensive zone when he is looking to drive the rush in the neutral zone and when shifting around an attacker at open ice. I would like to see Miroshnichenko work on playing the puck out slightly further out and shifting the puck away from the attack with the puck closer to the stick shaft and away from the toe of the blade. 

Miroshnichenko thrives with his passing and likes to generate a lot of dangerous passes. He’s proven that he can complete great seam pass in a tight lane to a teammate. If he grabs possession of the puck behind the net and notices that he has an attacker on him, Miroshnichenko still works on getting the puck to the slot but sometimes will take the long approach to getting the puck to the slot. He will carry the puck through the face-off circle and towards the boards and then completes a backhand pass to a teammate coming through along the boards and the teammate has more open ice as the attacker is not in position to fend off Miroshnichenko’s teammate. Instead the attacker is fixated on Miroshnichenko. But, there are plenty of instances in which he doesn’t have to take the longer approach and doesn’t have to do a lot of work to manipulate the attacker. I’ve seen Miroshnichenko skate behind the net and deliver a behind the back pass to a teammate in the low slot. He will look for tight passing lanes to the slot to exploit when dealing with a defender and looking to find a teammate in the slot. If he is working the cycle and an attacker starts applying pressure on him along the boards, he can pivot and pass around the backcheck. The one pass that he truly has an affinity fo is the backhand pass. He loves to try backhand passes to the slot and far more confident in his backhand feeds than his long range seam passing.

Miroshnichenko works hard to find open ice and passing lanes for his teammates to utilize. He will look to find open ice at the inner face-off hashmarks and key up one-timer passing lanes. Miroshnichenko likes to go to the slot/face-off circle and call for the puck with his stick.

I’d like to see him to work on upper body strength to push past defenders on the way to loose pucks in the offensive zone. Miroshnichenko needs to combat attackers with more aggressive play when going for loose pucks. While he needs to work on building up his upper body strength and using it to his advantage in loose puck battles, he still manages to net quite a bit of loose pucks in the offensive zone. He will skate hard for an unattended loose puck in the corner, skates back behind the opposition’s net and delivers a pass to his teammate in the low slot. Miroshnichenko will also look to quickly claim loose pucks and then fire a backhand feed towards the crease if he sees a teammate skating hard towards net-front.

On the forecheck, he won’t pounce on the puck carrier in an assertive fashion. Sometimes he’ll track the attacker, stay at a distance and wait for the attacker to make an error before Miroshnichenko attempts to secure the puck. He is waiting for the puck carrier to bobble the puck or make an ill-advised pass. 

Defense

When playing on the wing, he’ll look to skate at pace with the puck carrier even if the puck carrier is on the other side of the ice. He plays his man tight and looks to shut down lateral passing lanes so the carrier is stuck with the puck. In addition, he keeps excellent pace when opposing defenders pinch up and skate towards loose pucks along the half-wall. Miroshnichenko looks to maintain pace and trap him once the defender tries to claim possession.

When defending the perimeter, he will bend his knees and attempt a shot block on a shot from the point. In general, he does have good positioning when placing himself along the perimeter and watching over the blue line.

But, his defensive positioning isn’t always strong. Occasionally when the puck is along the half-wall, he’ll stand in the slot and let his defensemen handle the situation, despite being a left winger. When the puck goes past the perimeter then he asserts more pressure. But, then a few shifts later he’ll apply pressure in the corner. It’s a consistency issue for Miroshnichenko. 

In addition, he can be quite slow with puck tracking. Just seems to lose vision of the puck and that impacts his reactionary movements. It leads to the attack get around him with ease. 

Miroshnichenko likes to use active stick defending. He will extend his stick towards the puck carrier along the boards to try to strip the puck away and will look to manipulate puck movement with changing the direction of his stick blade. By changing the direction of his stick blade, he can force puck movement to go where he wants them to go.

When retrieving a puck, Miroshnichenko has excellent stick-handling reachability that allows him to extend out his stick to collect a zone exit pass that was coming slightly further away from his body. He has shown time and time again that he can rely on his wingspan to grab possession of a breakout pass that is slightly behind him.

When in control of the puck, he will opt to stare down an attacker at open ice and manipulate the attacker into zoning in on Miroshnichenko. The attacker doesn’t realize that Miroshnichenko has a teammate skating up the half-wall and Miroshnichenko fires a backhand lateral pass for a zone exit pass once.

Similar to his play in the offensive zone, Miroshnichenko loves to use his backhand, but he uses it generate zone exit passes. He will complete backhand lateral passes for a zone exit while on the rush and complete backhand drop passes right near the blue line.

Transitional Play

In the neutral zone, Miroshnichenko does a good job of establishing open ice at the blue-line to key up stretch passes for his defensemen in the defensive zone. He constantly looks to get open at the offensive zone blue-line and get a passing lane for his teammates to pass through to him.

What is interesting is that Miroshnichenko has shown that he can cradle the puck around attackers in the neutral zone with ease, but in the offensive zone, he is inconsistent with his ability to outmaneuver attackers. In the neutral zone, he has shown excellent cradling and extends his stick out to the right (if the attack is on his left side) as he shifts around traffic on his way to entering the offensive zone.

When skating after loose pucks, he will build up his speed with a few power stride extensions in the neutral zone and use it to burst into the offensive zone. As explained in the offensive section, he will constantly skate hard for those pucks, but it is in the neutral zone where he picks up the speed and garners the necessary acceleration. 

Similar to his play in the defensive zone, he marks his man and keeps good parallel pace with the attacking puck carrier who is on the rush in the neutral zone. While he does keep good pace, you will also notice that his reaction timing on puck movement can be slightly slow and it’s truly evident when he’s trying to track the puck carrying defenseman. 

I’d like to see him more hungry for the puck in the neutral zone. There are instances in which he comes off the bench and immediately was just nonchalantly standing in the neutral zone. He can be quite laid back with his defensive approach in the neutral zone. Either stands around or casually extends his stick blade out towards the attack when stationing himself along the defensive zone blue line. He likes to wait for the attack to come to him.

Skating

Miroshnichenko has good power stride extension length and darts after loose pucks with speed. He can generate quality acceleration on his skate extensions alone. His ankle flexion is in solid shape as well and you need solid ankle flexion if you intend to develop a strong power stride.

There are a couple of instances in which he had some difficulty with the skate extension recovery when completing a power stride extension, but managed to keep himself up right. It appeared as if he was losing stability and balance. He also has shown to have stability issues when using his inside edges while turning right. Miroshnichenko struggles to hold his balance with his left skate.

Even though there are instances in which he struggles to keep balance with his edge work, he has a tight turn radius with his edges. Miroshnichenko can stop on a dime and uses excellent edges to complete the stop.

Miroshnichenko will utilize solid crossovers that give him the necessary speed to stay level with his teammate who is carrying the puck into the offensive zone and further down towards the corners. He gets quality acceleration off of his crossovers and has a quality hop/jump before he implements crossovers to grab acceleration as he goes for loose pucks behind the red line. When he is in stride and spots a puck becoming loose, he’ll shift his hips and complete a crossover mid stride extensions to keep pace and turn on a dime. In general, when in control of the puck, he uses a lot of crossovers to keep his feet moving and can net great acceleration when skating up the ice with the puck.

While he does possess good speed, he doesn’t always show it. If he is standing up right, his reaction time can be a bit slow. Usually, you will notice his reaction time slowing him down when he is on the forecheck. When he is going after loose pucks, he will skate hard, but on the forecheck, his reaction time limits his ability to put quality pressure on the attack. 

Projection

The projection for Miroshnichenko might change throughout the season. But, at first glance, I believe you are looking at a second line forward. If he can work on his shot, he has the potential to be lethal at the NHL level. But, I truly believe that his shot will hold him back if further development does not occur.

Latest Update

December 6, 2021

stats from InStat and EliteProspects

Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.

Looking for other scouting reports? Check out the Prospects tab for our other scouting reports.

Need a scouting report on a particular prospect, contact us today!

Smaht Talk: Don’t Sleep On Mikey Milne

On Episode #5, Josh Tessler and Austin Brass of Smaht Scouting talk about Mikey Milne of the Winnipeg ICE, Calum Ritchie of the Oshawa Generals, USNTDP forward Jimmy Snuggerud, Brennan Ali of Avon Old Farms, Ty Nelson of the North Bay Battalion and other North American prospects. In addition, Josh is joined by Frölunda scout Tommy Enroth and they talk about Ludwig Persson, the 2022 NHL Draft talent on Djurgården and Frölunda and Detroit Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond.

If you would like to listen to this episode, you can find an embedded link from SoundCloud below. Our podcast can also be found on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Scouting Report: Danila Yurov

Photo Credit: Metallurg Magnitogorsk

Scouting Report written by Josh Tessler

Danila Yurov is a top prospect for the 2022 NHL Draft. He hails from Chelyabinsk, Russia and plays in the Metallurg Magnitogorsk system. 

He has played in the Metallurg system for the last several seasons (from 2018 onwards). In his 2020-2021 season, Yurov made his KHL debut and appeared in 21 games at the KHL level. He had split his time between the MHL and the KHL, but was far more productive on the scoresheet in the junior ranks (MHL). It’s been a similar situation this year. 

Not only has Yurov done well at the MHL level, but he has also performed well in international play as well. Yurov was a key contributor to Russia’s success at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championships. He posted four goals and seven assists in seven games.

Player Profile

D.O.B – December 22, 2003
Nationality – Russia
Draft Eligibility – 2022
Height –6’1″
Weight –179 lbs
Position – Right Wing
Handedness – Left

Yurov’s Style Of Play

Offense

When driving into the neutral zone, he will look to dump the puck, push off the defenders once entering into the offensive zone and chase after the puck.

Yurov will skate up the slot and looks to create openings for passing opportunities. He will present his stick blade out to indicate that he has identified a quality passing lane and that he is ready to receive possession of the puck. For the most part, Yurov loves to skate into the slot as he looks to key up scoring chances. When a forward takes his spot on the right side, he’ll skate up centered ice and crash the net looking for rebounds. 

Outside of the slot, Yurov still looks for ways to grab possession and move the puck to the slot. He will shift towards the half-wall when working on the wing to open up a lane for his teammate to exploit in the slot, then looks to complete a lateral feed from the half-wall to the slot to his teammate. 

As mentioned above, Yurov will look to complete passes to the slot, but his passes don’t always have a clear passing lane, instead he’ll look for trajectory passes (some scouts refer to this as zone passes, anticipation passes and/or route passes) and hope that once his teammate gets to the pass that he can out-deke the attack. While that comment might sound negative, it shouldn’t be taken as negative. Not every forward can be a quality trajectory passer. A trajectory passer means that a forward will identify a lane that he believes that a teammate will use and then attempts the pass. Yurov has proven how effective he can be with trajectory passing. He will complete trajectory passes to the slot when skating 2v2. One attacker will be on him and another attacker on his teammate. His teammate cuts through the middle and Yurov slings a pass to the slot to meet his teammate in time. 

If Yurov keeps possession of the puck and drives down the boards behind the red line, you will see him struggle with creating scoring chances. When wrapping around the net, he needs to be quicker in his decision-making, there are instances in which he had a man open in the slot, a good passing lane, but waited too long and ended up passing back to the point. 

Yurov needs to work on shot selection. Over the course of my viewings, I’ve noticed Yurov taking a decent amount of ill advised shots from the point. In addition, he also needs to work on transferring his weight when attempting a snap shot. Sometimes he just lacks the power behind his snap shot and quality weight transferring is critical to getting a lot of power on a snap shot. 

Yurov hasn’t found the back of the net that often so far this season. As of November 16th, he has recorded three goals in a total of 23 league games (combining KHL and MHL). He did score a one-timer goal against Omskye Yastreby on 9/24. But, Yurov had a lot of open ice and the attack failed to prevent Yurov from identifying an open passing lane. 

When dealing with pressure in the offensive zone, Yurov will struggle to outwork the back-check. Struggles to get around pressure at open ice and along the boards. Along the boards, he’ll get sandwiched in at the boards and fail to avoid turnovers in possession. At open ice, you will see him get pushed out of the slot by an opposing defender. He needs to develop upper body strength to push defenders off of him at net-front. When Yurov is rushing into the offensive zone, he will struggle to avoid disruption.  If he’s got an attacker on him, he doesn’t do a lot of to manipulate the attacker, buy space and cut to the net. That leads to quite a few non dangerous shots as Yurov can’t do much else with the puck but shoot.

There are instances in which Yurov can manage to shift around traffic. But, he is far from consistent in terms of out-witting/out-muscling the attack, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. When Yurov does manage to out-muscle the attack, he’ll turn, pivot and throw the pass along the boards down low to a teammate who is towards the corner. 

Not only does his inconsistency prohibit him from owning strong puck security, but it also hurts his ability to drive to the crease and generate high danger scoring chances. That is why in situations where he draws the attack and can’t find a gap for him to shift around, he will attempt to complete a trajectory pass as he knows that he’ll struggle to cradle the puck around the defender. If he has enough room then the sky is the limit but if the pressure is tight, Yurov will struggle to shift around.

On the forecheck, he will be physical, use an active stick and keep up speed with his opponents. Uses his upper body strength to force turnovers at open ice. In the corner, he will go to the boards for puck battles, he will go for the hug approach with the opponent’s back facing Yurov, pushes the attacker into the boards with his glove, grabs possession of the puck and passes it along the boards towards the blue line. Along the half-wall, he will stick-lift his opponents’ stick to cough up his opponents’ possession of the puck.

From a stick-handling perspective, Yurov does struggle to maintain possession of the puck when he pushes the puck too far away from his body. He has limited reach. He’ll either lose the puck or his puck security won’t appear to be air tight. He needs to build up upper body strength to allow him to play the puck further out and secure it.

Defense

Yurov will claim possession of loose pucks along the boards and immediately will look to deliver a lateral cross-ice zone exit pass. But, he tends to struggle to go after loose pucks with speed. I’d like to see him faster to loose pucks in the defensive zone along the half-wall to prevent close calls with attackers on the forecheck. 

To jumpstart a rush attempt, Yurov will drop down low to provide support to his defenders and give them an outlet pass option along the boards when his defenders are facing forecheck pressure. Once he has possession of the puck, he prefers to complete a zone exit pass instead of driving up the ice himself, but he does have sequence where he stands up and facilitates the transition from zone to zone.

When completing a zone exit pass, he tends to prefer tape-to-tape lateral zone exit passes before he hits the blue line. He will attempt to be rather deceptive with the puck and try a no-look pass from time to time. But, he needs to work on identifying attackers and his line-mates by using peripheral vision as a decent amount of his no-look passes end up in enemy hands.

He deploys good positioning in the slot when the puck is in the other corner or along the other half-wall. Yurov knows that he needs to cover the slot as his teammates who are engaged in the puck battle have left the slot a tad open for their attackers to exploit.

When the attack enters the zone, he’ll face the rush and stick to the defender or the winger and with his positioning he’ll force them to play up closer to the blue-line along the half-wall. When paying close attention to the winger in the corner, he’ll use an active stick to follow the winger’s stick blade and push into the winger’s shoulder to force the winger to lose possession of the puck. When skating towards a puck carrier at the point, he’ll extend his stick blade out in front of him to try to manipulate the puck carrier into moving the puck quickly. But, while that’s good, it’s almost as if he’s playing his cards far too early in advance. Should try to use his stick blade once he garners enough speed and get slightly closer to the puck carrier. Once at the puck carrier, I’d like Yurov to force him to the boards and lay down a hit. 

Transitional Play

When going zone-to-zone with the puck, he will carry the puck towards the middle of his stick blade to keep the puck secure, create a lateral pass to his right. Instead of being the F1, he will opt for his teammate to become the F1 and he will become the F2. Even in situations in which Yurov was facing really tight pressure, he still manages to complete a lateral pass while he was entering the neutral zone. It doesn’t matter if he has ton of room or a tight space, he can still complete a lateral feed. On occasion, if he runs into a tremendous amount of pressure at center ice, he will deploy a stop and pivot to throw off the defender and complete a lateral pass to a teammate who is keeping pace with him and isn’t being directly challenged.

When not driving the rush, he will look to position himself at the offensive zone blue line in the neutral zone and key up passing lanes for his defensemen. Upon entering the offensive zone, he’ll skate towards centered ice, play the puck to the left, draw an attacker in and then he’ll complete a lateral pass. 

In the below clip that my buddy, Cam Robinson of EP Rinkside posted, you will see Yurov finding a passing lane for himself at the offensive zone blue line in the neutral zone, capturing a pass and then make his way around the defender as he cuts to the net.

While he lacks the foot speed at times to defend the rush, if he can get sort of in range, he will extend his stick out and force ill-advised puck movement. As he does struggle at times on putting tight pressure on the rush, he will rely mostly on placement to force the puck carrier to utilize the boards in transition. Yurov will skate towards the puck carrier in the neutral zone when they are keeping pace with each other and try to put on pressure before his defensive zone blue-line to force the carrier to dump the puck. On occasion, he sometimes will skate parallel with the puck carrier on the rush, extend his stick blade out as the puck carrier rushes along the boards to try to eliminate passing lanes. If Yurov is skating behind the rush, he will extends his stick out in a last attempt, but usually he is still a bit too further back from the puck carrier to cause any disruption. 

When identifying a potential pass from the opposition’s defenders to their forwards, who are paying attention to the defender and aren’t looking at the Yurov or Yurov teammates, Yurov will put pressure on forward attackers on the boards and blindside them to force the attackers to cough up possession of the puck once they gained the puck off of a pass.

Skating

When deploying outsides edges as he looks to come to a stop along the boards behind his opponent’s net, he will on occasion blow a tire. But for the most part, he does deploy good edges and pivots. His footwork allows him to keep solid pace with the puck carrier in the offensive zone.  

If he is skating hard toward the red line in the offensive zone at full speed, he will look to deploy a pizza stop to pause himself. 

Yurov has good ankle flexion, gets into gear with a good hop, then implements crossovers and two stride extensions. Once he has completed his stride extensions, he will revert back to crossovers and relies on them quite heavily. Yurov used his crossovers well to steer himself. When on the rush, he will use right foot crossovers over his left foot to steer himself towards the left.  

While Yurov does a good job at using crossovers for acceleration, he sometimes will forget to deploy them when going after loose pucks or a puck battle. Off the hop, you might see Yurov go into a shortened stride instead of implementing crossovers and that hurts his ability to get the puck at a fast rate. 

Projection

If Yurov can work on his stick-handling, he will become a far more dominant offensive forward who can cut to the net with ease. The potential is there. He just needs to work on cradling the puck around attackers and honing in on his deceptive instincts to counteract his attackers’ defensive measures.

Latest Update

November 16, 2021

stats from InStat and EliteProspects

Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.

Looking for other scouting reports? Check out the Prospects tab for our other scouting reports.

Need a scouting report on a particular prospect, contact us today!

Smaht Talk: Goaltending Development and a North Dakota Update

On Episode #4, Josh Tessler talks to Arizona State University Goalie Coach and former NHL goaltender Eddie Lack about goaltender development. After the interview with Eddie, Josh is joined by Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald about the University of North Dakota program, Jake Sanderson, Tyler Kleven and more.

If you would like to listen to this episode, you can find an embedded link from SoundCloud below. Our podcast can also be found on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Scouting Report: Šimon Nemec

Photo Credit: Miroslav Slavik / HK Nitra

Scouting Report written by Josh Tessler

Šimon Nemec is a top prospect for the 2022 NHL Draft. Nemec was born in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia and played youth hockey for the local club, HK Liptovsky Mikulas. If you are unfamiliar with Slovakian geography, Liptovsky Mikulas is not far from the Polish/Slovak border (nearest Slovak border town is Trstená).

Nemec has been playing at the highest level in Slovakian hockey (Tipos Extraliga) since his 2019-2020 season. In his 2019-2020 season, he split his time between Tipos Extraliga, Slovak 2. Liga and Slovakia U20 hockey. After the conclusion of the season, in league play, he has solely played in Tipos Extraliga.

Nemec’s Canadian Hockey League (CHL) rights are owned by the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Eagles. He was selected fourth overall by Cape Breton in the 2021 CHL Import Draft. But, per Matej Deraj of McKeen’s Hockey, Nemec prefers to play his draft year season in Slovakia. In the below tweet, you will find a thread in which Deraj refers to an article from Sport.sk that states Nemec’s interest in staying in Slovakia for the 2021-2022 season.

Player Profile

D.O.B – February 15, 2004
Nationality – Slovakia
Draft Eligibility – 2022
Height –6’1″
Weight –192 lbs
Position – Defense
Handedness – Right

Nemec’s Style Of Play

Offense

When there are multiple teammates engaged in a puck battle on one half-wall and his defensive partner his pinched up, Nemec shifts behind the puck battle at the blue line incase the opposition grabs a hold of the puck and drives up the ice. If an attacker is facing the corner in his own zone and it seems that he is getting a pass, Nemec will draw in and put pressure on him. He will opt to blindside him and force a quick turnover in possession once the attacker nets the puck. He’s also shown the ability to dart after loose pucks on a dime when the puck is heading towards the neutral zone.

Occasionally, you will see Nemec pinch up a little too far in and that caused him to take longer to go back to the defensive zone when the attack gathered control of the puck and began to drive the rush out of the zone. That will leave his defensive partner in the lurch with a potential 2-on-1 or 3-on-1.

I question his judgement in puck movement at times. In general, you will see him struggle to out-work the back check, right off the zone entry on the rush he drives to the half-wall but gets swallowed by pressure. There are instances in which he will carry the puck into the offensive zone on the power play with two attackers on him. Instead of throwing the puck down the boards, he turned his back to them and realized he was stuck. So he skated back into the neutral zone and turned the puck over. Nemec should work on identifying potential pressure and finding a teammate in the neutral zone or just inside of the offensive zone to cause one of the attackers to break loose and shift towards Nemec’s teammate.

Not only does Nemec struggle to get around the backcheck, but he doesn’t have the stick-handling ability to shift around pressure with ease. He will attempt to wind-mill around an attacker along the boards, but will lose control of the puck when trying to complete the wind-mill. 

Nemec does struggle to trap possession of passes. He’ll be on the point on the power play and will be sent a pass from the half-wall to him. Nemec bobbles the puck immediately after receiving the pass. 

When you watch Nemec, you notice just how dominant he is on the offensive blue-line. Nemec does a good job of toeing the line on the power play. He completes soft swift passes when distributing the puck at 5v5 or on the power play. Nemec uses deception to his advantage when distributing the puck. He likes to be deceptive and use body language. You will notice him raise his stick like he’s appearing to try a one-timer at the blue-line, but instead he distributes a pass and fools the attack. When looking to pass to the slot from the point, he’ll try to be deceptive and make the attackers believe he is looking to complete a wrist shot instead. He will sell it by using a wrist shot wind up.

When taking shots from the point and the perimeter, he is slightly inconsistent. He will struggle with his accuracy to get shots on net from the perimeter. At the blue-line, you will see him attempt wrist shots, but they either go wide or hit the post. With that being said, he has found success with his one-timer on the power play this season.

Defense

Nemec deploys excellent gap control in the corners and in medium danger situations.  In my viewings, I noticed that he keeps good pace with the puck carrier behind his own net. Stays on him and doesn’t open up a gap as the puck carrier shifts from right to left along the boards. You’ll notice that he is quite physical in the corner, puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the attack and puts his stick blade to the puck to navigate the boards once asserted enough pressure. When asserting himself into puck battles, not only will he use his upper body strength, but he will also use his hips to swing towards the attacker to try to push him off the puck.

Looks to play prevent defense in the slot. If the puck carrier is in the corner but on the other side of the defensive zone, Nemec will go to the slot and look to take a way a passing lane. When manning the slot, Nemec deploys tight pressure at the slot and his stick blade will be perpendicular to the attacker to make the attacker believe that Nemec is looking to poke-check.

If a puck carrier is still at the perimeter or beyond, Nemec won’t focus solely on him. He will also focus on the attacker who is headed to the slot. Nemec looks to take away a passing lane and force the attacker to shoot from low danger. After a shot from the point and Nemec is in the slot, he’ll push a forward out of the slot to avoid them netting possession off of the rebound. 

Ideally, I’d like to see Nemec to be quicker with puck movement when facing the forecheck. There are many situations in which it takes him slightly too long to figure out what he wants to do with the puck. 

But, it’s not just that he needs to be quicker with his decision-making. Vision improvements are needed as well. When moving the puck up the ice and looking to create a zone exit pass, Nemec will pass behind his back without using peripheral vision to identify a teammate to pass to and that ultimately gives the puck away to an attacker in the neutral zone. The Slovakian defender will consistently struggle with identifying open teammates especially when skating up the boards and looking to pass behind himself. 

While he does have vision issues at times when looking to complete passes, he also needs to work on passing wind-up on lateral breakout passes to more-centered ice. Even though he can find challenges with lateral passing, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t an effective passer when looking to breakout. Nemec completes a lot of crisp tape to tape feeds for zone exit passes. Not only are they short tape to tape feeds, but he also has the ability to generate excellent swift delivered stretch passes to forwards in the neutral zone. While he can generate those elegant stretch passes, there are plenty of instances in which she struggles to connect on those. But, we will touch on that later on.

Similar to his puck movement struggles in the offensive zone, you will notice that Nemec will struggle to outwork the forecheck and gets pinned in at the boards. He will also struggle to net possession of a loose puck when along the boards and encountering tighter pressure.

When looking to complete defensive recoveries, he will display good stick-handling reach when picking up a loose puck in the defensive zone. He will use his reach to his advantage when vying with an attacker in a loose puck battle. 

Like we discussed in the offensive zone portion, he can be deceptive with his body language in the defensive zone and will use that to his advantage. Lures the forechecker in by looking down at the puck and changing the tempo/pace of play. He’ll pause himself to manipulate the forecheck into thinking that he’s having a hard time finding a teammate to pass to. That fools the forechecker and allows Nemec to open up ice for himself.

In addition, you will also notice that he will use body language manipulation to look one way to the corner, fool the attacker and skate behind the net. That allows him to dodge the attacker, regroup and find open ice.

Sometimes, I will question his defensive positioning. He will move too far up to engage in a puck battle and ignored the attacking winger who was behind him and open. The attacker who nets the puck in the puck battle, passes in between Nemec and his defensive partner to the attacking winger. The winger now has the puck in high danger and no one is covering him. 

When completing pass attempts in the defensive zone, I’ve noticed a lot of rolling puck zone exit passes and the intended recipient couldn’t grab a hold of possession. But, even though he doesn’t encounter rolling puck pass issues every time, he does struggle to connect on zone exit passes when he’s right at the blue-line and Nemec is aiming to pass to a winger in the neutral zone along the half-wall. For the most part, a lot of this can be chalked up to his wind-up and how much power he is putting in his pass attempts. When he exerts too much power in his wind-up, he finds himself struggling to complete stretch passes and traditional tape-to-tape passes.

Transitional Play

Nemec struggles to think on his feet. Similar to issues that we explained that occur in the offensive and defensive zones, Nemec will struggle to identify attackers in the neutral zone. He’ll skate right into three attackers boxing him in. He will dumps the puck into the offensive zone when pressure comes for him, but will usually give up way too much time to the attacker and only dumps the puck when the attacker gets way too close. In addition, he needs to be more cautious when dumping the puck to not dump right to the attacker. Nemec needs to be quicker with how he processes the attack’s movement. In addition, he needs to be more cautious when dumping the puck to not dump right to the attacker. 

He will find ways to avert pressure by playing the puck off the boards to himself, should he run into pressure along the rush. But, it isn’t a solution that Nemec deploys consistently. 

Like we mentioned in the defensive zone portion, he will encounter issues on lateral passes in the neutral zone. Struggles to complete a centered pass when on the rush in the neutral zone.

When he doesn’t have the puck but his teammates are on a breakout, sometimes he will act as a forward, go to the blue line next to the offensive zone and call for his teammates to complete a stretch pass to him. 

When defending in the neutral zone, if his winger is playing the puck carrier who is rushing into the zone, Nemec hangs back a bit and lets the winger focus on the puck carrier. In general, Nemec deploys quality man to man coverage in the neutral zone and in the defensive zone with players cutting through the middle. The Slovakian defender will keeps good pace with a forward who is weaving around the neutral zone without the puck. Nemec knows that the forward is headed to blue-line to create a passing opportunity for the puck carrier. So, Nemec stays neck and neck with him as a preventative measure. 

Skating

When defending against the attack circling the zone, he will move laterally with the same skate pushes for acceleration, instead of alternating with crossovers. While he will implement short skate pushes to get him moving, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t utilize quality crossovers. When in transition, he loves to deploy a few crossovers in succession to get the motor running when looking to move the puck up the ice. He doesn’t just use them for accelerating in transition, he will also deploy them to push himself along the defensive zone blue-line to cover puck movement in a 2-on-1 situation. His crossovers will allow him to shift over in time and force the puck carrier to dump the puck. You will also notice Nemec utilizing crossovers for acceleration when trying to get enough space to dump the puck out of the defensive zone when heavy attack is on him. In general, Nemec has a good hop that he uses out of the gate to move to crossovers. He’ll use a few crossovers in the defensive zone and then go in full stride into the neutral zone. Nemec has good straight line speed and excellent power stride skate extensions. He has to shown to have excellent stride length and quality ankle flexion. 

Projection

With Nemec, you are netting a top pairing defender. While some of the report might scream that he is stronger offensively than he is defensively, he is well-rounded and well-adversed to defending the rush and neutralizing threats in his own zone.

Latest Update

November 10, 2021

stats from InStat and EliteProspects

Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.

Looking for other scouting reports? Check out the Prospects tab for our other scouting reports.

Need a scouting report on a particular prospect, contact us today!

Scouting Report: Joakim Kemell

Photo Credit: Liiga/Jiri Halttunen

Scouting Report written by Josh Tessler

Joakim Kemell is a top prospect for the 2022 NHL Draft. Kemell plays for JYP Jyväskylä in the Liiga. He is a Finnish citizen and hails from Jyväskylän maalaiskunta, Finland. For those who are unfamiliar with Finnish geography, Jyväskylä is roughly the mid-way point between Tampere, Finland and Kuopio, Finland. Jyväskylän maalaiskunta translates to “The Rural Municipality of Jyväskylä” and is considered a suburb of Jyväskylä.

Kemell played for JYP (U16, U18 and U20) throughout his youth. He made his Liiga debut in 2020-2021 and scored his first Liiga goal in the same game. This season, Kemell has been on scoring tear. As of October 31, 2021, Kemell leads Liiga in goals (12) and total points (18).

Player Profile

D.O.B – April 27, 2004
Nationality – Finland
Draft Eligibility – 2022
Height –5’11
Weight –176 lbs
Position – Right Wing
Handedness – Right

Kemell’s Style Of Play

Offense

If there are multiple teammates engaged in a puck battle along the opposite boards, he’ll come close and provide an  outlet incase his teammates pick up the puck. Or if the opponent picks up the puck, he’s in position to close in on the attacker. When puck battles are on the other side of the ice, Kemell shifts over to centered ice to offer a passing lane and he’s then ready to defend against an opponent rushing towards the slot. 

He is an active stick forechecker as he looks to force quick decisions with the puck by extending his stick blade out. Kemell likes to swing his stick at the puck like a golf club if he knows he’s clearly out-beaten when on the forecheck, but still tries to make contact with the puck. While he does like using an active stick on the forecheck, I’d argue that his active stick isn’t effective. He will extend his stick out to the left or right from afar to try to take away passing lanes, yet he’s so far away that it’s not making much of an impact. If Kemell can work on acceleration, he could be a stronger active stick forechecker, but his speed holds him back. You also see similar issues with his physicality on the forecheck. Kemell tries to be physical and assertive on the forecheck but is always seem to be too late to the puck. However, in a contest on October 30th, I did see him deliver an open ice hit in the offensive zone that was successful as it neutralized a breakout attempt by the attack. Hopefully we will see his acceleration continue to develop and see him use the acceleration to bolster his forechecking.

Kemell does have some puck security concerns as sometimes he’ll carry the puck towards the toe of his stick blade. Yet, I would argue that he doesn’t always struggle with puck security. There are sequences in which his puck security is solid, for instance, he will manage to secure the puck when facing close vest to vest pressure in the offensive zone. But, if the attacker is using an active stick and trying to pry the puck away from him with a poke check, he does seem more susceptible to coughing up possession. There are situations in which the puck was stripped away from him right at the offensive zone blue-line by the defender implementing an active stick. 

But, in general, Kemell is a quality stick-handler. He has good stick-handling reach to regain pucks if he loses control of them. He is rather efficient at luring the the attacker in and then cradles the puck right around him quickly. Sometimes he’ll extend his legs further out from each other to force the attacker to lower and widen himself which forces the attacker to slow down and lose momentum, then Kemell uses a wind-mill stick-handle to navigate around and cut to the net. Kemell has also proven that he can shift around really well along the boards with the attack putting pressure on him. 

On the power play, he’ll shift up and down the half-wall and look to work the cycle and find passing lanes. Kemell will look to complete backhand passes from the half-wall to the point to key up a goals from low danger and that has led to primary assists. Kemell does a quality job of generating scoring chances by passing to to the low slot. Although he does struggle with consistency with dangerous passing. Most of his inconsistency has to do with vision and sometimes misidentifying the trajectory that the attacker will take when looking to put pressure on him teammates in the slot.

Kemell’s shot is his calling card and he seems to find the most success when shooting one-timers. He’s had quite a few highlight reel one-timer goals to start the season. His one-timer can be electric from both distance and from up close. Kemell can generate height on his one-timer from up close and will look to bend his knee and have the other knee lying down on the ice to provide enough power to generate one-timer top shelf goals in medium danger.

Not only does he have the ability to generate quality top shelf one-timer scoring chances, but he will also create open ice and open up a passing lane for one-timers. He will notice that the attack is overcommitting to his teammates passing the puck to each other behind the net, so he finds open ice on the right side on the power play, once he finds open ice, his teammate passes to him and he delivers a one-timer goal blocker side.

While he has found quite a bit of success with his one-timers, he isn’t always consistent on getting one-timers on net. He has a habit of whiffing one-timers and shooting his one-timers wide. Ultimately, he needs to work on his footing and how his footing lines up with the net. Kemell does have solid weight transferring and can generate height on his one-timers, but whiffing the puck and shooting wide can have a lot to do with skate placement and how they line up.

Aside from his one-timers, he also has found quite a bit of success with his wrist shot as well. He has scored multiple wrist shot goals from medium danger and the perimeter. He has managed to get quality height and power with his wrist shot. He doesn’t have a huge wind-up on his wrist shot, but he doesn’t need it clearly as he can generate all the power that he needs with a shortened wind-up and a quick flick of the stick.

Defense

Similarly to his forechecking work, he uses an active stick when defending. He will wave his stick towards the puck carrier to force rash decision making. He will occasionally try to swing his stick at a puck carrier’s puck in the slot like a golf club as a last ditch effort when he couldn’t quite catch up to the carrier. 

Kemell maintains good presence all over the zone. He’ll man the point and when a defender has possession of the puck at the point, he’ll lower and widen himself to force a shot from low danger. Kemell will drop back behind his net to put pressure on the puck carrier. If his center isn’t covering the forward rushing into the slot, he’ll take over and skate alongside the forward to keep an eye on him and to attempt to close a potential passing lane. 

He won’t overwhelm you with pressure but he’s present and will lay down a hit. Normally his hits don’t do much as he is generally late to the puck carrier. Similarly to his physical play in the offensive zone, his acceleration limits his ability to generate checks that lead to a turnover in possession for the attack. By the time that he lays down a hit, the attacker has already moved the puck. 

From a puck movement perspective, similar to some of his challenges with puck security in the offensive zone, there are some instances in the defensive zone where he coughs up the puck and carries it by the toe of his blade. In addition, he needs to work on maintaining puck possession in the defensive zone when facing pressure from an attacker’s shoulder.

In addition to some of the stick-handling challenges that he has in both the offensive and defensive zones, he also has some peripheral vision issues that pop up when he attempts to complete a breakout pass. He misidentifies where the attack is and/or where the attack is headed and that leads to inaccurate passes.

While he does struggle at times with breakout passing, he does find ways to get the puck out of the defensive zone in high traffic situations. When he gains possession of the puck off of a pass in the corner and he sees the attack bearing down on him, he’ll throw the puck along the boards to ricochet out to his forward further down in the defensive zone. Kemell has also completed zone exits by throwing the puck to the boards to get around an attacker, and then regaining possession of the puck once he has maneuvered around the attack. He will opt to use similar techniques in the neutral zone.

Transitional Play

As I just mentioned, Kemell will utilize the boards in transition to ricochet the puck off the boards to get around attacker similar to Carolina Hurricanes prospect Seth Jarvis. He doesn’t always succeed at bouncing the puck off the boards in transition and regaining. Sometimes he’s just slightly too far from the boards for that to truly work. 

He will also utilize the boards for puck security. If a defender is trying to close in on him at the offensive zone blue-line, he’ll cradle the puck to the left towards the boards, to secure the puck by keeping the puck away from the attacker and then complete a swing pass to the F1.

But, at open ice, he will encounter puck security issues. For instance, there are situations where he will capture possession of a zone exit pass in the neutral zone, but Kemell will struggle to hold onto the puck for long when the attack come rushing at him. If the attacker is using an active stick, the attacker has the upper hand and can strip the puck from Kemell with ease. 

As I brought up in his offensive zone and defensive zone play, Kemell does struggle with acceleration and it becomes rather evident when defending in the neutral zone. More often than not, Kemell is playing from behind. When playing from behind, he will stick-lift up towards the attacker’s back. He’ll engage in open ice checks in the neutral zone, but he’s too slow and the targeted attacker has already move the puck before contact.

Skating

Kemell implements good outside edges to stay aligned with the puck carrier while on the forecheck and when shifting around defenders in the offensive zone. He will also deploy quality crossovers when circling around the zone on the power play. Kemell leans heavily on crossover usage in transition. Kemell will favor crossovers over stride extensions. 

Kemell utilizes short skate extensions through the neutral zone when going after a loose puck. He struggles to get to the loose puck, the attack will gets to it first and Kemell’s stride extension length didn’t help him garner the necessary speed to grab a hold of the puck. Kemell will struggle to keep balance on his stride extensions. He has a bit of a knocked knee which slows him down and can harm his balance when completing a skate recovery. His knocked knee can also prevent Kemell from deploying quality ankle flexion. When he’s shifting his leg back in a recovery, his knee needs to be closer to the toe of his skate. With his knocked knee and ankle flexion issues, he can’t generate a true power stride and that prohibits his ability to kick it into high gear. With that said, there are plenty of NHLers who have a knocked knee and garner acceleration with their stride, so I’m not overly concerned. 

Projection

Second line winger, who can be a threat on a NHL power-play.

Latest Update

November 1, 2021

stats from InStat and EliteProspects

Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.

Looking for other scouting reports? Check out the Prospects tab for our other scouting reports.

Need a scouting report on a particular prospect, contact us today!

Preliminary 2022 NHL Draft Rankings

Photo Credit: Robert Lefebvre/OHL Images

Alexander Appleyard, Paul Zuk, Sebastian Jackson, Matthew Somma, Mikael Holm, Tobias Pettersson, Austin Brass and Josh Tessler combined their draft rankings and put together the official Smaht Scouting 2022 NHL Draft Preliminary Rankings.

The rankings are below. We are working on 2022 NHL Draft scouting reports and once they are completed, we will hyperlink the reports on the rankings.

RankingPlayerTeamPositionNationality
1Shane WrightKingstonCCanada
2Matthew SavoieWinnipegCCanada
3Brad LambertLahtiCFinland
4Danila YurovMagnitogorskFRussia
5Logan CooleyUSNTDPCUSA
6Seamus CaseyUSNTDPRHDUSA
7Šimon NemecHK NitraRHDSlovakia
8Joakim KemellJYPFFinland
9Conor GeekieWinnipegCCanada
10Ivan MiroshnichenkoOmskLWRussia
11Juraj SlafkovskyTPSFSlovakia
12Frank NazarUSNTDPRWUSA
13Noah ÖstlundDjurgårdensCSweden
14Isaac HowardUSNTDPLWUSA
15Ty NelsonNorth BayRHDCanada
16Denton MateychukMoose JawLHDCanada
17David JiricekPlzenRHDCzech Republic
18Liam ÖhgrenDjurgårdensFSweden
19Elias SalomonssonSkellefteåRHDSweden
20Marco KasperRögleCAustria
21Rutger McGroartyUSNTDPCUSA
22Jack HughesNortheastern UniversityFUSA
23Ludwig PerssonFrölundaC/LWSweden
24Jonathan LekkerimäkiDjurgårdensCSweden
25Simon ForsmarkÖrebroLHDSweden
26Matthew PoitrasGuelphCCanada
27Pano FimisNiagaraCCanada
28Tristan LuneauGatineauRHDCanada
29Alexander PerevalovYaroslavlFRussia
30Ryan ChesleyUSNTDPRHDUSA
31Filip MesarPopradRWSlovakia
32Paul LudwinskiKingstonCCanada
33Calle OdeliusDjurgårdensLHDSweden
34Filip BystedtLinköpingCSweden
35Braeden BowmanGuelphRWCanada
36Mats LindgrenKamloopsLHDCanada
37Devin KaplanUSNTDPFUSA
38Alexander PelevinNovgorodLHDRussia
39Ilya KvochkoMagnitogorskCRussia
40Hunter HaightBarrieCCanada
41Gleb TrikozovOmskFRussia
42Cruz LuciusUSNTDPFUSA
43Markus VidicekHalifaxCCanada
44Kevin KorchinskiSeattleLHDCanada
45Bryce McConnell-BarkerSault Ste. MarieCCanada
46Jiří KulichKarlovy VaryFCzech Republic
47Jimmy SnuggerudUSNTDPFUSA
48Jack DevineUniversity of DenverFUSA
49Luca Del Bel BelluzMississaugaCCanada
50Justin CôtéDrummondvilleCCanada
HMNoah WarrenGatineauRHDCanada
HMCutter GauthierUSNTDPLWUSA
HMJani NymanIlvesLWFinland
HMJulian LutzMünchenFGermany
HMCole KnubleFargoRWUSA
HMBrandon LisowskySaskatoonFCanada
HMFraser MintenKamloopsFCanada
HMBrennan AliAvon Old Farms (USHS-CT)CUSA
HMDavid GoyetteSudburyCCanada
HMSpencer SovaErieLHDCanada
HMDanny ZhilkinGuelphCCanada
HMOtto SalinHIFKRHDFinland
HMMattias HävelidLinköpingRHDSweden
HMLian BichselLeksandsLHDSwitzerland
HMAlexander SuzdalevHV71LWSweden
HMHelmer StyfMODOCSweden
HMTyler DukeUSNTDPLHDUSA
HMAleksanteri KaskimäkiHIFKCFinland
HMMiko MatikkaJokeritRWFinland
HMVladimir GrudininCSKA MoscowLHDRussia

Scouting Report: Brad Lambert

Photo Credit: Liiga/Jiri Halttunen

Scouting Report written by Josh Tessler

Brad Lambert is a top prospect for the 2022 NHL Draft. Lambert plays for JYP Jyväskylä in the Liiga. He is dual citizen as he holds both Canadian and Finnish citizenship.

Lambert hails from Lahti, Finland. For those unfamiliar with Finland geography, Lahti is approximately an hour and a half drive north from Helsinki. Lahti is also home to the Lahti Pelicans (the Liiga club). Prior to joining JYP, he played a few seasons for the Pelicans at the U16, U18 and U20 levels. Brad isn’t the only Lambert with a connection to the Pelicans. Lambert’s father, Ross was a skills coach for the Pelicans at the Liiga level. Ross played collegiate hockey for Princeton University (NCAA), junior hockey for the Saskatoon Blades (WHL), a couple of seasons in the American Hockey League before heading over to England to play in the BHL and the BISL.

Lambert’s father isn’t the only Lambert family member with a connection to hockey. Brad’s uncle, Lane Lambert is the New York Islanders’ Associate Coach and previously was an Assistant Coach for the Washington Capitals. Brad’s other uncle, Dale Lambert played the BHL and the BISL for 14 seasons. His cousin, Jimmy Lambert plays for the University of Michigan alongside Matthew Beniers, Owen Power and Kent Johnson.

As mentioned prior, Lambert played U16-U20 hockey for the Pelicans from 2017-2019. After the 2018-2019 season, he joined HIFK for the 2019-2020 and spent most of the season playing in the SM-Liiga. But, he was also featured in four Liiga contests for HIFK. Following the 2019-2020 campaign, he joined JYP.

Player Profile

D.O.B – December 19, 2003
Nationality – Finland
Draft Eligibility – 2022
Height –6’0
Weight –179 lbs
Position – Center/Right Wing
Handedness – Right

Lambert’s Style Of Play

Offense

If Lambert’s teammate is running the cycle behind the net, he’ll set up in the low slot to provide a passing lane. If his wingers shift the puck to the left side boards from the red line, he will double back, situate himself diagonal to his teammate to open up a lane. He is constantly looking to provide passing lanes for teammates engaged in puck battles along the boards. Lambert maintains good presence all over the offensive zone, tries to open up passing lanes for forwards stuck in puck battles along the boards and is quick to loose pucks. He consistently does a good job of finding open ice down low, but struggles with puck capturing in situations where a one-timer would pay off. You’ll see him capture the puck too close to his stick shaft and he’ll struggle to get a quality shot off since the puck is too close to the shaft. 

He will use his upper body strength to overwhelm attackers in open ice loose puck battles. In those situations where he is looking to disrupt puck possession, but doesn’t want to over-commit to the puck carrier along the red line with his back turned as another forward has shifted over to his spot at centered ice, he’ll shift over to the wing and cover the wing and look to trap the puck carrier along the boards. While he does look to use his upper body strength for physical play, he needs to work on his reaction timing when going in for bodychecks in the corner as there are quite a few situations where he will miss the puck carrier completely. Lambert struggles to lay down hits at open ice. Goes in for checks, but doesn’t really make much contact nor does he cause the puck carrier to lose control of the puck.

Lambert implements quality pivoting to shake off the back-check along the boards. Sometimes he will struggle and lose his balance when attempting to pivot out from a back check attempt along the half-wall. 

At open ice, Lambert will utilize a well-timed spin move to dodge pressure in the offensive zone when he completes a controlled zone entry but faces tight pressure from an opponent. 

If he chooses not to pivot out in situations in which the pressure is closing in on him, he will look to extend the puck out past the attacker and still make a pass to a teammate even when at the boards. 

Lambert has solid stick-handling reach. Not only does he possess solid reach and enough upper body strength to play the puck out wide, he also has quality puck security even when being knocked down to the ice. The only area that needs further improvement is when he’s looking to grab possession of a loose puck at open ice, but that has more to do with him over-skating the puck then his reachability.

When you look at Lambert’s shot under a microscope, you will notice that it is the weaker part of his game. He will have difficulty elevating his shots. It’s an issue that is constant no matter where he is in the offensive zone. When down low, he will struggle with manipulating the opposing goaltender as he looks to key up a quality shot opportunity. If he manages to lure the goaltender into a vulnerable position, he will have issues generating the necessary height in his shot to beat the goaltender clean. When taking a snap shot from range and implements a weight transfer, his plant leg ends up facing away from the net and that hurts his shot accuracy. It’s not just his footing. He also needs to work on the weight transfer itself as he doesn’t exert his body forward enough to garner enough power behind his shot.

While he does struggle generating height and hasn’t mustered the production that you would generally associate with a top NHL Draft prospect, he did have a bit of success last season with his shot. He was able to use his wind-mill stick-handling to help muster up the wind-up necessary to score with his wrist shot. In addition, he did notch an excellent backhand top shelf goal from inside the face-off circle (medium danger) against Ilves on November 20, 2020. But, top shelf backhand goals do seem to be more rare for Lambert.

When it comes to puck movement, Lambert thinks two moves ahead. He will complete behind the back passes as he cuts to centered ice and a teammate comes rushing up the left half-wall. If he collects the puck off of a pass when he’s near the corner facing the blue line, he’ll skate towards the blue line, button hook, and throw a pass back to the corner. That brings the defender with him and opens up ice down low in the corner. Lambert is aware that with his excellent puck skills that he can lure defenders to him and open up lanes for his teammates.

While he does have quite a bit of success with his puck movement, he does face challenges when separating himself from the last defender. He will struggle at turning towards the net and completely beating the last defender when he’s one on one with the defender and getting close to the red line. 

In terms of setting up goals, Lambert has more success with secondary assists than he does with primary assists, but we still situations in which he finds a tight lane to exploit with a cross ice pass.

Also, he isn’t afraid of back-tracking, carrying the puck towards the boards behind the opposing net and completing a pass to an open teammate in the slot.

Defense

Defensively, Lambert looks to play man-on-man prevent defense in the slot. Along the boards, he will keep a short leash on puck carriers. If an attacker grabs possession of a loose puck and no teammate of Lambert’s is there to defend him, Lambert will put pressure on the attacker and force him to get out of medium/high danger to low danger to attempt to neutralize the threat. Not only does Lambert assume responsibility and plays the puck carrier, but he also does a good job of quickly shifting over to the puck carrier and putting pressure on him against the boards. When approaching puck carriers behind the red line, he will drop back, close in on the attack and look to grab possession of the puck. 

At the point, he will occasionally look to bend down and lower himself to block shots. Not only will he look to block shots at the point, but when putting pressure on defenders with the puck at the point he’ll look to extend his stick out towards the boards and force the defender to make a rash decision with the puck.

Similar to his physical challenges in the offensive zone, when going in for checks in the corner on the puck carrier, he doesn’t have the necessary strength to disrupt the puck carrier. It’s a gentle hit. Not much force.

When looking to key up a zone exit/rush, he displays excellent stick-handling reach when looking to navigate out of the defensive zone. Lambert will double back if facing oncoming pressure when in control of the puck. 

Transitional Play

Lambert thrives at problem solving. When facing pressure, he doesn’t dump the puck in, instead he drops back and finds a teammate with an open lane. That isn’t his only move to get up the ice while encountering the attack. With traffic bearing down on him while on the rush, he plays the puck through the attackers legs, collects the puck, zone entry, goes to the net, pulls the goaltender to the right and shoots left. Snap shot goal.

Constantly, Lambert drives up the neutral zone evading traffic. He will navigate around traffic in the neutral zone with ease even when there are multiple attackers closing in on him. Lambert has good puck security. He will position the puck facing the boards instead of positioning the puck towards the attack and will keep the puck moving with light taps towards the center of his stick blade. 

When entering into the offensive zone and facing tight pressure, he displays quality stick-handling to get past the blue-line. If he faces pressure, he’ll buttonhook and use crossovers to fuel the tight turn and accelerate up the ice with the puck to dodge pressure and find an open lane to use for the rush. 

In those situations in which he doesn’t complete controlled zone entries, he will look to make the optimal pass. Lambert will complete backhand zone entry passes at centered ice and pass to a teammate at the the blue-line. He likes to utilize light tap passes to his wingers in the neutral zone while in stride. When in possession of the puck and skating right to left and pulls pressure to him, he’ll look to swerve the puck to the right, find enough space to pass the puck to a forward heading into the offensive zone without pressure on him. Even if Lambert knows that he can’t get off a clean pass, he still moves the puck towards his teammate with open ice if he is in a real tight jam. But, most of the time, he can use his puck manipulation right before he attempts a zone entry pass. He’ll play with the puck closer to the right of his body, drag the attacker to the right, swing the puck to the left and throw a backhand pass to a teammate driving to the offensive zone blue line.

When defending the rush, he won’t go too far out of his way to shut down the rush, but if the rush comes to him in the neutral zone, he’ll extend his stick out towards the rush and look to trap the rush along the boards. For the majority of opponent rush attempts, Lambert does a good job of facing the rush in most situations in the neutral zone.

Skating

When playing loose pucks, he has a tendency to over-skate the puck. Yet, he does implement excellent speed to catch up to loose pucks. 

In transition, Lambert has excellent usage of crossovers mid-rush for momentum when driving down the ice with possession of the puck. He will interchanges skate extensions and crossovers very fluidly. There aren’t many rush attempts in which he doesn’t implement  crossovers for accelerating when driving up the ice with possession of the puck. In general, his crossovers are tight and well-sequenced. Not only will he use quality crossovers in transition, but he will also use them to fuel his puck movement from the left half-wall to the right half-wall in the offensive zone. Prior to implementing his crossovers, he will implement a quality hop to start the rush. Off the hop, he uses two lengthier skate extensions and then goes into crossovers. 

Lambert has a good hockey stop. He can stop on a dime. In rare situations, there are mobility issues when stopping as his skates will be further apart than where you would want them to be, but his stopping ability allows him to catch defenders off guard and make changes with puck movement very quickly. 

Sometimes when he isn’t aggressively hunting on the forecheck but still heads toward the puck carrier, his legs are far apart which causes him to slow down/pizza. That hurts his mobility and cuts down on acceleration. Needs to work on acceleration when going after puck retrievals behind the offensive zone red line. 

When he’s looking to keep his feet moving, but not looking to move at full speed, he’ll use multiple short extensions with his right skate to put himself in gear. 

Projection

First line forward if his shot develops nicely. If he struggles to develop his shot, then you are probably looking at a top nine forward projection.

Latest Update

October 19, 2021

stats from InStat and EliteProspects

Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.

Looking for other scouting reports? Check out the Prospects tab for our other scouting reports.

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Smaht Talk: Tucker Tynan Is Back!

In the third episode of Smaht Talk, Jordan Malette and Josh Tessler talk about the following:

Tucker Tynan returning to the net in Niagara.

Luke Prokop (Nashville Predators prospect) being dealt from the Calgary Hitmen to the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Comparing Conor Geekie and Matthew Savoie.

An update on Kingston Frontenacs forward Shane Wright.

A brief look at Barrie Colts forward Hunter Haight.

2023 NHL Draft eligible prospect Tyler Peddle being named to the Videotron Players of the Week in the QMJHL.

A quick look at Maveric Lamoureux, Justin Cote and Nathan Gaucher.

Simon Forsmark, Ludwig Persson and Alexander Suzdalev, who have been on hot streaks in their J20 Nationell play.

Comparing Danila Yurov and Ivan Miroshnichenko.

Josh interviews John Kofi Osei-Tutu and Bobby Gauthier from PuckAgency about what the hockey agent world looks like especially when working with NHL Draft eligible prospects.

If you would like to listen to this episode, you can find an embedded link from SoundCloud below. Our podcast can also be found on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Smaht Talk: Djurgården Loaded Up, Marc Savard To Windsor

In the second episode of Smaht Talk, Jordan Malette, Paul Zuk and Josh Tessler talk about the following:

Rutger McGroarty switched his NCAA commitment to the University of Michigan.

Which programs benefit from the NCAA name, image and likeness rights?

Marc Savard taking over as head coach for the Windsor Spitfires.

Previewing the USHL and prospects to keep an eye on that don’t play for the USNTDP.

Danila Yurov ice time concerns.

Brad Lambert and Joakim Kemell. Who might have a higher point total at the end of the season.

Josh interviews Tony Ferrari of The Hockey News and Mark Yates of InStat North America. Tony talks about Djurgården’s 2022 NHL Draft talent, the upcoming OHL prospect class, the Calder race and more. Mark talks about InStat, the PBHH Invitational Tournament and more.

If you would like to listen to our first episode, you can find an embedded link from SoundCloud below. Our podcast can also be found on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.