Photo Credit: Mitch Highman/MJOYPHOTOGRAPHY

Scouting Report written by Paul Zuk

Tristan Broz is a talented, two-way forward and a 2021 NHL Draft eligible prospect, currently suiting up for the Fargo Force in the USHL. Broz was born in Bloomington, Minnesota, and rose through the rankings by playing for Minnesota-based prep school Shattuck St. Mary’s, up to the 14U AAA rankings. He was prep school teammates with Mackie Samoskevich, Scott Morrow, and Peter Reynolds, just to name a few.

Following his time with Shattuck, Broz joined the Minnesota high school ranks for The Blake School in Minneapolis, where he was nearly a 2 point-per-game player two seasons in a row. After his time spent at Blake, Broz took his talents to the USHL and joined the Fargo Force, who drafted him in the 9th round, 142nd overall in Phase 1 of the 2018 USHL Draft. He’s spent parts of the last 3 seasons with the Force, and has watched his game improve, as he’s fresh off a 19 goal, 32 assist season for a total of 51 points in 54 games.

For the 2021-22 season, Broz is committed to the University of Minnesota, where he’ll join a loaded Golden Gophers squad, boasting the likes of fellow 2021 NHL Draft prospects Chaz Lucius, Matthew Knies, and Luke Mittelstadt. Broz will be looking to build on a couple of successful seasons in the USHL, under the guidance of Gophers Head Coach Bob Motzko, and hopefully endure continuing success, as Minnesota will be looking to advance farther than the West Regional Finals like they did in 2020/21.

Player Profile

D.O.B – October 10, 2002
Nationality – USA
Draft Eligibility – 2021
Height – 6’0″
Weight – 179 lbs
Position – Forward
Handedness – Left

Broz’ Style Of Play

Tristan Broz is certainly an intriguing prospect. He’s capable of playing anywhere up front, but sees the majority of his ice time on the left wing. He plays an excellent two-way game, and can produce effectively in all areas of the ice.

This past season, Broz led Fargo in points, and was definitely a force to be reckoned with on the power-play. In watching Broz’ games, he was a mainstay on the right side half-wall on the power-play, and was incredibly patient waiting out defenders and goalies to pinpoint the perfect time to shoot. It clearly paid off, as Broz scored almost half of his goals with the man advantage.

Broz possesses an incredibly high motor, and isn’t often disengaged from the play around the puck, regardless of which zone. He also has good vision, especially with the puck on his stick. Broz can execute a zone entry, open up his hips to maximize his puck distribution options, and seek out a high danger chance for a teammate.

I had to slow down this clip to really appreciate the vision and patience shown here by Tristan Broz. He’s a special player who is going to start getting the recognition he deserves. #2021NHLDraft #USHL pic.twitter.com/LO7Yn1EjCX

— Dylan Krill (@dylan_krill) December 23, 2020

Let’s take a more in-depth look at the facets of Broz’ game:

Skating

Generally speaking, Broz possesses good speed, acceleration and agility. He isn’t a consistently explosive skater, but can turn the afterburners on and blow past defenders when needed. Broz also has fairly quick feet, which allows him to get the jump on defenders while breaking into the offensive zone.

Broz utilizes crossovers to build up speed, which helps him to fly through the neutral zone in transition. His edges are also really good, and he can elude defenders relatively easy with sharp, slick footwork.

Perhaps the only drawback to Broz’ skating is the fact he seems to turn it on mainly when there’s an offensive chance that arises. Coaches at the next level will be looking for him to improve on his endurance, and to utilize his skillset at all times during a game.

Offense

Arguably the most impressive aspect of Broz’ complete game is his skills in the offensive zone. In his three seasons with the Force, Broz has racked up impressive numbers with Fargo. Points aside, he’s also quite a talented passer of the puck.

Broz also has a significant amount of patience with the puck, and can wait out defenders and goalies to pick the perfect time to pass and/or shoot. He is also able to pick out a corner and hit it, with moderate success. Speaking of Broz’ hands, they’re sneaky good. He can confuse defenders with a simple deke, giving him space and time to make a decision with the puck.

He’s also very talented and successful at controlled zone entries, especially on the powerplay. Broz can easily draw 2-3 defenders on to his person when entering the attacking zone, helping him to distribute the puck to a teammate in open ice.

Lastly, Broz is a dynamo on the powerplay, and can play anywhere on the ice with the man advantage. As mentioned above, he loves to post up by the half-wall on the right side of the ice, as he’s scored nearly half of his goals this season in that spot. Broz can snap the puck around to teammates, but he’s also quite lethal at putting the finishing touches on a nice passing sequence.

We’ve seen this once or twice before🤩 @tristanbroz pic.twitter.com/QUr8gdusdd

— Fargo Force (@FargoForce) May 2, 2021

Defense

An underrated and possibly overlooked aspect of Broz’ game is his ability to play defense. Many may look at him and see a two-way player who is solely offensive minded, but that isn’t necessarily the case here.

Broz is a reliable, responsible defensive player. He’s utilized in the defensive zone just as much as any other zone, and can be the catalyst for Fargo’s defensive zone breakouts, when needed.

Broz is also an effective player along the boards in the defensive and neutral zones, and has little to no issue sacrificing his body to make a play. Additionally, Broz commonly pinches down to assist his defensemen in coverage, or to retrieve a contested puck, and he can do so with a decent rate of success.

Broz is also an effective penalty killer. This past season for the Force, he was counted upon in a penalty killing role, more so than the previous season, as he saw his PK time increase by almost a full minute per game in 2020/21. Broz is able to execute poke checks and jar the puck loose from attackers successfully with his active stick.

Improvements

Broz’ game is fairly well rounded. However, there are a couple of areas that could use some work if he’s to succeed at the next level.

The biggest improvement that could be made is to improve his consistency in pretty much every aspect. Broz has moments where it looks as if he can utilize all the tools in his toolbelt, to a great extent. On the flip side, he also has moments where it looks as if he isn’t putting in a 100% effort.

This one shift highlights so much of what I like and don't like about Tristan Broz's game. He occasionally falls in love with playing the perimeter so much that he's completely disengaged. At the same time, it's hard to argue with his finishing ability. #2021NHLDraft #USHL pic.twitter.com/7MOJbvMxm5

— John Gove (@PodStreetGove) April 29, 2021

More often than not, Broz has the skills to mask the issue, but as competition gets more difficult, masking the issue just won’t work. Based off his game tapes and the skillset Broz has, it shouldn’t be much of an issue for him to improve this going into next season for the Gophers.

Aside from adjusting his consistency and endurance, Broz is shaping up to become quite a serviceable middle-six forward at the next level.

Overall Outlook

Overall, Tristan Broz looks to be the style of player who can play an effective, two-way game, and be a key contributor to a team’s secondary scoring options. Broz’ versatility makes him an interesting choice for teams looking to add depth and scoring in their middle six forward corps. As mentioned above, Broz is capable of playing any forward position, but his skillset and talents may be best suited as a winger at the next level.

Broz certainly has the vision, talent, and attributes to succeed at the next level, and his development will certainly be aided at Minnesota, a school with a rich history of pumping out forwards who can put the puck in the net. Look for Broz’ game to take a huge jump in the seasons to come, especially if he’s found on Chaz Lucius’ wing in the near future.

Broz will be great value if a team selecting in the mid to late second round is looking to bolster their forward depth, and add a talented secondary scorer. Look for Broz to be off the board somewhere between picks 40-55 in this summer’s Entry Draft.

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stats from InStat and EliteProspects

Prospect report written by Paul Zuk. If you would like to follow Paul on Twitter, his handle is @paulzuk_81.

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!

With the NHL lottery done, the Smaht Scouting team did a mock draft for the lottery selections. Bailey Johnson (NCAA and USHS amateur scout), Paul Zuk (USHL and Southern OHL amateur scout), Alexander Appleyard (Sweden and Finland amateur scout), Jordan Malette (Eastern OHL and Western QMJHL amateur scout) and Josh Tessler (Director of Amateur Scouting) switched off and drafted for three clubs each.

#1 – Buffalo Sabres – Matthew Beniers

Selected by Paul Zuk

With the first overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, the Buffalo Sabres selected Matthew Beniers (University of Michigan, Center). It’s not the first time that in the last few years that the Sabres took a NCAA centerman in the top five. Back in 2015, the Sabres selected Jack Eichel (Boston University, Center) at second overall. Beniers has proven to be relentless with the puck, possesses strong puck manipulation, is a two-way center and a problem solver in transition.

Check out our report on Beniers:

Scouting Report: Matthew Beniers

#2 – Seattle Kraken – Owen Power

Selected by Josh Tessler

With Seattle’s first ever draft selection, they select Owen Power (University of Michigan, LHD). The Kraken are likely to add quite a few solid left handed defensemen in the expansion draft like Devon Toews and Brady Skjei, but they need a top left handed defenseman of the future. Power has proven to be a solid puck distributor at the point, he will pinch and fight in puck battles down low.

Check out our report on Power:

Scouting Report: Owen Power

#3 – Anaheim Ducks – William Eklund

Selected by Alexander Appleyard

In the last few drafts, the Anaheim Ducks have selected quite a few forwards in the early rounds including Jacob Perreault, Sam Colangelo, Trevor Zegras, Brayden Tracey, Isac Lundestrom and Benoit-Olivier Groulx, but they aren’t done yet. With the third overall pick, they take playmaking forward William Eklund (Djurgården, Left Wing). As Alex notes in his report on Eklund, his vision allows him to be a rather crafty playmaker with excellent vision.

Side note, Mikael Holm of McKeen’s Hockey constantly reminds the folks in Will Scouch’s discord server that Djurgården is the official name of the club and doesn’t require a “s” at the end.

Check out our report on Eklund:

Scouting Report: William Eklund

#4 – New Jersey Devils – Luke Hughes

Selected by Jordan Malette

The New Jersey Devils select Jack Hughes’ younger brother, Luke Hughes (USNTDP, LHD) with the fourth overall pick. In the 2020 draft, the Devils went forward heavy in round one with Alexander Holtz and Dawson Mercer, but did add Shakir Mukhamadullin with their third first rounder and Ethan Edwards in the later rounds. Luke Hughes is arguably a much stronger puck moving defenseman than both Mukhamadullin and Edwards. Hughes is the best skater in the 2021 NHL Draft class and possesses soft hands when distributing the puck.

Check out our report on Hughes:

Scouting Report: Luke Hughes

#5 – Columbus Blue Jackets – Simon Edvinsson

Selected by Bailey Johnson

With the fifth overall selection, the Columbus Blue Jackets select Simon Edvinsson (Frölunda, LHD). As Seth Jones is rumored to be leaving the organization when he becomes a UFA in 2022, the organization will need to fill his skates with another highly touted defenseman who can be a consistent threat in the offensive zone. As Alex notes in his report on Edvinsson, the Swede has proven to navigate through “neutral zone traps” and pinch down low into high danger to generate scoring chances.

Check out our report on Edvinsson:

Scouting Report: Simon Edvinsson

#6 – Detroit Red Wings – Brandt Clarke

Selected by Paul Zuk

The Detroit Red Wings already had an outstanding farm system before the 2021 NHL Draft with a plethora of prospects including Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider, Theodor Niederbach, Joe Veleno and William Wallinder, but they add another stud at sixth overall with Brandt Clarke (Barrie, RHD). Clarke was set to play for the Barrie Colts this past season, but due to COVID-19, he took his talents across the pond to Slovakia alongside his brother Graeme Clarke (New Jersey Devils prospect). Clarke has shown that he possesses a strong transitional game and is one of the best puck distributors in this class.

Side note: Hopefully we made Prashanth Iyer happy with this selection. He’s made it quite clear that he doesn’t want the Red Wings to select a goaltender at six.

Check out our report on Clarke:

Scouting Report: Brandt Clarke

#7 – San Jose Sharks – Jesper Wallstedt

Selected by Josh Tessler

The San Jose Sharks land the prospect with the highest upside in the 2021 NHL Draft class. With the Sharks struggling in net over the last few years, they now have a franchise goaltender in the making. Jesper Wallstedt (Luleå, Goaltender) has dominated the SHL at such a young age. The Sharks are netting a patient goaltender and who doesn’t expose much of the net. His glove work is easily the best in this class and controls rebounds extremely well.

Check out our report on Wallstedt:

Scouting Report: Jesper Wallstedt

#8 – Los Angeles Kings – Dylan Guenther

Selected by Alexander Appleyard

Like the Detroit Red Wings, Rob Blake, general manager of the Los Angeles Kings has done an excellent job building his system. Their farm system includes Quinton Byfield, Tyler Madden, Helge Grans, Brock Faber, Alex Turcotte, Tobias Bjornfot, Rasmus Kupari, Akil Thomas, Gabriel Vilardi and Jaret Anderson-Dolan. The system has a lot of quality two-way playmakers and defenders, but aside from Kaliyev, there isn’t a ton of raw goal scoring talent. By drafting Dylan Guenther (Edmonton, Left Wing), they are netting an excellent shooter who can drain one-timers with ease. Guenther also possesses a strong transitional game and can find gaps consistently in the offensive zone to exploit with a quick timed pass.

Check out our report on Guenther:

Scouting Report: Dylan Guenther

#9 – Vancouver Canucks – Kent Johnson

Selected by Bailey Johnson

The Vancouver Canucks have selected the local kid. Kent Johnson (University of Michigan, Center/Wing) from North Vancouver, British Columbia. While Johnson has lined up at center throughout his youth, he’s shown that he is far stronger on the wing during his freshman year in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Johnson has a tremendous amount of flash to his game and is one of the strongest stick-handlers in the class. As Bailey explained in her report, he’s creative and will produce highlight reel plays. So, Vancouver get ready for plenty of Kent Johnson clips on TSN’s Top 10.

Check out our report on Johnson:

Scouting Report: Kent Johnson

#10 – Ottawa Senators – Fabian Lysell

Selected by Jordan Malette

The Ottawa Senators have built a solid youthful core including Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot, Shane Pinto, Josh Norris, Erik Brannström, Alex Formenton and Drake Batherson. So, why not add another fun winger to the mix. Senators general manager Pierre Dorion nabs Fabian Lysell (Luleå, Right Winger) with the tenth overall pick. Tony Ferrari of Dobber Prospects yells “Vroom Vroom” when he watches Lysell and Will Scouch of Scouching calls him “The Swedish Roadrunner”. So, obviously skating and speed are a big part of his game. His compete level is exceptional and it shows in his decision making and his defensive play.

Check out our report on Lysell:

Scouting Report: Fabian Lysell

#11 – Arizona Coyotes – Forfeit

The Coyotes lost their first rounder for the 2021 NHL Draft.

#12 – Chicago Blackhawks – Chaz Lucius

Selected by Paul Zuk

The Chicago Blackhawks stock up at center and add University of Minnesota commit Chaz Lucius (USNTDP, Center). Fans at the Madhouse on Madison will love Chaz and his goal scoring ability. As Paul notes in his report, Lucius has excellent range on his shot and can be a threat no matter where he is in the offensive zone.

Check out our report on Lucius:

Scouting Report: Chaz Lucius

#13 – Calgary Flames – Fyodor Svechkov

Selected by Josh Tessler

The Calgary Flames add Fyodor Svechkov (Togliatti/SKA St. Petersburg, LW/C) at 12th overall. Svechkov is easily the best defensive forward in the 2021 NHL Draft class and has outstanding acceleration, puck manipulation and is rather dangerous down low.

Check out our report on Svechkov:

Scouting Report: Fyodor Svechkov

#14 – Philadelphia Flyers – Aatu Räty

Selected by Alexander Appleyard

The Philadelphia Flyers take Finnish forward Aatu Räty (Kärpät, Center) at 13th overall. While Räty is no longer considered the top prospect in the class and has fallen to the teens, he’s shown that he can be a reliable forechecker, possesses a quality defensive game and is strong on the cycle.

Check out our report on Räty:

Scouting Report: Aatu Räty

#15 – Dallas Stars – Mason McTavish

Selected by Jordan Malette

The Dallas Stars ink Mason McTavish (Peterborough, Center) at 14th overall. Due to COVID, McTavish ended up returning back to Switzerland (where he spent a decent amount of his youth) and played for EHC Olten alongside Brennan Othmann (fellow dual citizen of both Canada and Switzerland). While McTavish was a sniper in the OHL, his shot and offensive production was more well-rounded in Switzerland. He loves drawing the attack to the perimeter and then finding a gap in the slot to exploit. McTavish also possesses a lot of grit in his game.

Check out our report on McTavish:

Scouting Report: Mason McTavish

#16 – New York Rangers – Brennan Othmann

Selected by Bailey Johnson

With Chris Drury’s first selection as general manager of the New York Rangers, they select Brennan Othmann (Flint, Left Winger). Alongside McTavish, Othmann spent the season with EHC Olten in Switzerland. The dual citizen (Canada and Switzerland) consistently finds the right spot in the offensive zone and has one of the best shots in this class. He is an efficient defender and will drop back to regroup when facing tough pressure in the neutral zone.

Check out our report on Othmann:

Scouting Report: Brennan Othmann

Photo Credit: Andy Devlin / Edmonton Oil Kings

Sebastian Cossa is a 2021 NHL Draft eligible prospect, who hails from Hamilton, Ontario. While Cossa was born in Hamilton, he spent the majority of his childhood in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Cossa was living in Fort McMurray at the time of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildlife fires and recounted what life was like for his parents, Sandra and Gianni and his brother, Nicholas in a post by Alyscia Warner of the Edmonton Oil Kings communications/public relations team. The post also talks about the Fort McMurray floods and Cossa’s time at home during the pandemic.

He played U15 hockey for both the Fort McMurray Oil Barons U15 AA and the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers U15 AAA. In his 2016-2017 season with the Rangers, he was the top goaltender in the AMBHL (AEHL U15). Cossa posted a 1.80 GAA and a .934 SV% in 19 games played. He was awarded the AMBHL Most Valuable Player of the year.

Prior to his 2017-2018 season with the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers U18 AAA team, he was drafted in the second round of the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft by the Edmonton Oil Kings. Cossa played two more seasons in the Fort Saskatchewan Rangers system and joined the Oil Kings for the 2019-2020 season.

Since making his WHL debut in 2019-2020, he’s been one of the top goaltenders in the league. This season, he posted outstanding goaltender basic stats including a SV% of .941 and a 1.57 GAA.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen two WHL goaltenders drafted by the 50th overall pick in the NHL Draft. Those two goaltenders are Carter Hart (48th overall in the 2016 NHL Draft, Philadelphia Flyers) and Mads Søgaard (37th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft, Ottawa Senators). In all likelihood, Cossa will be taken higher than both Hart and Søgaard. He will likely be a late first round/early second round selection at the 2021 NHL Draft. If taken in the first round of the 2021 NHL Draft, he will be the first WHL goaltender since Carey Price (5th overall in the 2005 NHL Draft, Montréal Canadiens) was drafted in the 2005 NHL Draft to be taken in the first round. He will also be the ninth goaltender from the WHL to be drafted in the first round since since the inaugural amateur draft in 1963. Aside from Price, some of the more notable WHL goaltenders that were selected in the first round include hall of famer Grant Fuhr (8th overall in the 1981 NHL Draft, Edmonton Oilers) and Trevor Kidd (11th overall in the 1990 NHL Draft, Calgary Flames).

Player Profile

D.O.B – November 21, 2002
Nationality – Canada
Draft Eligibility – 2021
Height –6’6
Weight –212 lbs
Position – Goaltender
Catches – Left

Cossa’s Style Of Play

Stance

Sebastian Cossa is a hybrid goaltender. With his size, he is able to stand tall and make saves with ease. But, on the grand scheme of things, Cossa makes more butterfly saves than saves when standing tall. The majority of his stand up saves come when his opponents are firing shots from low danger/the point. When not facing low danger shots, you can expect Cossa to drop down into a butterfly stance.

Cossa will start to crouch when the rush passes the perimeter. He will then crouch even further and lower himself when the attacker is in high danger, takes up more space and extends his pad out past the post to limit the shooter’s options.

Athleticism and Speed

Cossa loves to show off his athleticism but dropping to all fours on the breakaway. Usually, the attacker is too far down low for him to elevate the shot at that point. Cossa sprawls out and pushes the puck out of the crease. He has proven to be rather quick when it comes to shifting out of RVH to sprawling. While he enjoys sprawling out, it takes Cossa too long to get back up to his feet and that leads to vulnerable situations for Edmonton.

But, the speed and quickness that Cossa embodies is what truly wows me about his athleticism. He is quite speedy when going from left to right when facing a two on two with one attacker coming down the right side (attacker’s right side) and a second attacker who found open ice at net front. Cossa deploys quality edge work to help push him from side to side. In addition, his reaction time is quite fast when closing up the five hole and when jumping back up to standing stance from the butterfly.

Post Security

Cossa’s post security is air tight. He can take up roughly 65% – 75% of the post with his 6’6/212 lbs frame. When protecting the post on his right side, his blocker is overlapping the post and his shoulder sits near the top of the net. On the left side, it is very similar as you will see his glove overlapping the post instead of having his glove behind the post. Cossa will utilize RVH over VH when protecting the posts. In my views, I didn’t see Cossa using VH at all. Not only does Cossa using RVH bode well for him from a speed perspective since one leg in a kickstand position, but it also allows Cossa to take up a good portion of the lower net with his pad. This allows Cossa to quickly shift over from a RVH position to standard butterfly at net front on a dime.

Vision

Vision is often forgotten when evaluating goaltenders, but it shouldn’t be. Especially when talking about Cossa. When there is an attacker behind his net, Cossa keeps a watchful eye on him when the attacker moves from right to left and vice versa. Not only is Cossa able to keep a good watchful eye when facing pressure from behind his own net, but given his frame he also has the ability to look over the shoulders of an attacker when the attacker is at net-front trying to block Cossa’s visions. Cossa will be open up his sight-lines once again but shifting his head back and forth around the attacker to get a good view of the puck from.

Saves

In general, Cossa has a good blocker and glove. There is no concern about how he utilizes his glove nor blocker. The only issues that Cossa seems to have with his blocker is that he will get beat on occasion on the top blocker side. In the screenshot below from InStat Hockey you can see Cossa’s goals against heat map from the last 50 games. Over the course of those 50 games, he tends to give up the most goals top blocker and mid-to-low glove side.

He tends to complete gloves saves when facing medium and low danger saves. Not many glove saves when taking on shots from down low. But, when he does use his glove, the majority of the time Cossa will use his upper chest for support to make the catch.

Aside from analyzing his blocker and glove, you will notice when you watch Cossa that the majority of his saves are squared up. What that means is that he is facing the puck carrier dead on. He can defend shots off the rush with ease by squaring up, trapping the puck with his glove and using his chest for support. But, not only does he excel at trapping squared up saves with his glove on the rush, he also has plenty of success with saving point shots on the penalty kill.

Rebounds

When Cossa is facing a shot from beyond the perimeter and he has traffic at the crease, he will extend his pad out while in the butterfly to redirect the shot when he knows that he won’t be able to grab a hold of the puck. In low danger, when facing a shot, he will use his blocker, stick or pads to push the puck to low danger. If Cossa is defending against a relatively low shot from low danger, he might place his blocker and stick down low in front of his pad to redirect the shot.

He can also redirect and control rebounds when completing stand up saves. Cossa will lean on his glove to redirect saves to low danger.

While Cossa is solid at controlling rebounds, his rebound rate to low danger is less than the average of the goaltenders that I’ve tracked. His rebounds to low danger are lower than Benjamin Gaudreau, Carter Serhyenko, Jesper Wallstedt, Tristan Lennox and William Jupiter. It is also worth noting that he has a high rebound/save rate of 73.40%. The rate is on the higher end of the goaltenders that I’ve tracked.

Decision Making

Something that Cossa generally struggles with is puck manipulation. On breakaway goals at net front, he can be manipulated and drawn to one side. When it is slightly too late, the attacker will stutter step and shoot on Cossa’s other side. That doesn’t give Cossa enough time to shift back over.

He will also struggle with decision making on when to come out from the crease. There are instances of when he will drive out from the crease if facing shots from the outer hashmarks of the faceoff circles in high danger. When that happens, Cossa puts himself in a vulnerable spot because if the shooter has solid puck manipulation, Cossa might get drawn to on side and not be able to handle the shot as he shifted too far over. Cossa will also sometimes struggle with depth perception and go a bit too far out of the crease when facing a shooter dead on. Thus he leaves the net quite exposed.

There are also certain situations where he has possession of the puck behind his own net and passes the puck directly into danger accidentally. But, for the most part, he is a quality passer.

Stick-Handling/Passing

As we just mentioned in the decision making section, Cossa is a quality passer. In fact, this season, Cossa was 89% accurate with his passing per InStat. That passing rate is 15% higher than his rookie season in the WHL. But, keep in mind that Cossa played far more games in his rookie season than this past season due to COVID-19.

Cossa has shown that he is good at controlling the pace of the game prior to passing. Sometimes he will complete a subtly behind the back pass or drop pass when attempting to get the puck to his defender. But, as you would expect, he has shown to be rather successful at passing off the boards when passing to defenders along the half-wall.

Goaltender Metrics

As you can see from the Tableau screenshots below, Cossa has quality speed. He’s not the fastest in the group, but he is certainly near the top. In addition, when it comes to low, medium and high danger rebound control, he tends to be in the middle of the pack.

If you would like to view the tableau diagrams, they can be found here.

In addition, I wrote a post a few months back that explains more about the data that you are looking at and how to identify a goaltender on the diagram that controls rebounds at an exceptional rate and which ones are faster than the rest of the pack.

Projection

Starting Goaltender (NHL)

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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!

Photo Credit: Darren Francis Photography

Ayrton Martino is one of the oldest 2021 NHL Entry Draft eligible prospects, having suited up for the USHL’s Omaha Lancers this past season, where he saw his draft stock increase rapidly. Martino hails from Toronto, Ontario, and played his youth hockey with the Toronto Titans U16 AAA of the GTHL.

Martino was a point-per-game player during his time with the Titans, and that trend continued as he transitioned to play for the St. Michael’s Buzzers of the OJHL the following season. Martino tallied ten goals and 32 assists for 42 points in 49 games during his debut campaign for the Buzzers. His sophomore season for the Buzzers saw major improvement, as he racked up an impressive 29 goals and 50 assists for 79 points in 48 games.

To kick off the 2020/21 season, Martino began in the BCHL for the Chilliwack Chiefs, but when the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to play, he transferred to Omaha. Martino didn’t miss a beat joining up with the Lancers, as he recorded 18 goals and 38 assists for 56 points in only 38 games. He was also named the Lancers’ Forward of the Year, as voted on by his teammates.

For the 2021/22 season, Martino has committed to Clarkson University, where he’ll hope to build on some impressive seasons in the GTHL and USHL. Martino will look to develop his game further in Potsdam, NY under the watchful eye of Head Coach Casey Jones, and the entire Clarkson Golden Knights squad will be focused in on making it back to the NCAA Tournament.

Player Profile

D.O.B – September 28, 2002
Nationality – Canada
Draft Eligibility – 2021
Height – 5’10″
Weight – 170 lbs
Position – Left Wing
Handedness – Left

Martino’s Style Of Play

Martino is an extremely talented, creative passer of the puck. He always seems to look for the most unique ways to distribute the puck to his teammates (i.e. bank pass, wrap around pass, etc.), and more often than not, is successful at executing those difficult setups.

As talented of a passer Martino is, he’s just as excellent at being a playmaker. He loves to push the play out wide when breaking into the offensive the zone, allowing him the most space possible to set up his linemates with a beautiful pass or a scoring chance in tight.

Ayrton Martino (#2021NHLDraft) is one of the silkiest offensive players in the draft.

The goal here is a nice shot but that slippery little pass on the give-and-go was just *chef kiss* pic.twitter.com/OkMLNHpLqW

— Tony Ferrari (@theTonyFerrari) March 11, 2021

Martino also possesses a silky set of hands, and can elude defenders in limited space with ease. He is also quite talented at handling the puck, especially throughout the neutral zone, where he’s able to put his offensive talents and impressive vision on full display.

Martino thrives in a run-and-gun offense like the one Omaha uses, where he’s able to control possession of the puck, and dictate the majority of the Lancers’ high danger offensive chances. Off the puck, Martino is relentless when it comes to pressuring defenders to retrieve the puck, and can be a pain to battle with, knowing that if he obtains possession, it could spell danger for his opponents.

Skating

An explosive skater with arguably the best breakaway speed in the 2021 Draft class, Martino can easily fly past defenders and catch them standing still more often than not. In watching film on Martino from this past season, it wasn’t a rare occurrence to see him have multiple breakaways per game.

Martino seems to generate his explosiveness is by using crossovers to maximize his speed and acceleration, especially in transition and during controlled zone entries. He also has really quick feet, and a strong, semi-wide stance that allows him a nice blend of speed and balance on the ice. He’s able to use his edges to escape any sort of trouble with a great deal of success.

Martino’s ability to generate a lot of speed in such a short time has earned him the respect from defenders around the USHL, as he can beat them both off the rush and while attacking in the offensive zone.

Offense

Without a doubt, the bread and butter of Martino’s game is certainly his dual- threat offense. There’s a finite list of players within the USHL who are better in the attacking third of the ice, and even fewer with the playmaking capabilities that Martino has.

Not only is Martino deadly at 5v5 play, he’s also a lethal powerplay set-up man. He always seems to be the catalyst for Lancers’ powerplay tallies, as noted by Martino seeing an average north of 4.5 minutes of powerplay time per game. Quite often, Martino is able to play as the 4th forward at the point on the powerplay, allowing him more space to read the ice and deliver a pass.

Martino has incredible vision on the ice, and can find even the most difficult passes and deliver them without issue. He seems to have a 360 degree view of the ice at all times. He is rarely caught with his head down, and is always looking for open ice to attack.

Making the correct decision can affect the game exponentially. Incredible IQ and skill from Ayrton Martino (@Chiefs_Hockey). 1v5=no chance to enter/chip to recover puck & his team is changing. Reloads with confidence, draws 3 players to him creating odd man rush for his own team pic.twitter.com/X5XAYrd2dU

— Connor Cadaret (@Caddy1414) November 9, 2020

Martino’s shot is another aspect of his game that is well-rounded. He has a fairly quick release on his shot, but can be selective from where he chooses to shoot. However, he’s able to use his incredible playmaking skills as a decoy to fool opposing goaltenders, and utilize his powerful wrist shot to pick open corners with little difficulty.

His ability to keep his feet moving without the puck as he tries to exploit any ounce of open space in the offensive zone makes him such a nightmare to defend.

Defense

Perhaps the only weak point of Martino’s game is his ability to thrive in the defensive zone. That’s not to say he is one-dimensional, but his overall play in his own zone leaves a little bit to be desired.

Martino has a tendency to cheat a little bit in the defensive zone, as he’s locked in on creating offense. While that style of game may pay off in the USHL, Martino will definitely have to break that type of habit as he transitions into the next level.

Although Martino may be rough around the edges defensively, there are a couple of bright spots to his game. Even though Martino sees ~53% of his ice time in the offensive zone, he can also be utilized in a penalty killing role, as he can pressure defenders with his speed and use his active stick to effectively break up passes and remove the puck from the more dangerous areas.

Dobber Prospects Head of Scouting Tony Ferrari recently spoke with Martino regarding his ability to think offensively, even while playing defense. Have a listen:

How does playing offensively help you think defensively? How about the other way around? @OmahaLancers forward Ayrton Martino talks a bit about that during my interview with the #2021NHLDraft prospect! Full interview on the @DobberDraftCast YT Page: https://t.co/iQjwjbxfDs pic.twitter.com/KipwqawiwW

— Tony Ferrari (@theTonyFerrari) February 25, 2021

It’s definitely an interesting perspective to base a defensive-style game plan around, but if it works, it works!

Feel free to check out Tony’s excellent work on Twitter! His handle is @theTonyFerrari.

Improvements

While Martino’s offensive game is quite polished at this point, there are a few areas of his game he can look to bolster during the next couple of seasons. For instance, there are times where he struggles a little bit with his shot accuracy. It’s interesting to think about where his point totals could have been this past season if his accuracy was more consistent. Martino is incredibly patient with the puck, especially in the offensive zone, but with a little more patience when deciding to shoot the puck could pay dividends for his game.

If Martino hopes to succeed in more than just a top-6 role moving forward in his career, he’ll have to focus on developing his defensive game a little further, as mentioned above. It could be a factor of the system Omaha has implemented this past season, but Martino was more of a run-and-gun winger and was primarily focused on generating offense. It’s yet to be seen if he can adapt to a system that’s more structured defensively, but with the right coaching and work ethic, which Martino seems to have, he should be able to thrive in all three zones of the ice.

Overall Outlook

In the grand scheme of things, Ayrton Martino is a talented, offensive-minded playmaker with a natural eye for seeking out some exceptional passes. His playmaking ability is off the charts, which pretty much every NHL team should be looking for in a prospect.
Offensively, Martino comes as advertised. There isn’t much he doesn’t do exceptionally well in the attacking third of the ice, and would be a solid addition to every team’s prospect pipeline.

Defensively, his game could use some work, as mentioned above. Perhaps it’s more of a system implemented thing, but there’s little doubt Martino isn’t able to adapt relatively quickly to a more structured system.

Overall, Ayrton Martino would be a very good add to any NHL team looking to bolster it’s offensive output, especially if Martino can be had with a second-round pick. It’s hard to deny the skill and production Martino brings, and it would not come as a surprise to many if he’s selected with a late first round pick.

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stats from InStat and EliteProspects

Prospect report written by Paul Zuk. If you would like to follow Paul on Twitter, his handle is @paulzuk_81.

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!

Photo Credit: Luke Durda/OHL Images

Ruben Rafkin is a 2021 NHL Draft eligible prospect, who hails from Turku, Finland. Rafkin is an overager defensive prospect.

Rafkin played youth hockey in the TPS organization before packing his bags for North America. Initially, he ended up at the South Kent School in South Kent, Connecticut and played 16U AAA hockey for South Kent’s Selects Academy. If you are not familiar with the South Kent School/Selects Academy, they are often regarded as one of the top prep schools for hockey development in the United States. Several NHL prospects and NHLers played for the Selects Academy including Shayne Gostisbehere (Philadelphia Flyers), Shane Pinto (Ottawa Senators), Zachary Jones (New York Rangers), Ethan Phillips (Detroit Red Wings), Dominic Basse (Chicago Blackhawks), Joel Farabee (Philadelphia Flyers), Mathias Emilio Pettersen (Calgary Flames) and Skyler Brind’Amour (Edmonton Oilers).

After two seasons with Selects Academy, he decided to play in the USHL for the Tri-City Storm and appeared in 38 games. He recorded two goals and eight assists during his stint with Tri-City. Once the season had concluded, Rafkin was drafted 14th overall in the CHL Import Draft by the Windsor Spitfires. The following season (his initial draft year), he moved up to Windsor and joined fellow Finnish draft eligible Kari Piiroinen. In 59 games played, he tallied four goals and 27 assists.

Many sites including Smaht Scouting had Rafkin ranked for the 2020 NHL Draft, but unfortunately Rafkin was not selected. After the draft concluded, Rafkin was still confident and hanging his head up high. In a tweet following the conclusion of the draft, he wrote “Tomorrow is a new day”.

This season, he re-joined TPS organization. As mentioned above, TPS was the organization that Rafkin had played youth hockey in. Throughout the 2020-2021 Liiga regular season, Rafkin was often paired with Detroit Red Wings prospect Eemil Viro. Viro and Rafkin had plenty of experience being paired together at international tournaments, so there was already a level of familiarity. In 48 games played with TPS, he recored four goals and 12 assists.

Rafkin also was part of the Finnish World Junior roster and took home a Bronze medal.

Player Profile

D.O.B – January 8, 2002
Nationality – Finland
Draft Eligibility – 2021
Height –6’0
Weight –190 lbs
Position – Defense
Handedness – Right

Rafkin’s Style Of Play

Offense

In the offensive zone, Rafkin does an excellent job working the perimeter. He will jump to the perimeter when there are puck battles down low. When the puck is beyond the red line, he will find post up in an open spot along the perimeter and provide his teammates that are engaged in a puck battle with a passing option in low danger. Sometimes that will lead to one-timer goals like the one that Rafkin scored against the Pelicans on April 1, 2021.

Not only was he able to capitalize off of one-timers at the perimeter, but he was also to drain one-timer shots from the blue-line as well.

2021 NHL Draft eligible prospect Ruben Rafkin had a couple of one-timer goals from long range this season. Here is one that he scored against Tappara.

Rafkin finished the season with four goals and 12 assists in 48 games played. #2021NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/akpnej5RGd

— Josh Tessler (@JoshTessler_) May 24, 2021

Even though Rafkin matched his goal production this season in comparison to his season with the Windsor Spitfires, there is still more work that needs to be done on Rafkin’s shot. When you go through the footage of Rafkin from this past season with TPS, you will notice that there are quite a few shots where his stick blade was not facing the net and that caused some of his shots to go wide towards the corners/boards.

From an offensive puck distribution perspective, Rafkin has shown that he can complete smooth and crisp passes throughout the offensive zone. His smooth passing has led to quite a few assists this past season with TPS and in his 2019-2020 season with Windsor.

If you pay close attention to his zone entries and his initial instincts in the offensive zone, you will notice that he enjoys pinching up to the perimeter and firing shots from just beyond the face-off circles. Rafkin thoroughly enjoys pinching up even when he doesn’t have possession of the puck. He will pinch up and dart after loose pucks in the corner, when none of his teammates are in position to do so.

Defense

While he does offer solid production in the offensive zone, I would argue that he is much stronger in the defensive zone. Rafkin constantly has quality positioning in the defensive zone. He will sit at net-front when his defensive partner, Viro is keeping close tabs on the puck carrier when the play is down low. Rafkin has formed a strong bond with Viro and adapts pretty quickly to Viro’s movements. If Viro is covering an attacking winger on the left side of the ice, expect Rafkin to play a centered role around net-front. When puck battles lure Viro in, Rafkin holds down the fort for both of them and shifts over to center-left to provide insurance incase his opponents regain control of the puck. If Viro drops back to play a loose puck behind the red line, you can then expect Rafkin to drop back as well and lend support at the trapezoid.

Rafkin’s gap control and defensive pressure is stronger down low. He does offer defensive pressure further out, but he tightens up his pressure when the puck carriers are driving down the lane down low. Rafkin will stay glued to the opponent if the opponent is looking to pivot his way out of a jam. He will pivot as well and stay aligned with the attacker. There is roughly one second that the attacker has on Rafkin, but you have to assume that it will take at least one second for Rafkin to follow his opponent’s skate movements before he mimics. When down low in the corners and behind the net, you can expect Rafkin to place his stick blade near the opponent’s stick blade to trap the attacker and dictate how his attacker moves the puck. He will utilize his stick in a similar matter when defending in medium danger in the face-off circles. Rafkin will place the stick blade close to his opponent’s stick blade to deflect shot attempts. If and when Rafkin is defending at the perimeter in the slot, he will keep his arms and stick in front of his stomach, take up as much space as possible when looking to block shots from low danger.

There are some instances where Rafkin will struggle with his gap control and positioning, but it isn’t a consistent problem. There are sequences where Rafkin draws in on the attacker, misreads the attacker’s intentions, assumes the attacker wants to play the puck along the boards and yet the attacker cuts to his right to avoid Rafkin. At that point, Rafkin is out of position and the attacker has a clearer path to the net. Sometimes, he will position himself too far up in the defensive zone, puts pressure on an attacker, the attacker completes a behind the back tap pass and Rafkin isn’t able to counter-attack as one of the attacker’s teammates is in perfect position to grab the puck.

While he isn’t a huge defenseman in terms of size, you can’t underestimate Rafkin’s physicality. When defending along the half-wall, Rafkin will throw his weight and use his arms for support when positioned close to his opponent. He will attempt to throw you into the boards to shut down the cycle. But, he will also lean on his physicality when he is late to a loose puck and looks to stall the attacker so that the attacker doesn’t have a clean path to the puck.

Rafkin has no issues instilling breakout passes and will lean on passing the puck along the boards when he gets into jams. When he isn’t facing a tight jam, he will either fire a tape-to-tape feed or wait till he gets closer to the blue-line.

One of the areas in Rafkin’s defensive play that needs the most defensive play has more to do with skating than defense. But, when Rafkin goes in for loose pucks in the defensive zone to net defensive recoveries, he struggles at times to manufacture the necessary speed and acceleration to hunt for those loose pucks. So, that’s when he has to lean on his physicality to separate his opponent who is also playing the loose puck from the puck.

Skating

For the most part, Rafkin is a straight-line skater, but has shown at times that he will point his toes sideways when darting after loose pucks. The toes of his skates will point sideways on the skate extension recovery.

When you look at Rafkin’s edges and crossovers, there is a lot to like. Rafkin deploys crisp inside and outside edges when completing tight turns. His crossovers are tightly-placed and he’s shown that he can garner decent acceleration with his crossovers when skating backwards. If he initiates a breakout attempt from behind his own net, he deploys multiple crossovers before going into stride.

From a stride perspective, he isn’t the fastest skater on the ice and that is apparent when going for loose pucks. His skate extensions need further development. He will use two longer extensions at the start and his ankle flexion is in-line with the toe of his skates. But, when he is chasing after loose pucks, you will notice that his skate extensions are rather short, so he doesn’t gather the necessary acceleration.

When he doesn’t want to come to a complete stop but wants to slow down a tad, he will deploy a wide glide in order to slow down his speed.

Transitional Play

Rafkin loves to complete stretch passes for zone exit passes and will look to complete diagonal stretch passes when he finds teammates that have found open ice in the neutral zone on the left side. While he loves to attempt stretch passes, his accuracy on them is a tad inconsistent.

When taking the puck into the neutral zone himself, he will either look to play the puck himself into the offensive zone or identify the right opportunity to dump the puck into the zone to key up a dump and chase.

If there is too much pressure and Rafkin feels that a controlled zone entry will only lead to a costly turnover, he will button-hook and regroup before trying again. But, if Rafkin decides that he can out-play the pressure, sometimes he faces challenges with his stick-handling. He might try to extend the puck to the right when in the neutral zone with a man on and then extend the puck outwards to get around the pressure, but he does struggle with his reach as it’s a tad limited.

From a defensive transitional perspective, Rafkin loves to jump up high in the neutral zone and put pressure on the attack, but there has been situations where that backfires and leaves his team vulnerable at times.

When there are puck battles along the boards and Viro draws into those puck battles, Rafkin has illustrated that he will come closer, sit on the sidelines (so to speak) and play an insurance role. This way he is ready for the puck should his opponents grab the puck or he can help kick off the rush if his teammates grab a hold of the puck and look for an open teammate.

If the rush comes close to Rafkin’s blue-line, he will lower himself and widen. Rafkin will do so to force the attack to either dump the puck into his zone or control where the puck carrier goes with the puck.

Projection

Bottom Pairing NHL Defenseman.

Rafkin has proven through his play with TPS this year that he is truly worthy of a draft selection. There are some areas of his game that need further development, but he has shown to have strong physicality and exerts quality pressure when he needs to. His offensive game is sound and could provide a NHL team with a solid right handed shot on a third pairing.

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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!

Photo Credit: Dinamo Minsk

Dmitri Kuzmin is a 2021 NHL Draft eligible left handed defenseman, who hails from Kholstovo, Belarus. For those unfamiliar with Kholstovo, it is a small town that sits between Mogilev, Belarus and Babruysk, Belarus.

Kuzmin plays for Dinamo-Molodechno (Belarusian Extraleague), which is an affiliate of HC Dinamo Minsk (KHL). This past season (2020-2021), Kuzmin recorded three goals and nine assists in 46 games for Dinamo-Molodechno. In addition, he played in six playoff games, in which he tallied three goals and an assist. Most recently, he played in seven playoff games for Minskie Zubry (Belarus Vysshaya Liga, the junior developmental league for the Belarusian Extraleague) and netted five points in seven matches.

In addition to his league play, he represented Belarus at the international stage at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championships in Texas. He had tallied one goal and four assists in five games. Kuzmin’s teammate (on both Belarus U18 and Dinamo-Molodechno), Danila Klimovich (2021 NHL Draft eligible prospect) led the Belarusian squad in total points, but Kuzmin was the second highest.

Even though Kuzmin played in Belarus this past season, his intent was to play in the OHL for the Flint Firebirds. Kuzmin had been selected by Flint in the 2020 CHL Import Draft and signed his letter of intent to join the Firebirds. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the OHL didn’t have a season and Kuzmin stayed in Belarus.

Kuzmin is represented by Daniel Milstein and his team at Gold Star Sports Management Group. Gold Star represents quite a bit of Russian, Belarusian, Latvian and Ukrainian talent. Alongside Kuzmin, the agency represents quite a few 2021 NHL Draft eligible prospects including Semyon Vyazovoy, Vsevolod Skotnikov, Pavel Tyutnev, Nikita Chibrikov, Danil Chayka and Vsevolod Gaidamak.

Player Profile

D.O.B – April 23, 2003
Nationality – Belarus
Draft Eligibility – 2021
Height –5’10
Weight –176 lbs
Position – Defense
Handedness – Left

Kuzmin’s Style Of Play

Dinamo-Molodechno has featured Kuzmin at both left defense and right defense. Throughout a few of Dinamo-Molodechno’s games, head coach Konstantin Koltsov has opted to play Kuzmin on his wrong side with Nikolai Stasenko. Kuzmin fit well with Stasenko and performed well on his wrong side. Now, I’m not saying that he would perform well on his wrong side at the NHL or AHL level, but it is worth noting that he does have experience on his wrong side. So, I urge you not to envision the next Alec Martinez or T.J. Brodie. But, with that being said, I would definitely be interested to see if Kuzmin could successfully play on his wrong side in the NHL/AHL and provide his future club with a versatile defender.

Defense

In the defensive zone, Kuzmin is an excellent slot defender. He will bend his knees and widen at the perimeter. Then, he will utilize an active stick to keep the attack out of the slot and he will look for optimal moments to attempt a poke check. Not only does Kuzmin utilize an active stick to keep the attack in low danger, but he will also use an active stick to cut down open lanes. His active stick will also come in handy behind the red line as he looks to trap attackers in the corners and low danger. Kuzmin will use just one hand on his stick and wave it to the right or left side depending on the attacker’s movements.

From a positioning perspective, he displays quality positioning along the red line when the puck is behind the net. If puck movement shifts to the corner (on the side that he is defending). he will shift over to the corner and apply quality pressure. When the puck has moved to the other corner, he will sit along the red line at net-front and patrol.

Aside from defending the slot and the corners, Kuzmin will be a tad inconsistent when defending the half-wall. There are shifts where he tends to be a bit a more attentive and others where he is more laid back and observing play from afar. His gap control is strong down low, but he should look to apply the same gap control pressure along the boards.

When defending two-on-one situations, Kuzmin will look to prone. Unfortunately, this leaves his goaltender in a very vulnerable spot. When you prone in the middle of the two-on-one, the defender (in this case, Kuzmin) cuts the open passing lane for the moment, but as long as the puck carrier has solid stick-handling, they can avoid the defender and find their teammate with ease.

Kuzmin has shown that he can generate good speed when hunting after defensive recoveries. He will either lean on his crossovers to generate the necessary acceleration or utilize two power stride extensions and then quickly shorten his extensions when he gets to the puck.

When controlling the puck in the defensive zone, Kuzmin has illustrated that he can control the tempo well. He will drop back behind his own net rather consistently, to quiet the momentum and control the pace. When he is ready to complete a breakout pass attempt, he is an extremely effective passer when he isn’t facing a tough forecheck. His passing completion rates when facing the forecheck seem to be 50-50. But, with that being said, Kuzmin will find ways to dodge the forecheck and instill a successful breakout pass. For instance when there is a forward shift change, he will fall back a tad, lure the forechecker in and thus that frees up a decent amount of open ice for one of his forward teammates that comes off the bench. At that point, Kuzmin has freed up his teammate from the forecheck, so then Kuzmin will complete a tape-to-tape feed to the teammate to kick off the rush.

Transitional Play

Kuzmin tends to prefer to create zone exit passes when looking to start up the rush. But, we noticed that Kuzmin preferred to complete controlled zone-to-zone transitions when playing in the IIHF U18 World Championships which is a change of pace for the Belarusian defender. When he completes controlled zone entries into the offensive zone, I’ve noticed that he will deploy non-dominant hand stick-handling to bypass pressure in the neutral zone. While that has been a change in his play overseas, when home in Belarus, he tends to look to complete stretch passes and he can dodge pressure on occasion by playing the puck closer to the boards to draw the attacker to the boards before moving the puck to his left side to complete a zone exit pass. At that point, he’s created enough space for himself as the attacker is closer to the boards and isn’t blocking a passing lane.

When Kuzmin is defending in the neutral zone, he likes to keep a close eye on the boards and if there is an attacker along the boards with the puck, he will draw in, lower his body and use an active stick to force the attacker to dump the puck. While he does put pressure on the attacker in those situations, it doesn’t seem to be consistent for Kuzmin. There are shifts where he will sit at his own blue-line and play the wait and see approach.

If the attacker is at open ice and clearly looking to put on the jets to get to net-front, Kuzmin will adapt his speed on the fly and stay toe-to-toe with the attacker to implement man-to-man defensive measures.

The two areas in his transitional play that I would like to see further developed is his stretch passing accuracy and asserting more pressure in the neutral zone. His stretch passing accuracy is rather inconsistent and as mentioned above he doesn’t apply the same defensive pressure every shift.

Skating

Tony Ferrari of Dobber Prospects said it best when talking about Kuzmin in Dobber’s profile. Ferrari stated, “The young defender is extremely mobile and works off his edges with incredible efficiency. He changes speeds well and attacks in all three zones.”

If there is one takeaway with Kuzmin from a skating perspective it is that he can generate quality acceleration with his crossovers and can adjust his speed on the fly with ease. In the defensive zone, he will widen his skate extensions on a dime to help enable defensive recoveries. His skate extensions are also supported by quality ankle flexion. Kuzmin’s knees will sit on top of his toes and thus he can generate a sound stride.

When in transition, we don’t see Kuzmin deploying a quick stride. Instead, when controlling the puck from zone-to-zone, he prefers to weave around and by going slower, he can shift lanes if the attack seems to switch placement.

Along the offensive blue-line, you will notice that he will implement crossovers to allow him to walk the line when running the power play. When looking to stop moving laterally once he’s identified the passing lane that he wants to use, Kuzmin tends to a deploy a T-stop.

Offense

There is a lot to diagnose with Kuzmin’s offensive play. Since, the “pros” significantly outweigh the “cons”. Let’s kick things off with the “cons”.

When Kuzmin enters into the offensive zone with possession of the puck, there are many shifts where he struggles to gain ground in the offensive zone and fails to out-work the attack. Unfortunately, he will cough up the puck and thus ending the offensive attack. Kuzmin struggles to stick-handle around the attack and find open ice to set up an offensive cycle. But, that only tends to become a problem for Kuzmin when he immediately tries to pinch from the moment that the carries the puck into the zone.

The only other “cons” is that Kuzmin will sometimes struggle with pass completion rates and shot selection. Using InStat Hockey’s data from this season, I noticed that 45.3% of Kuzmin’s shots from the point were blocked shots. Kuzmin just has a tendency to fire shots from the point at will even if there is an attacker directly in front of him. From a passing perspective, he will struggle with taking the time to assess where exactly his teammates are. So, you will sometimes see Kuzmin attempt passes and they will end up in his attacker’s lap.

While Kuzmin does struggle at times when passing in the offensive zone, he is still a very reliable puck distributor. He has the most success when walking the line on the power play. Kuzmin will open up passing lanes by identifying the forward that he wants to pass to and then shifting over towards to the centered most point of the blue-line. This lures the attackers to follow Kuzmin rather than establish presence and cut down passing lanes. Once Kuzmin has shifted over and lured the attacker with him, he will then execute passes to his forward through an open lane. In the clip below, you can see Kuzmin (#5) walking the line, bringing the attacker with him and it frees up a passing lane.

Danila Klimovich missed the net with his between the legs effort, but makes no mistake beating the goalie on the power play.

Belarus cut Sweden's lead in half, 2-1. #U18Worldshttps://t.co/GOmPXBQzXd pic.twitter.com/kJgej8z9Ix

— Eliteprospects (@eliteprospects) April 26, 2021

Kuzmin also has proven that he has other methods of puck manipulation at his disposal. For instance, take a look at the clip below. By staying glued to one spot along the blue-line, he lures attackers to him. He will also place the puck towards his left side alongside the boards which lures the attacker to play the boards, but then frees up ice toward Kuzmin’s right side. At that point, he has enough open ice to fire a diagonal saucer pass to his teammate, who is coming into the offensive zone at full steam.

Dmitri Kuzmin is so much fun#2021NHLDraft | 🎥 #U18Worlds pic.twitter.com/chh9RPcxV1

— Dylan Griffing (@GriffingDylan) May 2, 2021

When it comes to goal scoring and non power play production, Kuzmin enjoys pinching up and being part of the offensive scheme down low. In fact, none of Kuzmin’s four goals (league play and international play) from this year came from the point. With that being said, Kuzmin will pinch up to create dangerous pass attempts and he will play the puck behind the net quite frequently. He’s been extremely effective behind the net and THREE of his four goals have been Michigan/lacrosse-style goals.

Dmitri Kuzmin (2021 NHL Draft eligible) with a lacrosse-style goal 👀#2021NHLDraft | #U18MensWorlds pic.twitter.com/8KcLWWDqLF

— Josh Tessler (@JoshTessler_) April 27, 2021

Projection

You are looking at a third pairing defenseman, who can be an effective power play quarterback on a secondary unit.

Other Kuzmin Content To Check Out

Friend of the site, Will Scouch took a look at Dmitri Kuzmin in a recent Scouching video report. For those unfamiliar with Scouch’s work, he does data tracking for NHL Draft eligible prospects and incorporates his data tracking into his videos.

Another friend of the site, Mitch Brown talked about Kuzmin’s performance at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championship in Texas for EP Rinkside.

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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!

Photo Credit: Oulun Kärpät / Iikka Pirttikoski

Ville Koivunen is a 2021 NHL Draft eligible prospect and he hails from Oulu, Finland. Koivunen plays in the Kärpät system and was named the U20 SM-Sarja Rookie of the Year (Yrjö Hakala Award) back in late March.

Koivunen has been playing in the Kärpät system since 2018-2019. He’s played at the U16 SM-Sarja level, U18 SM-Sarja level and the U20 SM-Sarja level for the club. In his 2019-2020 season, Koivunen went on an absolute tear as he racked up 71 points (27 goals and 44 assists) in 37 games played at the U18 level.

This past season (2020-2021), Koivunen recorded 23 goals and 26 assists in 38 games played for Kärpät U20. Koivunen led Kärpät U20 in points and was third in total points in the U20 SM-Sarja.

In addition to his league play numbers, he was quite productive on the international stage as well. He appeared in seven games at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championship in Texas and recorded 10 points (four goals and six assists). Koivunen and his Kärpät teammate Samu Tuomaala led the charge for Finland. Tuomaala had the highest point totals for Finland and Koivunen was one point shy of tying Tuomaala.

Player Profile

D.O.B – June 13, 2003
Nationality – Finland
Draft Eligibility – 2021
Height –6’0
Weight –165 lbs
Position – Right Wing
Handedness – Left

Koivunen’s Style Of Play

Before we kick things off and I provide thorough analysis of Koivunen, I want to highlight some of the data tracking work that Lassi Alanen (Twitter – @LassiAlanen) has done. Lassi of EP Rinkside has been tracking 2021 NHL Draft eligible prospects playing U20 hockey in Finland. His data looks at expected points/goals, shot contributions, shooting efficiency and more (all 5v5 data). In the majority of Lassi’s tableau scatter plots, you will notice that Koivunen’s data is constantly in the top right and thus indicates that Koivunen is extremely effective in the offensive zone when playing at even strength.

Offense

Ville Koivunen has shown through his U20 league play that he can be a dominant 5v5 point producer. From a goal scoring perspective, the Finnish forward has shown throughout the season that he can generate goals off of rebounds at net-front, finding gaps in the defensive scheme that allows him to drive to the net to score goals at net-front and long range goals from the perimeter. I wouldn’t say that Koivunen has a modus operandi way of scoring goals, but when scoring goals from the perimeter, he has a certain way of going about his business. In the clip below, you will see an example of one of Koivunen’s preferred methods of creating goal scoring opportunities. He will play the puck up the boards, cut in at the perimeter, skate to the slot and take a wrist shot from just inside the slot.

Going back and watching a bunch of Ville Koivunen as a I prepare for my report on him.

Koivunen LOVES to play the puck up the boards, cut in as soon as he has cleared the perimeter, goes to the slot and fires a wrist shot. It's like clockwork and he thrives at it.#2021NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/w9BxDE4skb

— Josh Tessler (@JoshTessler_) May 4, 2021

While Koivunen has proven to be an effective goal scorer at the U20 level, there is work to be done on his shot. Right off the bat, he will generate good height when scoring goals, but it is far from consistent. One of the things that I noticed about his shot is that his stick blade will occasionally be closed and not open. If you are unfamiliar with stick blades being open or closed, but you have experience golfing or playing tennis, picture yourself volleying or teeing off. If your racket or club isn’t open, your shot or volley won’t have height and you will struggle to get the ball where you want it to go. It’s the same in the hockey. You need your stick blade to be more open (raised) in order to generate height. In addition to generating height, I’ve also noticed that Koivunen will struggle with shooting accuracy and shot selection in well-defended situations. There are a few instances in which he is at the point and he is facing tough pressure from his opponent, instead of throwing the puck down the boards in a last attempt effort, he will fire shots from the point and pray that the puck will end up on net or just outside of the crease.

Aside from his shot, he does struggle at times with battling around tight pressure along the half-wall. He has challenges with pivoting out from danger and stick-handling around close to the vest pressure. To avoid coughing up the puck, you will on occasion see Koivunen attempt to push the puck past the attacker and once he has managed to clear the pressure, he will jump back onto the loose puck. If you are envisioning him swinging the puck around an attacker, he tries to something like that but he isn’t able to grap possession of the puck immediately after the swing. He has to first dodge the attacker.

While there are areas of his game that need further development, one of the things that you will instantly fall head over heels for is Koivunen’s compete level. In the offensive zone, he’s shown that can be a dependable forechecker. There is a lot of aggression in his game. He will use an active stick to psychologically trap puck carriers. He will place his stick right in front of the attacker’s stick to silence the breakout attempt and steal possession of the puck. Koivunen’s usage of his active stick has led to many successful poke-checks and interceptions. While he has shown to be very aggressive with his forechecking ability, there are quite a few situations where he is late to the forecheck and most of that can be attributed to skating issues which I will cover later on.

His aggressiveness and compete level isn’t just brought out in his forechecking, it is also prevalent in his play-making ability. Koivunen is always on a mission. He illustrates excellent problem solving and a lot of that can be attributed to his vision. If he sees that one lane is closed, he is quick to adapt. He’ll drive around the zone, find the gap that he initially identified and exploit it. In the clip below, you can check out an example of Koivunen working the cycle. He sees that he is drawing one attacker consistently and the two forwards playing at the perimeter are implementing zone defense strategies. With that being said, at the point towards the right side of the ice, he manipulates the attacker by playing the puck to the left, draws the attacker in on the left and immediately cuts down low. At this point, he has an edge on the attacker and now the defenders at net-front have to contend with a third forward. He draws one defender to him which frees Aleksi Antti-Roiko and Koivunen delivers a backhand feed to him.

Lukko and Kärpät are tied at 1-1 after 20 minutes of play. Aleksi Antti-Roiko opened the scoring for Kärpät after a nice setup by #2021NHLDraft prospect Ville Koivunen. Jeremi Tammela would tie the game late in the period. SOG 13-9 for Kärpät. #U20SM #Game2 pic.twitter.com/hmQfFetSzf

— Finnish Jr Hockey (@FINjrhockey) April 7, 2021

Koivunen is a crafty passer. As shown above, he can generate great accuracy on his backhand attempts. But, he has also proven that he can complete crisp diagonal feeds and smooth tape-to-tape feeds with a light gentle release. You can also expect Koivunen to place deceptive drop passes. He will skate with the puck in one direction, a teammate will follow, grab possession of the puck off of the drop pass and go in the opposite direction.

Stick-Handling

When it comes to stick-handling, I’ve seen Koivunen excel at puck security. Even in instances in which Koivunen’s edges or skating extensions lead to balance issues, his ability to control the puck without coughing it up is a joy to watch. In the clip below, you can check out an example of Koivunen falling to the ice, but shows excellent stick-handling ability as he places his stick-blade facing down and drags the puck to him.

Going through some Ville Koivunen footage as I prep for my report.

Look at his stick-handling ability here. Koivunen tries to shorten his stride, falls, grabs control of the puck and manages to shift the puck to the right to avoid the attacker with his stick blade facing down. pic.twitter.com/Hi4CgHAyAf

— Josh Tessler (@JoshTessler_) May 9, 2021

As I mentioned earlier, puck manipulation is a big component on Koivunen’s stick-handling skill-set. He will deploy a wide glide stop to lure in the attacker and then will go forehand to backhand with the puck to create space for himself.

Not only does Koivunen look to use puck manipulation to dodge attackers at open ice, but he will also use it to his advantage when goes one-on-one with the opposing goaltender. He will carry the puck to one side and then quickly position the puck to the other direction. This forces the goaltender to react late and more than often it works to Koivunen’s benefit if the goaltender is not fast enough to adapt.

Ville Koivunen shootout goal vs Russia U17. #U17fi #Kärpät pic.twitter.com/HzVUryfHBD

— Finnish Jr Hockey (@FINjrhockey) August 10, 2019

While Koivunen is quite strong at puck manipulation and puck security, you will see Koivunen struggle to out-work defenders if the pressure is extremely tight. He will attempt windmill through the leg stick-handling and it simply won’t phase the defender. In addition, you will see Koivunen wait too long before attempting to stick-handle around the defender. Like I mentioned in the offensive portion, he does find ways to work around his challenges with navigating the puck around extremely tight situations, but I can’t imagine that pushing the puck out and hoping to re-capture the puck once he shifts around the defender will translate in the NHL. It’s a faster level of play and I feel that his work-around will fail. Ultimately, I want to see him quicker with his stick-handling.

Transitional Play

Koivunen will shine in the neutral zone. He always seems determined to find open ice to create lanes for zone exit passes. Once he’s established that open lane, his defensemen will look to complete breakout passes to Koivunen so they can instill the rush. Koivunen’s vision and desire to find open ice in the neutral zone has paved the way for successful rush attempts and breakaways. Not only does Koivunen find open ice for himself, but he will also identify open lanes to use for completing zone exit passes.

The only concern that I have with his offensive transitional play is when he gets stuck in a 3-on-1 jam at center ice. There are some instances where he gets stuck and instead of dumping the puck into the offensive zone to spark a dump and chase, he’ll button hook all the way back to the defensive zone. I value when players button hook to avoid difficult situations, but Koivunen needs to use his vision to understand the depth of how far back he is button hooking.

From a defensive transitional perspective, his acceleration and skating issues prevent him from facing the attack. There are situations in which he is facing the attack dead on, but that tends to happen off the draw. When he is facing the attack, you can expect him to utilize an active stick to push puck carriers in specific directions. In the scenarios where he is behind the puck, you will see him try to stick-lift and create poke-checks. Ultimately, if he can improve his acceleration, he will be electric in the neutral zone given his compete level and active stick.

Defense

When in the defensive zone, Koivunen typically plays along the boards and at the perimeter. He provides strong pressure along the blue-line and will utilize his active stick to shut down shots by placing his stick blade in front of the attacker’s stick blade. In addition, he will use his active stick when shutting down passing lanes. He will jump into the slot and wave his stick in the direction of a non puck carrying attacker when one of the attackers teammates comes into the slot with the puck. Koivunen will drop back for defensive recoveries along the red line when there is no one available in the vicinity to claim possession of the puck.

The only area that I would like see to Koviunen work on in the defensive zone is paying close attention to his positioning. There are times where he drifts too far over on the left side. But, he understands that when puck is being played on the left that he needs to take a more centered role. Ultimately, he just needs to err caution on how far he goes in.

Skating

Skating is the one area of his game that needs a vast improvement. If you asked me where I would place Koivunen in rankings, he is a high second round pick, but if his acceleration alone was stronger then I would make the argument that he’s a top 25 prospect at the draft. But, his crossovers don’t give him the acceleration that he needs to ultimately thrive in transition and stronger acceleration will only improve his forechecking.

From a skating stride perspective, he will struggle with ankle flexion. You will notice this as his knees don’t reach the toes. They are just a bit short. He needs to stretch out his knees to garner a powerful stride. His ankle flexion issues have also caused his extensions to not be uniform. His left skate extensions appear to be wider than his right skate extensions.

His edges are another area that needs to be rounded out a bit more. Koivunen seems to be stronger on his outside edges versus his inside edges. When deploying his inside edges, he has difficulty landing his inside edge and it seems to be a more apparent issue when landing his left skate versus his right skate. His issue with inside edges has proven to make pivoting a challenge and he will struggle in close to the vest pressure as we mentioned before.

Koivunen also has a tendency to use wide glide hockey stops/pizza stops. I’m not a big fan of wide glide hockey stops as it hurts a player’s mobility and slows them down. But, he does use it deceptively to lure attackers in when he is in possession of the puck.

While skating is an area that needs further development, the work ethic and compete level that Koivunen has is what I truly admire and appreciate in his game. Skating is an issue for many prospects and shouldn’t deter teams from taking Koivunen. Every prospect has a few areas of their game that need more attention than others.

Projection

Top 9 Winger/Top 6 Upside (NHL).

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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!

Photo Credit: Rena Laverty

Up next for Smaht Scouting’s USHL prospect coverage is USNTDP forward Liam Gilmartin.

Gilmartin was born in Falls Church, Virginia (suburb of Washington D.C.) and played his minor hockey in the AYHL for the Washington Little Caps, up until the 14U ranks. The following seasons saw Gilmartin join renowned prep school Shattuck St. Mary’s in Minnesota for two years (14U and 16U), where he was teammates with Chicago Steel defenseman David Ma, and 2021 Biosteel All-American Game standout, Shai Buium.

Gilmartin took his talents to the USNTDP U17 program in 2019-20, where he racked up ten goals and five assists for 15 points in 48 games. He also added six goals and three assists for nine points in 29 games in USHL play. After a successful first season with the USNTDP, Gilmartin made the jump to the U18’s for this season, where he’s seen his game and point totals really take off. So far this season, Gilmartin has amassed 13 goals and 22 assists for 35 points in 50 games. He’s also added seven goals and eight assists for 15 points in 23 games in USHL competition.

For the 2021-22 season, Gilmartin is committed to Providence College, where he’ll join a highly successful Friars program, led by Head Coach Nate Leaman. Gilmartin will look to develop his game much like previous Friars left-wingers Brandon Tanev and Mark Jankowski.

Player Profile

D.O.B – January 7, 2003
Nationality – USA
Draft Eligibility – 2021
Height – 6’2″
Weight – 190 lbs
Position – Left Wing/Center
Handedness – Left

Gilmartin’s Style Of Play

Liam Gilmartin is your modern day power forward. He succeeds by using his size and strength to play a physical, yet talented “in-your-face” style of game. He’s a versatile player, and has success in both the offensive and defensive zones. When it comes to the offensive zone, Gilmartin is quite effective with the puck on his stick, and loves to work the puck around the zone.

Quite often watching film of the U18’s this season, Gilmartin has been the start of a beautiful offensive sequence. However, there are 4 other players on that line that also love to snap the puck around, and Gilmartin sometimes doesn’t get rewarded with points for his playmaking ability.

Gilmartin is average in transition, however he has found success using his frame to divert defenders on to his person to generate space for teammates to exploit. I’ll touch a little more on Gilmartin’s transitional game later on in the report.

Defensively, Gilmartin is a force to be reckoned with. He can shut down the opponent’s top line quite often, and punish them with his physical game play. Gilmartin is also a fairly good penalty killer, and can be trusted in every defensive role. He’s seen his penalty kill ice time almost double from last season with the U17’s.

Liam Gilmartin's strength and anticipation make him such an effective penalty killer. Jumps the breakout, tosses aside the Dubuque player and sets up a great scoring chance shorthanded. Seems like every year the USNDP has a gritty forward like Gilmartin who flies under the radar pic.twitter.com/I5ZnutQmKd

— OHL Prospects (@BrockOtten) April 19, 2021

Liam Gilmartin is definitely one of the more underrated prospects suiting up for the USNTDP U18’s. Let’s take a deeper look:

Skating

Gilmartin’s skating is definitely not the highlight of his skillset, but it doesn’t necessarily hinder him, either. He has a good, strong skating stride, and can generate speed and power rather quickly for his size.

Once Gilmartin generates speed, he’s quite a nuisance to stop. His unique combination of size, strength and speed allows him to work his way through the neutral zone and wreak havoc on defenders.

His edgework seems to be around average of draft-eligible prospects on the NDTP, although he isn’t considered as one of the more stronger skaters on the roster.
Gilmartin’s overall skating ability seems to have some kinks to work out, as his mechanics aren’t the most synthesized. That being said, he definitely has the tools in his belt to work on it, and with his never-quit work ethic, Gilmartin is definitely on the right track.

Offense

Gilmartin’s offense is one of the most noticeable improvements in his game, compared to last season with the U17’s. He passes the puck at short and medium range with little difficulty, and has quite a fair bit of success hitting teammates with long, stretch passes. He is also very useful at being that net-front presence on a sustained forecheck, and can capitalize in the crease, using his size and strength to rack up the points. Gilmartin’s shot is also an underrated aspect of his game, one he should look to exploit far more often than he currently is.

Talk about a net-front scramble!

Liam Gilmartin shows some persistence to find the back of the net. #BAAG pic.twitter.com/90lurVLSbm

— USA Hockey (@usahockey) April 8, 2021

Speaking in more general terms, Gilmartin has a nifty set of hands that he can utilize anywhere on the ice, which is somewhat surprising for a 6’2, 190lbs checking-line winger. He’s also an excellent forechecker, and has little trouble chasing down puck-retrieving defensemen and punishing them with a clean body check. Gilmartin also finds success in the offensive zone along the half-wall, and is creative in keeping the puck trapped down low, using pretty much any body part to keep it from exiting the zone.

As mentioned above, he’s seen his point totals increase by almost double from a season ago, and still, there’s good reason to believe there’s untapped potential for even more.
Gilmartin sees the game quite well, and his vision in the offensive zone does not leave much to be desired. The majority of the pieces are there for him to become a true force in the attacking third of the ice, he just has to work on putting them all together.

Defense

Gilmartin’s defensive game can pretty much be summed up in one word: reliable. There aren’t many moments where he’s out of position, and knows his role each and every time he steps foot on the ice.

In watching film on Gilmartin, it’s easy to tell that his defensive zone game is transferrable to an NHL level. He thrives in that shutdown role, a la a James van Riemsdyk. Gilmartin is definitely a carbon copy of the physical, power forward type that has made JVR such a talented forward at the NHL level, and Gilmartin can effectively neutralize opponent’s chances in the defensive zone just like him.

When he’s on the ice, it’s noticeable that he is the hardest working player out there. Teams looking to select a defensive-minded forward who causes them little to no headaches, look no further than Liam Gilmartin.

Improvements

There’s a few aspects of Gilmartin’s all-around game that could use some work. While he exceeds in a checking/defensive shutdown-style role, he does possess a little bit of offensive upside.

As mentioned above, Gilmartin is a good passer of the puck, but sometimes has difficulty receiving passes. For example, he will receive a pass from a teammate that stretches the neutral zone, that takes a deflection off his stick into the corner, rather than taking the pass in stride and setting up an offensive zone chance. It almost seems like a mechanics issue, but it’s something that can definitely be fixed with some skill work and coaching.

The biggest aspect of Gilmartin’s game that could use some TLC, is his effectiveness in transition. That’s not to say he’s bad at it, but his playing style definitely excels more in a dump-and-chase schemed offense. Watching film on Gilmartin, it’s noticeable that with a little more work on his skating, coupled with some slight mechanical adjustments, will allow Gilmartin to be able to effectively execute more controlled zone entries, and should lead to more offensive production, as mentioned above.

Overall Outlook

Overall, Gilmartin is your “blue collar, hard hat, lunch pail” style of forward. Perhaps what makes him such a likeable prospect is the fact USNTDP coach Dan Muse never has to worry about much when he’s on the ice. Gilmartin knows his assignments and knows where to be and what to do basically every shift.

Offensively, Gilmartin’s production is adequate, but there is definitely much more room for improvement, especially if he can put together his game as mentioned above.

Defensively, Gilmartin is counted upon to bring a challenging, shut-down style game, and he doesn’t disappoint. His overall drive to compete should take him a long way when it comes to cracking the professional ranks.

Look for Liam Gilmartin to be selected somewhere in the late second to early third round. There’s bound to be a team or two picking in the latter half of the second round who sees his compete level, consistent defensive zone play, and potential for larger offensive numbers, and takes a chance on him.

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stats from InStat and EliteProspects

Prospect report written by Paul Zuk. If you would like to follow Paul on Twitter, his handle is @paulzuk_81.

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!

Photo Credit: Val Wutti

Jack Matier is a 2021 NHL Draft eligible defenseman, who hails from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. His father, Mark Matier, was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft and played for the 1993 Memorial Cup champion Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Matier’s mother, Stacey Matier and Mark still reside in the Sault Ste. Marie area.

Prior to his time in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Matier played youth hockey for Soo Greyhounds U14 AAA, Soo Thunder U15 AAA and the Soo Thunderbirds U16 AAA. Matier was drafted 21st overall by the Ottawa 67’s in the 2019 OHL Priority Draft and made his OHL debut in 2019. In his first season with the 67’s, he tallied nine points in 56 games played. Throughout the season, his defensive partners shifted around and thus he spent time with Noel Hofenmayer, Alec Bélanger, Kevin Bahl and Merrick Rippon on his left side.

Due to COVID-19, Matier didn’t play in the OHL this year. But, was named to Canada’s U18 roster at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championships in Frisco, Texas and Plano, Texas. Matier recorded one point in the tournament. He had recorded an assist when he fired a stretch pass to Shane Wright. Wright was at the blue-line in the neutral zone, collected the pass and scored a snap shot goal from the perimeter.

At this point, the next time that Matier is scheduled to play again is when the 2021-2022 OHL season kicks off. Potentially, we could see Matier play at the PBHH Invitational tournament in Erie, Pennsylvania, but the rosters are not finalized yet.

Player Profile

D.O.B – April 8, 2003
Nationality – Canada
Draft Eligibility – 2021
Height –6’4
Weight –205 lbs
Position – Defense
Handedness – Right

Matier’s Style Of Play

Before I go through Matier’s play in all three zones and provide color on his skating and decision-making, I want to explain that Matier is a defensive defenseman. He is not a two-way defenseman, but has shown that he is a capable of delivering a breakout pass to key up a rush. In addition, I haven’t seen many offensive defenseman traits in his game. Matier truly shines when defending in the neutral zone and his own zone.

Defense

When in his own zone, Matier displays good positioning. When his defensive partner switches sides with Matier behind the red line, Matier who traditionally plays on the right side, stays to the left side of the net to keep watch incase something comes up and the puck wanders towards the left side of the net.

Ideally, I’d like Matier to be faster on his feet when trying to pick up a loose puck defensive recovery. There have been a few instances in which Matier got beat out by an attacker and he didn’t seem to generate quite a bit of speed to counteract the attacker. Speaking of quickness and explosiveness, you will also see Matier struggle to keep pace when defending a two-on-one attack. When one attacker passes to the other, Matier will have some challenges keeping pace and will have difficulty reacting quickly to the puck movement.

From a gap control perspective, Matier has displayed quality gap control in low danger situations. He will loosen up slightly when defending an attacker who is wrapping the net, but will tighten back up quickly. Matier has shown that he can hold his own and will continue to implement pressure when his opponents attempt to pivot out in an effort to dodge the back-check. In terms of when he tends to tighten, he will tighten up his gap control around the perimeter. When defending the rush, he will look to apply more pressure before the perimeter, but if the attack is running the cycle, he will opt to wait till the perimeter to tighten the gap.

Ultimately, Matier needs to work on following through with his checks. You will notice that he has similar physicality issues that Nikita Chibrikov has. He will go in for a check, but doesn’t follow through with the check. While he does struggle at asserting enough force to shut down the cycle, he will use his upper body strength to put pressure on his opponents’ arms in puck battles which makes it a challenge for puck carriers to retain control of the puck.

Transitional Play

When defending the rush in the neutral zone, he will lower and widen his body to take up as much space as possible and limit the attacker’s puck movement lanes. Matier will use an active stick in the neutral zone to trap his opponent and force him to dump the puck into the defensive zone. In addition, you will also notice that when an attacker isn’t facing Matier’s defensive zone and focused on a teammate who possesses the puck, Matier will skate up when he notices that the attacker will be receiving the puck off of a pass. He skates up to trap the attacker, so that when the attacker turns and heads up ice, Matier is waiting for him and limits the amount of room that the attacker has.

When Matier is in control of the puck in the defensive zone but looking to move the puck up the ice, most of the time he is looking to execute zone exit passes. Matier tends to prefer short zone exit passes, but you will see him complete stretch passes and saucer passes to get the puck moving into the offensive zone. Ideally, I would like Matier to further develop his stretch passes as there are passing attempts which aren’t clean and lead to rolling pucks instead of a smooth tape-to-tape feed.

Matier will also dump the puck into the neutral zone when dealing with a heavy forecheck. While there are instances in which he will dump the puck out when dealing with pressure, he has also shown that when pinned against the boards that he will keep his balance and throw the puck along the boards to his defensive partner if he can’t find a way to get the puck into the neutral zone.

Skating

Skating is an area which needs further development for Matier. Matier isn’t a consistent straight-line skater. There are situations in which his skates aren’t pin-pointed towards his intended destination. His ankle flexion needs some adjustment as well. In my viewings, I didn’t see Matier’s knees sit in line with the toe of his skate when he is in full stride. In addition to the ankle flexion, you will notice that his skate extensions aren’t always synchronized and the left skate will have a longer extension than his right skate.

When looking to accelerate, Matier will use his crossovers to pick up speed. Matier has shown that he can get his feet moving at a quality pace with well-placed lateral crossovers that allow him to catch up to puck carriers. Sometimes, he struggles to generate enough speed, but there are plenty of situations where he does generate the speed that he needs to catch up to the puck.

But, there are situations where he prefers not to use crossovers for acceleration. Those situations pop up when he is looking to skate backwards to combat a rush. Matier will go with two forward stride extensions and then flip backwards to gather enough speed to handle the rush. But, that’s not the ideal technique to gain enough acceleration when skating backwards. Crossovers are your best friend when looking to gain momentum while skating backwards. Taking two forward stride extensions will give you speed, but flipping around afterwards will put you in a vulnerable spot.

From an extension perspective, as I mentioned earlier, I would like Matier to work on a lengthier stride extension when going after loose pucks in the defensive zone.

Stick-Handling

When in control of the puck, Matier will play the puck out in front of him to draw attackers in when he is on pace to complete a controlled zone exit and then will swing the puck to his left to move the puck around the attacker. Also, he deploys good reach when moving the puck towards the net, he will position the puck to the right of the defender, stretch out his stick to avoid the poke-check and the move the puck to the net with ease.

While he does possess good stick-handling traits, he will struggle at times when moving the puck around tight pressure in the neutral zone.

Decision Making

Occasionally, you will see Matier struggle with his decision making. He will attempt break out passes with an attacker right in front of him in the defensive zone. Sometimes he will play the puck from behind his own net into oncoming traffic instead of passing the puck to a forward. There are moments where he will attempt to dump the puck in the neutral zone with the attack bearing down on him and he will dump the puck right to the attacker.

While there are times that Matier struggles with his decision making when in control of the puck, you have to remember that Matier is a defensive defenseman and will need further development with puck control.

Offense

In the offensive zone, Matier possesses good positioning. He will stick to the point, but will pinch up to medium danger if the offensive cycle is behind the red line and multiple teammates are in a puck battle. If he gains control of the puck from the puck battle, he will routinely skate back to the point with the puck and re-group.

If he is the first attacker in the offensive zone with the puck, you can expect him to dump the puck down the boards to set up a dump and chase for his forwards.

As we mentioned earlier, Matier is a defensive defenseman, so he doesn’t net a lot of points, but when he does he will often net assists for himself on re-directed shots.

If Matier’s goal is to evolve into more of two-way defender, he will need to hone in on his offensive development. His shot will need to improve as his accuracy can be a little rusty at times and he will need to work on enhancing his puck distribution.

Projection

Third Pairing Defender/Shut Down Role (NHL)

Matier has proven that he can be reliable defensive defenseman and I could see him being a solid fit on a shut down/third pairing defensive group in the NHL down the road.

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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!

Are you gearing up to watch the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championships from Frisco, Texas and Plano, Texas? If yes, check out our scouting reports on several 2021 NHL Draft eligibles playing in the tournament. The reports are hyperlinked in the chart below.

Player	Nation	Position	Scout
Brandt Clarke	CAN	RHD	Josh
Simon Edvinsson	SWE	LHD	Alex
Isak Rosén	SWE	LW/RW	Alex
Stanislav Svozil	CZE	LHD	Alex
Fabian Lysell	SWE	RW	Alex
Simon Robertsson	SWE	RW	Alex
Corson Ceulemans	CAN	RHD	Sam
Dylan Guenther	CAN	LW/RW	Josh
Mason McTavish	CAN	C	Josh
Dylan Duke	USA	C	Paul
Anton Olsson	SWE	LHD	Alex
Sasha Pastujov	USA	LW	Paul
Aidan Hreschuk	USA	LHD	Paul
Nikita Chibrikov	RUS	RW	Josh
Prokhor Poltapov	RUS	RW	Josh
Logan Stankoven	CAN	C	Josh
Aleksi Heimosalmi	FIN	RHD	Josh
Fyodor Svechkov	RUS	W/C	Josh
Sean Behrens	USA	LHD	Paul
Brett Harrison	CAN	C	Jordan
Brennan Othmann	CAN	LW	Josh
Samu Tuomaala	FIN	RW	Josh
Francesco Pinelli	CAN	C	Josh
Liam Gilmartin	USA	LW/C	Paul
Jack Matier	CAN	RHD	Josh
Ville Koivunen	FIN	RW	Josh
Dmitri Kuzmin	BLR	LHD	Josh