Gracyn Sawchyn is a 2023 NHL Draft eligible prospect and he plays for the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds.
Sawchyn is originally from Grande Prairie, Alberta, but ended up playing 14U AAA and 16U AAA in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area.
He played for the Minnesota Lakers 14U AAA team in 2018-19 and then joined the Shattuck St. Mary’s 14U AAA team for the following season. Sawchyn remained at Shattuck in his DY-2 and played for their 16U AAA team.
After his 2019-2020 season with Shattuck 14U AAA, he was selected in the 2020 WHL U.S. Prospects Draft by the Red Deer Rebels.
Last season, Sawchyn played for the USNTDP U17 squad and instead of remaining with the USNTDP U18 squad for this season, he opted to sign a contract with the Thunderbirds. Seattle had acquired his contract from a 2021 trade with Red Deer.
This season, Sawchyn has been a point per game player and has been a dependable playmaker for the Thunderbirds. As of March 8, 2023, Sawchyn has recorded 18 goals and 40 assists in 58 games.
Player Profile
D.O.B – January 19, 2005 Nationality – Canadian Draft Eligibility – 2023 Height –5’11″ Weight –165 lbs Position – Center Handedness – Right
Sawchyn’s Style Of Play
Offense
Sawchyn does a great job of taking advantage of small areas of space and delivering passes through them to the slot.
He does such a great job of using whatever space is given to him and that comes in handy since he will struggle to navigate the puck in tight situations when driving the puck in towards the slot. Sawchyn will try to stick-handle the puck through tight spaces, but doesn’t always have the speed to completely escape the pressure.
When pressure is light, Sawchyn has good handling and strong mobility that he can leverage when driving play, but he has struggled to navigate through tighter waters. So, when Sawchyn does use his reach to extend the puck into the small gaps of ice that he has, he looks to pass through the gap. He has to make the pass since most of the time he struggles to generate enough east-west speed to shift around the attacker and enter into the slot with possession of the puck.
If both of his forward teammates are working the puck down low in the corner and behind the red line, he is skating along the perimeter line. But, if there is only one teammate behind the red line with the puck and they are facing heavy pressure, Sawchyn does a good job of providing an outlet lane. With the outlet, his teammate can feed him the puck and then Sawchyn looks to quickly re-distribute the puck to a teammate in the slot.
If he’s got his back turned to an attacker and the pressure is intensifying, he will look to leverage his backhand to quickly distribute the puck to an open teammate in the slot. He’s got pretty good range on his backhand and will use pivots nicely to open up a bit of space for himself to use when looking to distribute. That’s led to quite a few high danger chances for Seattle.
Should he run into pressure at the perimeter mid-rush, he will look to complete drop passes to teammates who are skating behind him. If a drop pass doesn’t seem like a realistic option to re-distribute the puck cleanly, he will opt to complete a lateral feed. While it’s not a pass to high or medium danger, lateral passing at the perimeter has led to success especially on odd-man rushes where the pressure is drawn to Sawchyn, but his teammate has quite a bit of breathing room.
Sometimes when in low danger mid-cycle, Sawchyn will be a bit indecisive with the puck when pressure is closing in on him and in those situations he will either end up taking a shot from low danger or passing the puck to a defenseman along the blue line.
Sawchyn can be gritty and physical in the offensive zone when he needs to be. But, I would like to see him build up his frame so he can be stronger on the forecheck with impactful shoulder checks that lead to changes in puck possession. Sawchyn does the dirty work and goes down low hunting for loose pucks on routine. After corralling the puck, should he draw pressure that intensifies quickly, he has the mobility Once he draws pressure as he is skating out from the red line, he pivots and find just a little bit of space to hit a teammate in stride who is headed to the slot.
Sawchyn doesn’t just look to be physical on the forecheck. He will also utilize his reach too. Sawchyn will extend his stick out when skating behind attackers and pick-pocket with ease.
Sawchyn does a good job of shifting his positioning according to where his teammates are. Should a teammate shift a little further out to the corner, Sawchyn usually spots that and reacts by skating into the slot to provide a medium and/or high danger passing lane for his teammates. He times it so that the teammate gets open space to capitalize by timing the pace just right. That’s led to one-timer bar down goals.
When it comes to his shooting range, he has found success with his snap shot from medium and low danger throughout the season. He keeps his stick-blade open to elevate the puck and nets bar down goals. Sawchyn finds success with his shot from range when the pressure in front of him is relaxed and the opponent has provided him with a decent amount of open space.
Defense
Sawchyn’s role defensively is more passive than assertive and that can be largely attributed to his skating. He has the crossovers and leans on his edges nicely to build up acceleration and then retain that acceleration where shifting lanes, but he has yet to develop a power stride and that means that his ability to silence the rush is a bit limited. If a skater is in an ear-shot, Sawchyn can close in on him, but if Sawchyn has to muster up quite a bit of north-south speed to catch up to an attacker, he will struggle to completely close on them. There are moments in the corners where he is assertive and looks to leverage his physicality to shoulder check and cause puck disruption, but its in situations in which he doesn’t have to skate too far to shut down the cycle.
When he does get in range of an attacker at open ice, he will use his reach to cause puck disruption by extending his stick blade out to make contact with the puck. He does a good job of corralling the puck quickly after silencing oppositional puck movement with his reach. Sawchyn will use his reach to quickly capture the puck and then push the puck closer to his frame. Plus, his reach comes in handy should he accidentally extend the puck too far out into oncoming traffic and has to maneuver the puck closer to his body to secure possession.
Transitional Play
When defending in the neutral zone and reacting to the opposition’s rush, he does a good job with his positioning to take away space that the attackers were looking to utilize. He’s prepared for the rush and when the rush starts to develop in the Thunderbirds’ offensive zone, Sawchyn takes on more of a conservative role and parks himself at the edge of the neutral zone to take away space and be ready to take on the rush head on. When the rush tries to enter the neutral zone, his positioning forces the attacker to pass the puck immediately after entering the zone to a teammate along the boards.
Just like he does in the offensive and defensive zones, he uses his reach nicely when the opposition has control of the puck. Sawchyn uses his reach to extend his stick out to try to knock the puck off of the attacker’s stick. If he is skating behind the rush, he will look to stick lift and cause puck disruption when in range.
Not only does he look to extend his stick to poke check and stick lift, but he also does a good job of using his stick to take away passing lanes. When he’s slightly further away from the attacker by skating in a centered lane, he will extend his stick out to match where oppositional skaters (who don’t have the puck) are to take away potential passing options for the attacking puck carrier.
Sometimes he isn’t able to truly disrupt the rush though, but, I do like the effort. Not every poke checking attempt will lead to a capture of the puck, especially when the north-south speed of the attacker is far greater than Sawchyn’s speed. But, if the attacker is looking to move the puck east-west to dodge Sawchyn’s pressure, Sawchyn has the crossovers and the edge work to stay aligned. He will cut off the attacker and force the attacker to dump the puck.
When the Thunderbirds are in control of the puck and driving the rush, more often than note Sawchyn is a secondary puck mover and not the primary. But, there are shifts in which, Sawchyn looks to skates end-to-end with the puck and facilitate the rush. It’s usually in situations where the pressure is a bit more relaxed and he can rely on his crossovers to shift east-west around the attacker. He’s got the reach to extend the puck further out when implementing said crossovers to keep the rush alive by pushing the puck away from the attacker. Should he navigate the puck into tight pressure along the boards, he will try to push the puck underneath the stick of the attacker and look to reclaim possession of the puck. Unfortunately, sometimes he’ll push the puck too far and he doesn’t have the reach to regain possession. But as I mentioned above, he isn’t the primary puck mover in transition and you can usually find him creating outlet lanes for the primary puck mover to utilize should the primary find himself in pressure that he can’t navigate out of. With all of that said, if Sawchyn can develop a power stride, he could be the primary puck mover, but without the power stride, he will struggle to create the north-south speed he needs to truly be the primary puck mover on the rush.
Skating
I’ve touched on Sawchyn’s skating throughout the report, so this section is going to brief and high-level instead of very in-depth.
Sawchyn’s has excellent crossovers that powers his acceleration, but he doesn’t have the power stride to combine with it and that limits how much speed that he can manufacture when skating north-south. It also means that reacting to changes in puck movement when he is slightly further out and closing off that attacker from pushing the puck forward can be a bit daunting. With all of that said, there are moments especially defensively, where he ends up coasting instead of deploying skate extensions because he knows that he can’t get himself into position to shut down the oppositional puck movement. If Sawchyn can develop a power stride, he is going to be stronger at closing in on attackers and will see a role change in the neutral zone. He will end up being the primary puck mover for his line in transition.
Projection
Sawchyn has excellent vision and does well at taking advantage of situations with limited space. He will get the pass off. As I mentioned in the offensive section, he is constantly looking to re-position himself as his teammates shift their own positioning so that way he can constantly provide his teammates with quality passing lanes should they need to pass. That has lead to goals at 5v5 for Sawchyn.
I believe that Sawchyn can be a well-rounded offensive asset at the NHL in a middle six role. But with where Sawchyn is right now in his development, I would put deploy him as a winger instead of a center. He doesn’t have a power stride yet. If he does develop a strong power stride, I would definitely without a doubt deploy him at center because the combination of his handling, mobility and strong north-south strides would pave the way for Sawchyn to create more chances on his own with the puck in medium and high danger. In addition, I want Sawchyn to have the ability to create opportunities for himself off puck and he’d have far less of those opportunities mid-cycle in a center role. Also, you have to consider that he is usually isn’t the primary transporter in the neutral zone. But, if he can develop that power stride then I’d want to him to move into a center role as his role with possession of the puck would lead to far more scoring chances at center given the many tools that he has in the toolbox.
Latest Update
March 8, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.
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Brayden Yager is a 2023 NHL Draft eligible prospect and he plays for the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors. Yager was selected 3rd overall by the Warriors in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft.
Prior to playing for the Warriors, he had played U15 AA hockey for the Martensville Marauders and U18 AAA hockey for the Saskatoon Contacts. In Yager’s shortened second U18 AAA season (6 games), he was averaging almost two points per game. When the WHL returned, Yager was called up to Moose Jaw.
Yager is now in his third season with the Moose Jaw Warriors and has been a point per game player (1.14 points per game – as of February 27, 2023).
Player Profile
D.O.B – January 3, 2005 Nationality – Canadian Draft Eligibility – 2023 Height –6’0″ Weight –165 lbs Position – Center Handedness – Right
Yager’s Style Of Play
Offense
Yager’s shot is the best asset that he has. He does a great job of targeting top shelf and taking advantage of the areas in which the opposing goaltender is failing to eliminate. Check out this goal from a mid-February game against Prince Albert. Once in medium danger, Yager identifies that the opposing goaltender is giving up too much space top shelf on the far side and takes his shot.
He doesn’t always look to elevate his shot. Sometimes shooting at the low corner is all he needs. In the below clip (early February game against Edmonton), he sees the opposing goaltender start to shift over in the butterfly. Yager knows that the goaltender won’t be able to get himself to get a pad on the puck and takes advantage.
Yager has found success in the offensive zone when he has acquired open space. Instead of forcing his way through the offensive zone and weaving in heavily pressured areas, Yager looks to quickly distribute the puck once entering the zone with the puck. Usually by the time Yager gets to the perimeter the puck is out of his hands. Once he makes the pass, he immediately skates into open space. Then the teammate that he distributed the puck feeds the puck back to him. Yager loves the give and go and it’s paid off a few times throughout the season.
The attention of the attackers deviates from Yager to the teammate that he passed to. He knows that’s the moment where gets into range. Yager then nets a backdoor passing lane.
While he is finding quite a bit of success in the offensive zone, he struggles to get to dangerous areas with the puck on his stick. When Yager draws pressure, he struggles with puck manipulation and stick-handling around pressure when it intensifies.
Here is an example of Yager driving the puck into the offensive zone and trying to manipulate the attacker in towards the boards but then doesn’t push the puck around the attacker. The attacker then manages to close in on him.
So, instead of trying to maneuver his way through tight traffic, he looks to complete a perimeter pass.
Even with that said, Yager does possess great mobility and handling. He just struggles to use it in tight situations. When the pressure is far more relaxed, he does use his mobility and handling to create separation.
Since he struggles to create space for himself with his handling in tight pressure, he will look to make a more risk averse pass than a more dangerous one when pressure closes in on him along the half-wall. Completing a more dangerous pass would likely mean that Yager would have to extend the puck away from the attacker to open up a passing lane.
Yager does implement quality pressure on the forecheck. He has the speed to get himself into position on the forecheck and will jump into loose puck battles. But, he does slow down a tad too early. He shortens the length of his stride too early and that creates tight puck battles. Should he win possession and it was a rather tight battle, he will struggle to navigate out of the pressure. Ideally, I’d like to see Yager learn to use his body weight to push off of attackers to open up separation for himself when he can’t manage to stick-handle the puck around the attacker.
Defense
In the defensive zone, when the attack is mid-cycle, he will drop back and stand on guard in the slot. His approach is more relaxed. Yager is waiting for the attack to try to enter into medium and/or high danger areas. When the attack is on the rush, he does look to put pressure on the attacker who doesn’t have possession of the puck and is skating into the slot to open up a dangerous passing lane for his teammate on the wing. Yager doesn’t take away the passing lane when he stays in pursuit, but he looks to put himself into a position in which he could shut down the attack when the attacker captures possession and tries to pivot / turn towards the net.
Against Zach Benson (above). Against Connor Bedard (below).
Yager is a reliable puck mover. He doesn’t always carry the puck out of his zone. Yager will opt to distribute if he is deep in his own zone. He does a great job of identifying teammates breaking out and hitting them in stride when he is under pressure deep in his own zone. In situations in which the pressure is a bit more relaxed and he’s deep in his own zone, he will still opt to pass and look to get the puck into the hands of a winger further up in the zone. That has led to a lot of give and go transitional play as Yager will look to pass to his wingers along the boards and then skate into open ice in the neutral zone. After skating into the neutral zone, his teammates then hit him in stride. Sometimes it’s very rewarding. Take a look at this clip from a December game against Calgary.
But, if Yager is further up in the defensive zone, immediately after corralling a loose puck, he uses good crossovers to drive him out of the defensive zone with the puck. Yager does react well to changes in pressure should they intensify while driving the rush. If pressure skates at him right as he is about to get to the blue line, he finds a tight lane, passes and gets the puck to an open teammate in the neutral zone.
Transitional Play
Yager stays well-aligned to attackers skating up the middle who don’t have possession of the puck when the opponents are driving the rush at speed. He isn’t actively looking to take away the passing lane, but he is right there and can close in on the attacker quickly should they net possession of the puck.
Should there be rapid changes in puck movement in the neutral zone and Yager is further back from the attacker who he is looking to close in on at open ice, he musters up enough speed to get just behind the attacker. His speed stalls a bit when he closes in on the attacker. I’d like to see him work on keeping pace incase the attacker looks to accelerate his speed just at the moment in which Yager slows down.
When Yager skates from blue line to blue line with possession of the puck, he usually doesn’t take on much pressure in those sequences. As mentioned earlier on in the report, Yager will struggle with stick-handling / navigating the puck out of tight spaces. So, if he starts to navigate towards daunting pressure he’ll look to distribute the puck before the attacker can close in on him. If pressure is slightly more relaxed, Yager will rely on his crossovers to shift lanes and build up acceleration to drive the rush into the offensive zone.
Skating
Yager has excellent crossovers. He nets excellent acceleration with his crossovers and then adds to his speed with power stride extensions. His power stride extensions allow him to be a strong north-south skater and he can pair that with his crossovers to quickly change up his lane with pressure comes into play.
When skating back on the backcheck, he uses his crossovers to generate speed and then shifts into straight line stride extensions nicely to stay aligned to the attack. But, as I mentioned earlier on in the report, Yager doesn’t end up skating all the way to the attacker’s positioning. He ends up slowing down his stride a bit too early and then ends up slightly behind the rush. Yager will also start to slow down his stride length a bit too early when engaging in loose puck battles.
Projection
NHL head coaches are likely to debate whether or not they would place Yager at center or wing at the next level. Yager’s ability to use his power strides to get into open space to key up back door passing lanes is something that you will see far less of if Yager would be deployed at center at the next level. Instead of looking for opportunistic passing lanes for his teammates to use to feed him the puck, he will have to be the main driver of play and the pressure is only intensifying faster at the next level which means that Yager’s stick-handling in tight spaces will have to improve. If he’s deployed as a winger, he is going to do what he does best and that’s leverage his speed off puck to get into open ice. But, if he is deployed as a center at the NHL level, he will likely have to play more of a conservative role at times and that will mean that he playing further back in the offensive zone. If I’m drafting Yager, I want to leverage his shot and I don’t want him stuck under pressure along the perimeter.
With all of that said, if you take Yager and move him to the wing, I see him being a top six winger at the NHL level. He’s going to create give and go opportunities. Yager is going to score one-timers and backdoor goals. But, I do think that playing center at the next level will hinder his offensive upside.
Latest Update
February 27, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.
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Andrew Cristall is currently the seventh ranked player in our Preliminary rankings and is currently fifth in total points in the WHL and fourth in points per game.
This is Cristall’s second full season in the WHL. Last year he amassed 28 goals and 68 points in 61 games for the Kelowna Rockets. He was third on the team in points in 2021-22 behind NHL draftees Pavel Novak and Colton Dach.
The undersized winger continues to impress as the season has gone along in 2022-23. Unfortunately, a lower-body injury has sidelined Cristall recently and caused him to miss the CHL Top Prospects game. However, Cristall’s point production and high-end microstats continue to push him up in Smaht’s rankings.
Player Profile
D.O.B – February 4, 2005 Nationality – Canadian Draft Eligibility – 2023 Height –5’10″ Weight –167 lbs Position – Left Wing Handedness – Left
Cristall’s Style of Play
Offense
What makes Andrew Cristall such a dynamic offensive weapon and a top offensive prospect in this class are his elite traits: playmaking/puck skill, his vision, his ability to read plays two or three puck touches before they develop, and his ability to make high-end plays under pressure.
There are prospects that have a high-end ability to create and distribute the puck for dangerous scoring plays, then there is a gap, and then there is Andrew Cristall. Kelowna uses him specifically to transport the puck through the neutral zone where Cristall will move the puck from the wing to the center lane. Once there he then has an arsenal of tools that he utilizes to get the puck into the offensive zone and then work his way to the dangerous parts of the ice either himself or through a pass.
What separates Cristall from other players I’ve watched or tracked in North America is his unique ability to send players to space before a play ever develops. He’s consistently leading his forwards into areas of the ice that they may not have been going or putting pucks into open spaces that allow his other forwards to change their route and find themselves with the puck and space. While his linemates aren’t holding him back; they also aren’t top caliber prospects or high-end future draft picks. He continues to make everyone on the ice look better offensively and it’s a testament to his unselfishness and ability to spring open his teammates.
Cristall isn’t just a perimeter player. Using his puck skill he’s able to shift his weight on his edges and put pucks under and around players sticks. He is a constant highlight reel waiting to happen and if he gets you off balanced he’s going to get by you with ease.
Even when he doesn’t have a successful transition there’s still a moment of awe that happens that makes you respect the creativity and skill of Cristall. The clip below is a perfect example. Cristall freezes a player at the red line and opens up space for him to continue carrying the puck to the blue line. He then uses a deceptive fake to the backhand to throw the defender on their heels and then loses the puck trying to put the puck between the defender’s skates at the blue line
Should he have hit #14 on the blue line as a safer option? Perhaps. There’s a defender within a few feet of #14 and they have no momentum hitting the blue line so I’d surmise it becomes a chip-and-chase or dump-in situation. However, when he does get through it’s always ending up in plays like this:
The only player that is as puck dominant in the CHL right now comparted to Cristall is Connor Bedard, and honestly the work rates between the two are much closer than you’d think. Cristall is the only other CHL player with a 50% offensive zone involvement, and his involvement comes with one of the datasets best carry-in percentages into the offensive zone. This often results in Cristall facilitating play to the dangerous areas of the ice where he uses his patience to speed manipulation to open up different passing lanes to get secondary options.
There are a few concerns with projecting Cristall’s offensive game. The major concern is that he lacks separation speed and doesn’t pull away from defenders when he gets a step on them. In the WHL he’s mitigated this with absolutely jaw-dropping puck handling and adept start-and-stop maneuvers to create space. However, his inability to generate speed through crossovers and a lack of power in his thin framewhen skating in a straight line does cause slight pause given his size.
A secondary concern of mine is more in the minute details of Cristall’s game and does tie back to his skating to a degree. Cristall often will drift on rushes and find himself gliding to the corners of the ice if he can’t find a primary or secondary pass option on the rush. By failing to continue to move his feet he has cut off any sort of escapability he might have to curl back up the wall and maintain control of the puck. This has been noted more than a couple of times in my viewings and thus has made it into the report.
Defensive Game
Cristall’s game is not predicated on defensive engagement. He is often off the screen on defensive rushes and the last man back on the forecheck, nor is he actively engaging deeper in the zone on the boards defensively to keep play on the outside as a winger. His play as a weak side defender has been the most interesting at even strength because you can see how smart he is reading plays and where the puck lanes are that opposing defenseman or forwards would try to thread a cross-ice pass. However, a typical sequence for Cristall in the defensive zone looks pretty similar to this:
However, I do see glimmers of defensive engagements and process thinking that make me believe that he won’t be a sieve in the defensive end as he develops. For one, I really liked his very abbreviated stint on the penalty kill. He showed an intensity on the boards and challenging shooters that I did not see at even strength through all my viewings. Couple this with his ability to continually pick off passes and I believe there’s more to the defensive game than what the tape says at five-on-five.
He can be a bit soft on the boards, but his ability to play the middle of the ice as an F3 forechecker is good so long as he gets his feet moving. If he’s unable to read the play or isn’t fully engaged on the puck it can lead to him over-reaching with his stick which has led to some bad penalties.
What the Data Says
This is where things get fun with Cristall. Cristall leads the entire data set in the number of:
Dangerous pass attempts
Dangerous pass attempts completed
Total passes by a forward
Total passes by a forward completed
He has completed more dangerous and total pass attempts than the next forward has attempted. To put this in perspective: Zach Benson has attempted 59 passes and Cristall has completed 62.
His shot attempt rate at 5-v-5 is below Bedard’s but above any other CHL player. He’s the only other player besides Bedard (who is at 60%!) in the CHL who is above a 50% (50.3%) offensive transition involvement rate.
What does this all mean? His point production isn’t a fluke. It’s the product of his high work rate and his ability to complete dangerous pass attempts and to get dangerous shot attempts off at even strength. Truthfully, had he not had a rough patch of puck luck, he could be 5-10 points higher than he currently is.
Bedard is the best offensive weapon in this draft.
Cristall is this draft’s premier playmaker.
Projection
The valuation of Cristall is going to be a polarizing one across the NHL draft industry. There is inevitably going to be a sector of the community that looks at his size, lack of elite speed, and lack of tape to suggest he can play further down the lineup and push him down the board as a first round pick.
I, however, land very bullish on Andrew Cristall. From the defensive blue line onward there isn’t a player I get more excited to see with the puck on their stick than Andrew Cristall. His ability to make his teammates better offensively combined with his ability to pull off very high end skill moves give me all the confidence that he’s a projectable offensive player in the NHL.
Cristall lands at #4 on my North American rankings list. I have debated Benson and Cristall most of the year and still lean on Benson’s 200 foot game over Cristall. However, if your team is in need of offensive firepower and an engine for play creation and a half-wall quarterback on the power play? Cristall is going to make teams look silly for passing on him in the top 10.
Latest Update
February 23, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Austin Garret. If you would like to follow Austin on Twitter, his handle is @BMaster716.
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Colby Barlow is a 2023 NHL Draft eligible prospect and plays for the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack.
Barlow played U15 AAA hockey for the Toronto Marlboros and averaged 1.38 points per game (34 games played). His U15 AAA season was his last season prior to his selection in the OHL Draft because of the pandemic. Barlow was selected #8th overall in the first round of the 2021 OHL Draft by the Attack and made his OHL debut the following season.
As of February 14, 2023, Barlow is up to 38 goals and 29 assists. Throughout this season, Colby Barlow has been a consistent scorer for the Owen Sound Attack. He is constantly finding open space in dangerous areas and keying up passing lanes for his teammates to exploit.
Player Profile
D.O.B – February 14, 2005 Nationality – Canadian Draft Eligibility – 2023 Height –6’1″ Weight –187 lbs Position – Left Wing Handedness – Left
Barlow’s Style Of Play
Offense
Colby Barlow knows exactly what he needs to do in order score goals. Get to high danger. Establish open ice. He does that on repeat. Every shift. He is looking to acquire open ice to create passing lanes and then quickly get a shot off at net-front. Barlow has found success in high danger areas off of the rush and mid-cycle. He does a good job of hanging in stride with his puck carrying teammate on odd man rushes to provide a back door option at net-front. When mid-cycle, Barlow acquires open ice to quickly get his hands onto rebounded pucks at the doorstep, but he also does it to key up a one-timer backdoor option for his teammates.
Sometimes, he might be slightly behind his teammate with the puck, but he knows to drive to the net. He knows to drive to the net because he still can provide said teammate with a secondary option.
Every now and then you will see Barlow score a low danger goal like this one against Flint. But, the bulk of his goal scoring is coming off of opportunities at net-front after he has acquired open space.
Barlow isn’t the primary transporter of the puck when in transition. So usually he isn’t the F1, but there are a few shifts per game in which he does end up driving the puck into the offensive zone. When he does, if pressure seems to be a bit daunting right off the bat, he will delay at the point and went till a teammate comes near him so he can execute a clean drop pass. When he is driving to the net with possession of the puck, should he encounter strong pressure from an opposing defenseman, he doesn’t have the shiftiness / mobility to maneuver around said defenseman. Barlow isn’t really using his frame either. I’d like to see Barlow start to push into pressure when he has control of the puck, so that he can keep the defenseman at a distance while he extends the puck out away. When he does see pressure tighten up, he usually settles for a shot from range.
He also doesn’t use his frame to push into pressure when working the puck along the half-wall boards and pressure is right on him. I’d like to see him use his frame to dictate to open up space for himself or pivot out and skate towards the interior. Instead of using his upper body strength to create separation, he skates the puck back towards the blue line and looks to pass back to the point.
I also noticed that Barlow does look down at the puck quite a bit when pressure is closing in on him and he is along the boards. When he looks down at the puck, he is delaying what he does next. That allows the pressure to close up in on him and trap him.
When on the forecheck, he does look to utilize his crossovers to build up speed to get to the loose puck before an attacker gets to the puck. Should the attacker beat him to the puck, Barlow doesn’t look to close the gap to trap the attacker. Instead, he backs off a bit. At this point in his development, Barlow is still working on using his body more and more on the forecheck when he is in pursuit of the puck but can’t net the speed to get to the loose puck before the opposing attacker can. He also has the reach to be an effective poke checker on the forecheck, but isn’t extending his stick when he is in range of the puck carrying attacker.
Barlow isn’t really a playmaking forward. As stated earlier on, he is usually the forward looking to establish open ice in high danger to capitalize off of tip-ins and one-timers. But, as a result of cycling the puck and working the puck down low, he collects plenty of primary assists on passes in which he had to make with pressure closing in on him. In addition, sometimes opportunities do open up in high danger where he takes a shot on net, collects his own rebound and completes a lateral feed across the doorstep to a fellow teammate crashing the net. The opposing goaltender can’t shift over in time to make the stop.
Transitional Play
Barlow does a good job of closing in on attackers with the puck when mid rush along the boards. By closing in on them, he forces them to dump possession of the puck into the Owen Sound zone. Over the course of the season, I’ve seen Barlow extend his out his stride more and more to build up speed when he is looking to shift into place to trap the attacker. That allows Barlow to cover more distance.
Like in the defensive zone, he does a good job of skating near puck carrying teammates and providing them with a passing lane. It doesn’t matter how much pressure the puck carrying teammate is dealing with. Barlow is always close by. More often then not, after acquiring possession of the puck, he quickly looks to re-distribute the puck to a teammate further up in the zone. Even under pressure, Barlow does a good job of identifying tight passing lanes to exploit and can wire passes underneath the stick of the attacker who is positioned in front of him.
As mentioned earlier on in the report, Barlow isn’t the primary transporter of the puck when he is on the ice. He is more of secondary transporter. But, when he does have the puck, is determined to lead the rush and encounters tight pressure, he does a good job of keeping the puck secure. Barlow will leverage his reach to extend the puck away from the attacker who is positioned next to him. When he skates up to the blue line, should he face pressure immediately from an opposing defenseman, he will look to initiate a chip and chase.
Defense
In the defensive zone, Barlow is usually seen working the perimeter and putting pressure on opposing attackers along the point. When he reacts to a quick pass or a sudden change in oppositional puck movement, he tends to be a second late with his positioning. I’d like to see Barlow be quicker from a stand still position. If he can work on his activation from a stand still position, he will be able to keep pace and take away options for the attacker.
Barlow does a good job of providing open passing lanes for his defensive partners to complete outlet feeds once they pick up possession of a loose puck.
Not only does he net the open ice to key up the passing lane, but he also is efficient and quick with his distribution after obtaining possession. A lot of one touch passing. That comes in handy since he doesn’t always have the speed to navigate out of tight pressure. So, when pressure is closing in on him, he can quickly identify a teammate to pass to and executes the pass cleanly. His quality scanning allows him to identify a teammate with speed who is skating towards the neutral zone and then he delivers passes to hit his teammates in stride. That leads to quite a few zone exit passes per game. Not only is he getting the puck up the ice, but that allows him to take the pressure off of him so he can skate into the offensive as the F2 or F3 and get right to high danger. That allows his teammate to then hit Barlow in stride in high danger.
More often then not Barlow is distributing the puck to either an open teammate who is further down in the defensive zone or a teammate who quickly managed to establish open ice in the neutral zone. But, there are some shifts in which he carries the puck out of his zone and drives the rush. Should he encounter heavy pressure, he will double back and then use his crossovers to gather acceleration as he drives the puck back up through the zone.
Skating
Barlow generates quite a bit of speed with his crossovers and he will rely heavily on them when he is looking to facilitate the rush. Not only does it allow him to generate speed, but he relies on his crossovers to double back or change direction when he runs into too much pressure.
When you look at Barlow’s forward stride, it’s a bit short. But, he is working on extending his stride length and does so from time to time. He’s clearly been working on his stance when in stride as he is more bent and shifting more weight when in stride than he was earlier on in the season. If the deployment of Barlow’s lengthy stride extension can become more consistent, Barlow will be stronger on the forecheck and will be able to get to puck quicker then he does now. Improvements to this speed could also have a positive impact on his physicality. Many areas of Barlow’s game will improve as a result of a more consistently deployed power stride.
Projection
Colby Barlow is wired to create passing lanes to high danger. It doesn’t matter if on the rush or mid-cycle. Barlow has identified open ice and a lane for his puck carrying teammate to utilize. It’s led to quite a few 5v5 one-timer and tip-in goals at the OHL level. Barlow should find quite a bit of success at the NHL level and can be an effective top six goal scorer at the next level. If he can unlock that power stride, it will only lead to more points at 5v5 in the NHL. The NHL is all about speed and timing. With improved speed and if paired with top six distributors, he could put up 40+ point seasons at the next level and play a Tyler Toffoli-like role.
Latest Update
February 18, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.
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Photo Credit: Jeremy Champagne / Brandon Wheat Kings
Carson Bjarnason is a 2023 NHL Draft eligible goaltender prospect and he plays for the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings. Bjarnason grew up just east of Brandon in Carberry, Manitoba. Prior to joining the Wheat Kings, Bjarnason had played U15 AAA hockey for the Southwest Cougars (Oak Lake, Manitoba based) and U16 Prep School hockey for RINK Hockey Academy (Winnipeg, Manitoba based). Bjarnason wasn’t drafted in the WHL draft. He was listed and then signed by Brandon in September of 2021.
Player Profile
D.O.B – June 30, 2005 Nationality – Canadian Draft Eligibility – 2023 Height –6’3 Weight –181 lbs Position – Goaltender Catches – Left
Bjarnason’s Style Of Play
Bjarnason has some excellent tools on his tool-belt. He is quick, shifty, does an excellent job of tracking the puck from the point even when dealing with an attacker trying to shield his vision and has a great glove. Bjarnason stays well aligned to oppositional puck movement when the puck carrier is shifting the puck from east – west in front of him. In high danger situations, Bjarnason does a good job of using his athleticism when reacting to tough saves. He’s flexible and can go into the splits when needed.
If his leg pad isn’t in place to shut down a shot a net front, he will extend the leg pad out to shut the door. Check out this toe pad save against Josh Filmon from high danger.
As mentioned above, Bjarnason does an excellent job of tracking pucks at the point when he was quite a bit of traffic at net front. Keeps his head on a swivel, reacts in time to the shot coming from the point and traps it.
Not only does he track pucks well, but he also reacts to them quickly. Check out this shot attempt from Brayden Yager. Bjarnason reacts quickly, shifts over and shuts the door.
Bjarnason has a good glove and doesn’t have much trouble grabbing a shot coming from medium and high danger. He shifts around from having his glove positioned underhand to having it overhand. Bjarnason’s overhand glove positioning allows him to react quickly to shots coming up chest level.
Here are a few overhand glove save clips.
Using his glove in an overhand position also allows him to take up more space in net. I’ll touch on this a bit later on in the report, but Bjarnason does give up a decent amount of space top shelf when in the crouch and in the butterfly. I’d like to see him extend his glove overhand more when in the crouch and in the butterfly as that will take away space top shelf towards the right for the opposing puck carrier to use.
Bjarnason does make underhand saves. Usually he will extend his glove underhand when squared up to the puck carrier. His underhand positioning allows him to quickly trap shots that hit him in the chest. While he can be efficient with his glove extended underhand, he does give up a lot of rebounds to high danger when facing shots from the slot and his glove is positioned underhand while Bjarnason is in the crouch and the butterfly. He struggles to glove the shot and instead it ricochets off of the glove and into high danger.
Bjarnason doesn’t just have a good glove, he also has a good blocker and does a good job of extending his blocker out at the precise moment to make contact with the puck when facing a shot. The extension of the blocker allows Bjarnason to react in time and push the puck into medium and/or low danger areas.
When protecting the post, he will use RVH. Not VH. If Bjarnason is in an RVH stand and he is observing an attacker skating along the red line from the corner to the slot, he struggles to take away room top shelf and sometimes that leads to goals against. I’d like to see Bjarnason use a VH stance in those situations and then drop into the butterfly when the puck carrier gets to the doorstep. The VH stance takes away more space when defending against puck carriers along the red line and takes up more space on the far side top shelf.
Sometimes when protecting the post, he overlaps the post and that means that he is giving up quite a bit of space on the far side. He needs to be more cautious with overlapping because when oppositional puck movement is moving from side to side, he has to cover more ground when shifting over.
Bjarnason drops into the crouch when the puck carrier is skating into the slot is at the perimeter line. Sometimes his positioning is too far out in the crease and it seems that he is overcommitting to the edge of the crease when facing shots coming from glove side. With his stance, he is giving up a bit too much top shelf. I don’t mind seeing Bjarnason position himself along the edge of the crease, but if he is looking to stand there regularly when facing shots glove side, I’d like to his crouch stance improved a bit. When in the crouch, he slouches a bit and that is opening up space top shelf when he is the edge of the crease. But, it’s not just in the crouch, you will notice the same when Bjarnason is in the butterfly.
Projection
The tools that Bjarnason has makes him a rather intriguing goaltender prospect for the 2023 NHL Draft. The athleticism, the glove, the blocker and the puck tracking are excellent. He is showing that he can react quickly to puck movement and shut down scoring chances on routine. He extends his blocker and pads out just in time to push pucks to low danger areas. Bjarnason keeps his head on a swivel and does an excellent job of puck tracking even when traffic builds up at net front is a tool that will come in handy at the NHL level when the opposition is bigger and faster.
The area that I would like to see improvement on the most is his stance. If Bjarnason can improve his crouch and butterfly stance in net to take up more space, those tools are going to blend nicely and thus he has NHL starter potential written all over him.
Latest Update
January 28, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.
Looking for other scouting reports? Check out the Prospects tab for our other scouting reports.
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Zach Benson is a top prospect eligible for the 2023 NHL Draft.
He has spent the last three seasons, including this one with the Winnipeg ICE of the Western Hockey League. The Chilliwack, BC native was selected by Winnipeg 14th overall in 2020 bantam draft following a dominant season with the U15 Prep Yale Hockey Academy putting up 30 goals and 86 points in 30 games.
At the time of writing this, Benson is in the midst of a terrific season and is 3rd in WHL scoring amassing 23 goals, and 56 points across 34 contests. Benson was also selected to represent Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Under 18 tournament this past summer, where he put up 2 goals and 5 points in 7 games, good for 3rd on the Canadian squad.
Player Profile
D.O.B – May 12, 2005 Nationality – Canadian Draft Eligibility – 2023 Height –5’10″ Weight –150 lbs Position – Center Handedness – Left
Benson’s Style Of Play
Offense
Zach Benson strives when his team is on offense. In terms of forwards in this entire 2023 class, no one thinks the game with and without the puck better than Zach Benson. In my viewings of Benson, I have picked up on many offensive tendencies, all of which led to very successful offensive opportunities. The first being his play on the half-wall and in the corners without the puck. Benson is a hound for retrieving loose pucks. Think Zach Hyman. Once he has control of the puck after a strip, I’ve seen Benson time and time again feather 10ft passes through sticks and skates from below the goal line, setting up teammates for prime scoring opportunities.
Love the way Benson plays below the goal line… feet always moving, quick, crisp passes. Great at feathering it through skates and sticks… #2023NHLDRAFTpic.twitter.com/YdwNK5pYDT
With the puck, Benson is a wizard. This all starts with how he surveys the ice. He uses effective shoulder checks even when possessing the puck, that allow him to read plays ahead of his opponents. Benson is great at finding pockets of space when in the offensive zone that allow him extra time to fetch out that next pass or shot. Benson is a terrific distributor of the puck. He uses a variety of different pass types to successfully execute different plays. Like I mentioned above, he is great at dishing little 5-10ft passes from below the goal line and is extremely precise when doing so. He is also effective feathering cross seam passes across the ice, especially to the back door. He is a great match for power forwards that like to crash the net. If you have your stick on the ice at the net front, Benson will find you.
Benson’s shot has not been one of his highlight features in his draft year. Benson’s ability to find teammates cross ice after a fake shot has been a real tool for him. One thing I’ve noticed however, is that he seems to take awhile, and looks uncomfortable shooting coming out of a fake pass. I’ve looked at this closer and notice that many of the instances he has trouble getting that shot off quickly is the weight transfer has already occurred. All the energy he stores in his legs is being wasted on the fake pass, leaving him little to no strength coming through the shot release. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not overly concerned with Bensons shooting mechanics, nor his shot power. I don’t anticipate Benson to ever come in on the rush, and burry snap shots under the bar like prime Phil Kessel, but I do think once he fills out his upper half, and bulks up a bit that he will have an above average shot. The mechanics are certainly there.
Defense
One thing I love about Benson’s game defensively is how involved he is. Every loose puck battle, every zone exit, it feels like Benson is involved in a meaningful way. As a centerman, the ownness is on him to support his defenseman in deep and along the sideboards, he does a great job supporting them, and avoiding defensive zone turnovers. The key to avoiding turnovers is quick decision making. Benson keeps his head on a swivel and is constantly looking to see if or when pressure may come. When supporting his defenseman and receiving the puck, Benson makes very quick decisions with the puck. His zone exit passes are crisp, and he’s great at leading his passes. In other words, finding his wingers in stride so that they have speed coming through the neutral zone.
Zach Benson is so efficient.
Challenging the puck carrier. Never over committing his positioning. Adjusting. Passing vision. Communication. Catching passes he shouldn't pass. Winning loose puck battles. Repeat. #2023NHLDraftpic.twitter.com/B855aamxaM
Off puck play is equally as important as play with the puck. From my viewings I find that Benson is actively trying to find soft spots, mainly in the neutral zone where he can make himself available to receive a pass, and transition play the other way. Although Benson is virtually always involved in the play, I find that it’s this area of his game where he can become a bit disconnected. When Benson is looking to be an outlet on the breakout, he can get caught hovering, ultimately leading to him being a bit of a passenger in transition. This is a very specific issue, and one that likely doesn’t carry too much weight. Every time I’ve noticed this from him, I’ve wound back the footage and watched what’s going on in the defensive zone. It’s typically clumsy plays from the backend, and failed breakout passes. As Benson climbs the ranks, these types of plays will only become more routine. Overall, not an aspect of his game I’m overly concerned with.
Transition Play
I sound like a broken record, but Benson’s head is ALWAYS on a swivel! That’s no different when he is transition. This eases so many different aspects of play in transition. It ensures he’s in open ice where he can get the puck up quickly to his wingers. When not carrying the puck Benson lets his edges go on display, in attempt to open himself up for receiving a pass up ice. When successfully orchestrated, and Benson is flying through the neutral zone in transition, good luck. He is so deceptive using shoulder fakes and uses give and go’s with teammates to get into the offensive zone, and set up quality opportunities.
Transition Data
I’ve tracked data from four of Benson’s games this season. In those four games, he attempted 26 zone exits, with a success rate of 69.2%. In other words, 18 of his 26 zone exits were completed, with what I deemed to be control of the puck. In those same four games, he attempted 56 zone entries (this includes special teams) in which he was successful at gaining the offensive zone on 66% of those entries.
Skating
I can’t get over how well Zach Benson uses his edges. It’s eerily similar to what I see in Mitch Marner’s game. Not only is he shifty and able to carve out space for himself with tight turns, and shifty plays to keep the puck in at the line, but he uses his edges to build up speed in all zones. He moves up ice so effortlessly, and unlike a lot of younger players, he keeps his feet moving all the time. Benson is a perfect example of leveraging speed to find open areas to counteract his slighter frame. This is great for accepting outlet passes from teammates engaged in puck battles along the boards. This opens the ice for him, and he’s benefitted from many grade A scoring chances because of it. When in on the forecheck, I love the way Benson incorporates crossovers to stay glued to his target defender. His lateral mobility is great.
Exemplifies everything I love about Zach Benson. Glued to attacker, great agility to force turnover, explosive crossovers to transition to offense. Once in zone, he reads off his wingers and hovers into pocket of space for the finish. pic.twitter.com/99Xg4bWqZk
From a technical standpoint, Benson’s smaller frame allows for a lower center of gravity. Why is that important? Well in hockey especially a low center of gravity increases balance and stability. This allows Benson to change direction quicker when he is lower to the ground. That, paired with his great edge work and crossovers combine for a very dominant skater. Looking at mechanics quickly, he has great bend in his knees, which discussed above, helps with lateral mobility. He also has impressive ankle flexion, which will aid in maintaining good balance while in stride.
Projection
While I don’t necessarily see Zach Benson reaching the top of the superstar bucket, (Tavares, Kane, Stamkos etc…) I do envision him being a cornerstone piece for the franchise that selects him this June.
When thinking of a player comparison, I get drawn to a few different players. From an offensive skills standpoint, I personally see a lot of similar traits to Cole Perfetti. Great vision, feet always moving, and just very technically sound with every movement. Benson has a motor on him though that never stops running. To me, very similar to watching Brayden Point roam around. There just seems to always be a certain intensity when both of them are on the ice and hunting down pucks. Both great at carving out pockets of space, and tremendous at distributing or finishing plays themselves.
Benson carries with him a massive question mark. When a team steps up to the podium in June, will they be selecting Benson as a center or a winger. That is to be determined, but here is my stance. My gut tells we winger. When his motor is running high (which is most of the time) he plays a very textbook left wing. Forechecking in deep, attempting to turn the puck over, and then looking to set up a teammate from below the goal line. When I think of Benson, this is where I see the majority of his success. Here’s what’s caused me to go back and forth a few times. His coverage in the defensive zone, and just overall defensive awareness, are not tools to sneeze at. Playing lots of center for Winnipeg this season, he has shown very good ability to fulfill all centerman duties in the defensive-zone. My conclusion. Benson will just fine playing either position and quite frankly I envision him getting looks at both whenever he is ready to crack an NHL lineup. The ultimate x-factor as to where he will stick will be his face off success. In the WHL this season, he is operating at just 38.5%. If this area does not see improvement, I think he’ll line up on the wing, while assuming many of the center duties in the defensive zone. His skills defensively are just too good to completely over look.
As it stands currently, I have Benson at #5 on my personal rankings. When the dust settles at the end of the year, I anticipate Benson remaining in the top 10, and likely somewhere in the #4 to #7 range.
Latest Update
January 21, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Ben Jordan. If you would like to follow Ben on Twitter, his handle is @BJordanNHL.
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!
Matvei Michkov scores…a lot. He’s been on everyone’s radar for years, and when you look at his production, it’s easy to see why. Although points ≠ good, it’s hard to ignore the impressiveness of his statistical profile. He’s a goal-scoring machine and the records seem to just keep piling up.
He debuted in the MHL (Russian junior league) as a 15-year-old, where he became the first U16 player to score a goal / point in the MHL. He put up 38 goals and 56 points in 56 games, earning him first place in the league in goals and eighth in points, behind players 3-4 years older than him, and earning him the most points and goals ever by a U17 player in the MHL. He really started to garner a lot more widespread attention when he dominated the U18 world championship, with 12 goals and 16 points in just 7 games. Ahead of other names in the tournament like Shane Wright and Connor Bedard; and good for 2.29 points per game, one of the highest ever in the tournament; just ahead of some names you may know, Alexander Ovechkin and Connor McDavid.
He followed that up the next year with 30 goals and 51 points in just 28 MHL games, for a cool 1.82 points per game, giving him a decent lead at first place in that category, as well as the highest points per game for a U18 player ever in the MHL. A fair bit ahead of Nikita Kucherov’s 1.41, while Kucherov was 6 months older.
Michkov was able to earn 13 games in the KHL (Russian pro league) as a 16-year-old, in which he put up 2 goals and 5 points (good enough for the highest points per game metric ever for a U18 player in the KHL), while averaging only about 8 minutes of ice time a night. He also scored 13 goals and 17 points in 17 MHL playoff games on the way to a championship, including the championship-winning goal, which was a lacrosse goal, because of course it was.
He started this season with SKA-Neva in the VHL (the AHL of the KHL) putting up 10 goals and 14 points in 12 games, tying the record for most goals by a draft-eligible player in the VHL, held by Ivan Miroshnichenko, who took 19 more games to do so. He also played 3 games in the KHL with SKA where he was held off the score sheet, but he only got a few minutes of ice time in each, so he wasn’t exactly given much opportunity.
Since then he’s been loaned to Sochi in the KHL, where he should spend the remainder of his season. He’s been given a good opportunity there, and he’s made the most of it so far with 4 goals and 6 points in 11 games at the time of writing (January 18th, 2023), while playing on the by far worst team in the league. Impressive numbers for a draft year player in the KHL, and although it’s a small sample size, he’s on pace for the second highest point total and points per game for a draft year player in the KHL, as well as already tied for the second most goals; all behind only Vladimir Tarasenko.
These are all impressive numbers, but obviously, points don’t tell the whole story. Michkov’s become one of the more polarising players in this year’s draft, so let’s dive into it a bit.
Matvei Michkov is one of the smarter players I’ve watched this year. He dictates play, and always knows how to create the play he wants; he’s a painter, and the ice is his canvas. It feels as though he thinks two plays ahead of everyone else, and his anticipation and timing are impeccable. He knows where the puck is going before the puck itself does, and it always seems to gravitate towards him. He has the potential to be an offensive dynamo in the NHL, but he has some core issues that he’ll need to address if he intends to make it to that level.
Player Profile
D. O. B. – December 9, 2004 Nationality – Russian Draft Eligibility – 2023 Height – 5’10” Weight – 160 lbs Position – Right Wing Handedness – Left
Michkov’s Style of Play
Offense
Michkov thinks the game at a high level, and brings a more tactical approach. Every move he makes feels like a fragment of a fully mapped out sequence which ends with him putting the puck in the net. It sounds simple when it’s put that way, but I don’t see this kind of thinking out of most players. Little give-and-go plays up and down the ice, sometimes just edging slightly closer to the offensive zone, or to a scoring area; understanding that gaining even just a sliver of ice is progress towards the end goal. He has a high-level understanding of defensive gaps and manipulates them with ease; creating lots of space for himself and his teammates with constant delays and changes of pace, the aforementioned give-and-go plays, deceptive skating and handling ability, and a ton of patience.
It’s rare to see a player at 18 years old who is as composed with the puck as Michkov is. He has so much patience, is able to wait for the perfect play to present itself, and he’s very deceptive in his handling and skating, combining them to fake out and weave around opponents, creating as much time as he needs to find that perfect play. If he doesn’t find it, he tries to create it with crafty give-and-gos, handing the puck off and moving into the space it creates behind defenders while remaining open for a return pass. The downside here is that he often ignores open teammates or other plays in his search for the best one, in the end doesn’t find the play he wants, and just runs himself out of time and right into pressure. Patience is a very useful tool, but he needs to be more decisive.
He’s a pretty great forechecker, which I didn’t expect from him coming into the season. He’s usually F1 on the forecheck with Sochi, and he does a good job of it. He has an active stick and pressures the defense pretty well; he’s tenacious and quick, hounding the puck-carrier and forcing them to rush their decisions. But his play reading and anticipation serve him well playing any role, timing his activations into the play well to disrupt breakouts and force turnovers; capitalising on any mistake the defense makes.
His handling skill is good, he’s shifty and deceptive, and his hands are quick; he moves the puck across his body in an instant to avoid sticks, and he’s good at staying strong on the puck, maintaining control under pressure, and improvising quick stick movements to navigate tight situations. He struggles to corral pucks at times, and can bobble it a bit, but he recovers quickly and I don’t see it as a long-term concern. When making skill moves to beat 1-on-1 situations, he usually prefers to push the puck ahead and skate into it, rather than attempting a tricky dangle with the puck on his stick, which I think is good, especially considering his tendency to bobble it, and that he’s typically outmatched physically.
But what makes him dangerous is the way he’s able to combine his handling and his skating. He’s very deceptive and elusive, which helps to make up for his lack of speed; even standing still, it’s difficult to take the puck away from him. He’ll turn to the inside from the half wall to bait out a poke-check, then shift weight to his outside leg or make a quick mohawk turn to shield the puck and escape pressure, before accelerating quickly to get to the net. He uses the threat of his shot with quick hands and his innate ability to chain together an array of crafty moves to freeze defenders and make them look silly.
Michkov’s shot is what gets a lot of the attention, and it’s well deserved; I wouldn’t solidify his as the second best in the class (I’d put Dvorsky and Yager in that conversation as well), but it’s definitely up there. His shot is elite and should serve him well in the NHL. His release is quick and dynamic, he changes the angle on release, can score from any angle or distance with precision and power, and from any position / situation: to his side; in front; in his feet; on his backhand; behind his back; between his legs; you name it. He can get it off in heavy traffic and under tight pressure, making him a legitimate scoring threat any time he’s near the puck.
He can fire just as well from a standstill, off a pass or off the rush, and he’s capable of shooting in stride, although I’d like to see him utilise this a lot more. He tends to glide for a few steps before shooting, which makes him more predictable and may make him a less potent goal-scorer in the NHL.
What sets Michkov apart in terms of goal-scoring is his off-puck game. His sense of timing and positioning is exceptional; he does an excellent job of sneaking into space in the offensive zone with his stick on the ice, and making sure there’s always an open lane for his team to get him the puck. He finds open ice really well and reads the play well to figure out where he needs to be. Sometimes watching him you see him drift off to seemingly nowhere and you start to wonder what he’s doing, until you realise that he read the play around him perfectly and just knew exactly where to be. The natural ability he has to process the play, recognise space and lanes efficiently in the offensive zone and exploit them with perfect timing is great and projectable.
He’ll be a lethal weapon on the power play, and that’s one thing that I don’t think is in question. He’s great when he has open ice and time to work with, so it’s no surprise that he can take over the man advantage, and he’s shown that he can do so no matter where he’s used, on either wall, down low, bumper spot, or even net-front, he makes it work.
In terms of playmaking, he’s very good at creating plays that he is at the end of, but when it comes to creating plays for his team, it’s no secret that it’s not his strong suit; but I think there’s a lot more potential in this side of his game than he gets credit for. He’s good at drawing defenders away to open up passing lanes; his vision for passing is very good, he sees teammates really well, and thinks of creative ideas for passes and plays to make. His frequent use of soft area passes is something I particularly like, and I think shows a lot of promise. All of this is good, but his execution is quite poor a lot of the time. He’ll send soft passes to no one that are easily intercepted; he’ll miss his target a lot and often by a pretty significant margin; even when he hits close to his target, it’s often just off and difficult for his teammate to control.
When he attempts a pass, especially cross-ice, it’s often slow and weak, and sometimes predictable because he takes too long to dust off the puck first, particularly when passing directly in front of him; he leans over and drops low to the ice in an attempt to better its accuracy, but usually this fails. Not only is it more predictable, but I find that he misses his passes way more frequently when he does this compared to when he makes a quick pass without overthinking it. Sometimes you’ll see him make a pass and think “Whoa, where’s that been?”, and it does tend to be when he has to make a decision quickly. There are flashes of great playmaking, usually his teammates just aren’t able to finish.
In addition, his decision-making is questionable at times; and it’s difficult to say that he’s learning from his mistakes. He’ll frequently look off better plays in favor of trying to do too much himself, ignoring wide open teammates and too often just walking himself into trouble, usually resulting in a turnover at the offensive blue line, and sometimes an opposing breakaway. Decision-making can be improved, and this would be fine as a learning experience, but I’m not too sure if he’s learning at this point. This has been a consistent issue throughout the year, but I do believe this will improve with maturity and coaching, and it’s already improved a bit since moving to Sochi. I think it’s a positive that he has the confidence to try things, he just needs to do a bit less; it’s a team sport, and if he can be less selfish with the puck, it’ll unlock a ton of new opportunities for him.
However, I’ve found many times that he runs into trouble, it’s partially due to a lack of support from his teammates. Sometimes he’s waiting for a teammate to read what he’s doing and activate into the play like he would, but they don’t see it like he does, and he doesn’t have a plan B. Michkov recognises the basics: one player creates space, and the next occupies that space; he does an amazing job of moving into space without the puck and being aware to remain in an advantageous spot at all times, but when he tries to create it, his teammates so often fail to execute on the second part. Is he at fault for that? A little bit. Tunnel visioning into that one perfect play he wants to create will probably lead to frustration more than anything, but it’s an interesting conundrum to have.
With Michkov, you have a player who often spots a great play that others don’t see, to get himself or a teammate into a dangerous area with the puck, but relies on others recognising space in the same way that he would, which a lot of players just don’t do well enough. If he is put into a position to succeed, with linemates who can read off of him and vice versa, I think the sky’s the limit with Michkov.
Defense
I won’t drag on about the defense too long, but it’s not a strength. That said, I expected a change of situation and coaching would improve his defense rather drastically, and I do think it has. Previously, he wasn’t really trying, and while that’s definitely still the case sometimes, overall the effort level has improved quite a bit. He no longer blows the zone early constantly, he doesn’t lag behind the play nearly as much, and he makes an effort on the backcheck when necessary. He’s very good at reading play and has a good sense for positioning, so I still think the defense is mostly just a matter of effort for him, and it’s good to see him putting in more.
With Sochi he’s seemingly turned into a shot-blocking machine for some reason, he seems to be puckwatching a fair bit, drifting out of position, yet he’s always positioned perfectly in shooting lanes, and it’s kinda fun to watch, but it’s good and bad. It seems as if blocking shots is all he’s really thinking about for defense, and there is a bit more to it than that. He doesn’t try to disrupt passing lanes much unless the puck is along the half wall, he mostly just pressures the point and blocks shots well; he’ll charge up from down low to cut off the angle, and he’s got good reflexes and positioning for shot-blocking.
He usually stays high in the defensive zone, but he drops low to support his defenseman, and does a decent job of it; his positioning low in the zone isn’t typically great, but it’s fine enough. He makes an effort to always be a good outlet option on breakouts. He looks to position himself advantageously to be the first one on rebounds / loose pucks down low, and he often is; but usually his first instinct upon retrieving the puck is to clear it, or make a short pass to a teammate, and in both situations he often is too soft and turns it back over. As well, his commitment to the point man can sometimes lead to him overextending and letting opponents walk by him.
Transitional Play
Give-and-gos are the name of the game with Michkov, he’s always looking to create space and open up defenses with them, long or short. He’ll make quick short passes to teammates on the rush before charging ahead to be an option, or pass back to his defense with the plan of getting it back with more open ice.
Like in this clip: he spins out of pressure, buys some time for his teammates to change, passes back to his defenseman and immediately heads up ice to receive a return pass, beating the first defender. This is a common occurrence in his game, and it shows strong awareness, as well as an ability to read the ice well and plan ahead. He then catches the second defender flat-footed, fakes a move to the inside, before putting it between his legs and driving the net, showing some manipulation ability. The move likely won’t work in the NHL, especially with the lack of speed on display, but it’s fun in the VHL.
I’m not yet convinced that Michkov will be able to consistently drive transitional play at 5v5 in the NHL, largely due to his low pace, but he’s more than capable in the KHL. When you give him the puck to rush up the ice on his own, it’s essentially a free zone entry nearly every time. He’s so naturally shifty and deceptive, with constant head fakes and the endless repertoire of skilled moves at his disposal making him unpredictable, forcing opponents to either stay back or get beat, and either way, Michkov’s done his job.
He’s good at positioning himself between defenders and keeping the puck a safe distance away from opposing sticks with quick puck movements, keeping the puck close to bait poke-checks before extending his reach. These rushes usually end with him cutting to the middle and taking a shot through the remaining defenders from the high slot, or if he doesn’t see a lane, handing it off to a teammate at the blue line. I’d like to see him try more often to use these rushes to set up plays at 5v5 rather than just shooting most times and forfeiting possession, but either way, he creates chances.
But even if he’s not able to drive transition on his own, he can connect plays together well, and he’s good at creating and maintaining open space for his team or himself. Surveying the ice, moving laterally and adjusting his speed to manipulate defenders or preserve a good gap and remain open on the rush, either drawing defenders further from the puck-carrier or making himself a suitable passing option.
Skating
Michkov is a great skater in terms of agility and quickness, but he lacks a high-end top speed. He has quick feet and good first steps, he uses crossovers to gain momentum and generate speed quickly, then combines quick short strides with more crossovers, adding a level of natural deception to his movement. He can turn on a dime, pivot quickly, and has good form to his cutbacks; and his edgework is great; he loves to open up his hips and use heel-to-heel turns to spin off pressure, accelerate quickly, or fake out opponents, allowing himself more time and space to work with.
He’s able to change speed quickly and effortlessly, and adapt his speed to the play with ease, slowing down to remain a passing target in open space, or matching opponents’ speed when needed to retain a favorable gap. But the lack of high speed may hurt him at higher levels as the pace of play ramps up.
Projection
Projecting to the NHL is where a lot of the holes in Michkov’s game start to present themselves, and as you dig deeper, you find more questions than answers.
For starters, he doesn’t play with much pace. He can be slow on reads sometimes, but more commonly, as I touched on before, he’s slow in his decision-making. To me, this is perhaps the most glaring issue in Michkov’s game, and it leads to many more. Now, away from the puck it’s mostly fine, he reacts quickly, executes his routes without hesitation and reads play around him efficiently; but with the puck, it’s a different story.
He’ll carry the puck for what feels like minutes at a time, and pass up on countless good passing lanes while he does, and I don’t believe that he doesn’t see them, he just won’t pick one. If he finally does pick one, the lane’s already closed because even then, he took too long to choose it. And if he doesn’t, it’ll typically end with either a low percentage shot, or a frantic attempt to force a pass through traffic, resulting in a turnover. He’ll regularly just slow down and glide around with his feet far apart while he looks for his next play, and this seems to be a crutch for him, but again, he’s indecisive; he needs to execute decisions quickly, or be far less reliant on it, unless he wants to get crunched.
He’s overly reliant on time and space that he’s just not going to have in the NHL. This all works great at lower levels, which makes a lot of sense as to why he’s always been so dominant against junior competition, but he seems to have stagnated a bit in this aspect, and when you take that into account, his future in the NHL suddenly becomes a lot more blurry. If he can figure out how to consistently make decisions at a higher pace, then I’m not too concerned about the other issues; but that’s a big if.
I have seen an ability to adapt to a higher pace game like with Sochi in the KHL, the decision-making is still behind, but it’s a bit better, which is promising, but whether or not he’ll be able to adapt to NHL pace is another question. I do think he can, he adapted pretty seamlessly to higher pace with Sochi, and I think he’ll only get better over time. I think as soon as he can’t get away with the slow play, it’ll be gone. I’ve noticed his pace of play change from game to game depending on the situation. When the other team is more passive, he’ll play as slow as they’ll let him, but if the game’s fast, he still plays his game no problem, just with more pace to it, and he makes decisions a bit more quickly and with more confidence. I’d like to see him bring a higher pace no matter the situation, but I do believe it will come.
I’ve been impressed with the physical side of his game, especially when it comes to offensive puck retrievals, but it’s also a bit terrifying with how unafraid he is. He’s stronger than he looks, he throws his shoulder into opponents to win tight races for the puck, plays inside contact pretty well, uses his body well for smart pick plays to buy time for his team, and his puck protection mechanics are legitimately good, but there’s a question of NHL translatability.
He can handle physical battles decently at lower levels, but he’ll probably need to bulk up a fair bit if he intends to play this way down the road, and his style of play will get him into trouble if he’s not able to. He’s usually pretty strong on his feet, but he can still get outmuscled fairly easily, he skates with his head down way too often, relies on puck protection with his body, and walks himself into bad situations where he’ll get levelled in the NHL. I think bulking up, gaining more strength, is something that he should focus on if he wants to keep playing the way that he does.
Shot selection is another area of Michkov’s projection that’s a bit murky, and while I think he’s far from the worst case of poor shot selection out there, he is a frustrating one. I don’t think most of the shots that he takes are necessarily terrible, the issue is that he has the skill, and often the space, to create much better looks than he takes. He’s hesitant to take pucks to the inside sometimes, and just ends up taking long shots from the perimeter that are relatively easy to handle. His shot makes him a threat from anywhere, but he’s such a talented goal-scorer in tight that it’s frustrating to see him not really try to create better opportunities, when I know he can do things like this:
When he finds himself low in the offensive zone with possession, he opts to shoot from along or behind the goal line nearly every time, and usually just misses entirely. He’s scored many goals that way at the junior level, and his shot is definitely good enough to make it work, so it’s understandable that he wants to attempt it, but I’d like to just get in his ear a bit and tell him not to try and force it. When he has the amount of space that he so often has, just look for a better option.
I fully expect Michkov to be all over the place on draft boards for the rest of the year, because it largely comes down to whether or not you believe he can overcome these issues. It may end up being a bad bet to make, but as I’ve said, I do think he can. Personally, I value his processing of the game and the dynamic qualities in his game over all, and it could very well blow up in my face in a few years, but I believe in him figuring it out, at least at the time of writing this.
I do believe there exists a top line, dynamic game-changing offensive player in Michkov, but it’s far from a sure thing; there’s a lot of risk involved and it should be no surprise that he’s falling down draft lists. And to be clear, no, it has nothing to do with Russia or his KHL contract; I feel like I have to mention that. I see the KHL contract as a good thing, I think rushing him to the NHL is the worst thing you could do for him, so it’s good that he’ll take more time to mature and work on his game in Russia before coming over.
This report may have come across as overly negative, but in spite of everything I’ve said, I’m a big fan of Michkov. He’s found success at every level he’s played at, and I don’t see that changing. The awareness, vision, processing of play, shooting and off-puck instincts, playmaking potential, and the combination of skills make up a really enticing package. I’ll be keeping a close eye on him for the next few years, and I’m very interested to see where he ends up.
Latest Update
January 19, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Gray Matter. If you would like to follow Gray on Twitter, his handle is @grismatter.
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Luca Cagnoni is a 2023 NHL Draft eligible defenseman, who hails from Burnaby, British Columbia. Cagnoni plays for the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks.
Cagnoni was not selected in a WHL draft, but was listed and signed by the Portland Winterhawks in March of 2020. He had been playing for the Burnaby Winter Club U18 team (CSSHL U18) and had been in the Burnaby Winter Club program throughout this youth.
In the Smaht Scouting preliminary rankings, Cagnoni was ranked #25. Leading up to the months before Cagnoni’s draft year season kicked off, I watched quite a bit of Cagnoni tape and immediately saw the package of tools in his tool belt and immediately starting thinking that if he could put all of the tools together that he could be a truly dynamic puck moving defenseman. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the report, but he has put the tools together and has been a great defenseman for Portland this year.
Player Profile
D.O.B – December 21, 2004 Nationality – Canadian Draft Eligibility – 2023 Height –5’10″ Weight –172 lbs Position – Defense Handedness – Left
Cagnoni’s Style Of Play
Offense
As you can expect given Cagnoni’s puck moving tendencies, he likes to pinch up quite a bit throughout each game. It doesn’t matter if Cagnoni has the puck, regardless he will pinch up. When in possession of the puck at the point and he sees open ice leading to the slot, he takes it. When he doesn’t have the puck, sees a teammate skating with the puck and an attacker bearing down on him, Cagnoni will skate into open ice to provide an outlet lane. Once in possession, he looks to drive into the slot and then feather passes to open teammates. Should an attacker come skating him to shut him down, he will use his handling, reach and shiftiness to manipulate attackers to one side, then pivot out and quickly find a tight passing lane to exploit. For instance, check out this primary assist that he had against Victoria in which he skated up to the attacker and kept the puck in front of the attacker, then peeled away and passed through a very tight lane to a teammate at net front.
As I just mentioned in the above section, Cagnoni is a dynamic puck moving defenseman. We will discuss in more detail later in on the transitional play section, but Cagnoni’s ability to move up the ice at a quick pace with possession of the puck has led a lot of scoring chances for the Portland Winterhawks. When you watch Portland games, Cagnoni more often than not is the F1. Right after skating into the zone, he will look to force his way into high pressure situations. He wants to attack the middle of the ice and draws the attack immediately when he skates to the perimeter line. In situations in which he is taking on multiple attackers, he overcommits and tries to shift the puck around the pressure. Sometimes he works the half-wall boards when taking on a few attackers, but he will end up getting trapped more often than not. In those particular situations, the defensive unit has the upper hand and can start to isolate Cagnoni from outlet lanes. In those situations Cagnoni will try to bail himself out with a cross ice pass, but it will be through a tight lane and those passes more often then not are well-tracked by the opponent and intercepted.
Instead of trying to immediately engage multiple attackers, Cagnoni should either look to delay and wait for outlet options or dump the puck into the corner and hope that a teammate in stride will be able to keep his speed in order to win the puck.
When facing one attacker, he can get good separation when stick-handling around attackers in the offensive zone when he is skating towards medium danger. For instance, check out Cagnoni shifting the puck around Carson Lambos. Shifts the puck around Lambos, has good reach that allows him to extend the puck out, secure and then drives to the net.
Cagnoni’s puck distribution is also well-developed. When he skates into pressure and looks to complete a pass, he tends to use whatever lane is given to him. With that said, he will resort to passing underneath the attacker’s stick when he has no other lane to exploit. When the pressure is far more relaxed, he can wire quick passes from the blue line to a teammate positioned cross ice in a back door shooting position. He loves to key up one-timer opportunities for his teammates in back door situations.
When his center wins a face-off draw in the offensive zone and he captures possession of the puck immediately after the face-off victory, Cagnoni isn’t looking to hang around with the puck for long. As soon as he sees a teammate find open space down low, he looks to feather a pass in. Sometimes, he will put a bit too much power behind those passes and it’ll be difficult for his teammate to secure, but it’s great to see him look to get the puck to open teammates down low quickly.
Cagnoni’s shot is definitely an area that is still in development. He struggles at elevating his shot. For the most part when shooting from the perimeter or the blue line, he ends up firing a lot of low shots. Shots that the goaltender can easily track and make a clean save on. When he tries going glove high with his shot, his shot ending up right at the goaltender’s glove. Since Cagnoni does struggle with shot elevation, when he does look to shoot from range, he ends up targeting situations in which there is a lot of traffic at net front, so he can get a shot on net in which the goaltender will struggle with tracking. For instance, check out Cagnoni’s wrist shot low blocker side goal that he scored against Kamloops with traffic.
Defense
Carter Sotheran didn’t come up in the offensive zone, but I do need to bring him up now. I truly love the Luca Cagnoni – Carter Sotheran pairing. For Sotheran, he is used as more of a defensive defenseman in his role. Given how elusive Cagnoni can be in transition and in the offensive zone, there are plenty of shifts in which Cagnoni is slightly out of position and thus the Winterhawks need to call upon a defensive defenseman with great east-west speed who can shut down the opposition rush well. I just love the pairing because it’s allows Cagnoni to showcase his exceptional transitional play and Portland still knows that Cagnoni has a reliable defensive partner to back him up. With all of that said, there are plenty of shifts in which Sotheran handles the bulk of the board battles on both sides (left and right) behind the red line since he is bit stronger with his physicality than Cagnoni. That allows Cagnoni to patrol the slot and puts him in a prime position to kick off the rush by establishing an open outlet passing lane.
While Sotheran does a good job of closing out gaps and routinely will handle board battles for the defensive unit, Cagnoni does an excellent job of closing out gaps himself. He does a good job of staying toe to toe with the attacker who is trying to shift the puck around in the corner. When the attacker pivots, Cagnoni pivots and remains in position with the attacker. Cagnoni’s pressure will be a bit laid back when working the low danger boards. He’s not in your face. He is there at a distance and stays in tow. When he is skating neck and neck with attackers, you can expect that he will lift up his stick to irritate attackers and cause puck disruption. Once he grabs a hold of the puck after shaking the attackers off of the puck, he quickly completes an outlet pass.
While he does do a good job at stick lifting to cause puck disruption, he doesn’t have a true active stick. When defending against the rush, he isn’t assertive with his active stick until the rush gets into medium danger. He follows along till the attack gets in medium danger and then extends his stick out to take away space. But, I’d like to see him far more assertive when defending and develop an active stick. An active stick would allow him to manipulate oppositional puck movement and ultimate would allow him to close out gaps quicker.
When Sotheran is defending against the puck carrying attacker who is driving the rush, Cagnoni does a great job at implementing tight back check pressure on the non puck carrying attacker who is skating through centered ice. Cagnoni will also lift his stick and extend it towards the attacker’s stick to make it a challenge for the attacker to grab a hold of the puck when an attacker passes them the puck. Even when the attacker can grab a hold of the puck, Cagnoni is right on the attacker and giving him absolutely no room.
Cagnoni isn’t a physical defenseman, but he will engage in hip and shoulder checks from time to time. He will hip check to get the advantage in loose puck board battles in his own zone and complete shoulder checks at open ice to neutralize oppositional rush attempts.
When he picks up possession of a loose puck behind the red line, he usually slows the pace down and jump starts the pace when the attacker comes in range. But, when the attacker comes into range, sometimes he will coast before deploying crossovers and thus doesn’t get the immediate acceleration that he needs to create separation. Instead of coasting initially, I’d like to see him activate once drawing the attacker in.
While we do see instances in which Cagnoni struggles to activate quickly when the attack is closing in. He has excellent reach and will use it to steer the puck around heavy traffic. But, not only does he have really good reach, but he is also quite good at manipulating the attacker in and then using his reach to push the puck away from the attacker and then skate up the defensive zone. After manipulating the attacker and skating into space, he will then deliver a quick feed to a teammate in the neutral zone. In the clip below from a November 19th contest against Kamloops, he draws the attacker into the position of the loose puck by changing his pace when closing in on the loose puck. He lures the attacker to a certain spot by changing his pace and quickly uses his reach to get the puck away from pressure.
Cagnoni’s reach and manipulation allows him to be rather crafty when pressure is closing in on him. But, he also is a great problem solver. When Cagnoni acquires loose pucks and the pressure is amounting, he will usually decide to shift further back into his own zone. Draws the pressure in and also draws passing options by allowing his teammates an opportunity to establish open ice. If he isn’t changing his pace, he usually is doubling back with speed and looking to find a different lane to use.
Cagnoni’s problem solving isn’t just evident when turning back from pressure to regroup or doubling back and quickly using a different lane. There are plenty of instances in which Cagnoni draws heavy pressure and has to get crafty to get the puck away from danger. You will see him complete backhand shovel passes to a teammate with open ice when two attackers were closing in on him. He quickly identified his open teammate, the pressure and the lane to use. In addition, he deciphers what type of pass would be the most optimal. Cagnoni will also complete drop passes when running into pressure and he has a teammate skating in from behind. Plus, he does a great job of identifying passing lanes that he can use underneath attacker’s sticks and quickly taking that lane.
When Cagnoni doesn’t have possession of the puck, he is constantly looking to use his straight line speed to get him aligned with his puck carrying attacker in order to provide an outlet lane.
Transitional Play
Cagnoni will be very assertive with his positioning when he spots a vulnerable attacker who has their back turned to him. He will use his speed to get in position, skate right behind the attacker and extend his stick out to the attacker’s stick to cause puck disruption. Cagnoni might struggle to net possession of the puck afterwards as the puck peels further away, but his ability to strip the puck away could lead to his teammates grabbing a hold of possession.
As I mentioned in the defensive section, Cagnoni doesn’t have an active stick, but I have to imagine that he was adopt one over time. Even though he doesn’t have an active stick, he does an excellent job maintaining good positional alignment on puck carriers. When he is aligned with attackers, he can use his stick lifting to make up for the active stick.
Cagnoni thrives when in possession of the puck in the neutral zone. His distribution and his speed make him tough to shut down. Cagnoni builds up acceleration through his crossovers and will rotate from those crossovers to straight line skate extensions. But, his edges and crossovers allow him to shift skating lanes on the fly as he looks to adjust his positioning in comparison to the opposition.
My favorite shifts when watching Cagnoni are the shifts in which he looks to complete a give and go zone entry. While on the move through the neutral zone and he sees a winger right on the blue line, he will feed a pass to his teammate. His teammate becomes the F1 and Cagnoni grabs open ice in medium danger. That allows his teammate to create a scoring chance as Cagnoni opens the passing lane for him to utilize and it shows you how Cagnoni can manipulate oppositional pressure by dictating who they should be focused on.
Cagnoni shows off his problem solving trait quite a bit when moving the puck from zone to zone. Should he walk into a tight pressured situation, he will button hook and double back and regroup. In some cases he will use his crossovers to pick up speed and use another skating lane in, but he loves to use his crossovers to gain just the amount of separation he needs to send a pass to an open teammate.
But, Cagnoni won’t back off if the pressure isn’t tightening up. If the pressure is more relaxed, he does a good job at using his mobility to pivot and find an open teammate to deliver a pass to.
In situations in which he picked up the loose puck in the neutral zone, he doesn’t hold onto the puck for long because he expects that if he didn’t see an attacker skating with him to the puck that one is coming. So, he quickly delivers a pass to the closest open option.
Skating
I’ve talked about Cagnoni’s skating throughout the report, so I’m going to use this section as more of a recap.
Cagnoni possesses a great forward stride extension with length that allows him get to loose pucks. His crossovers allow him to build up acceleration nicely and he will lean on his edges to retain speed when shifting lanes in the neutral zone.
Cagnoni does need to work a bit on activating after slowing down the tempo in his own zone and wanting to pick up speed to skate away from pressure. Sometimes when activating after shifting from skating backwards to skating forwards, his activation is slightly delayed and that will lead to more contested puck battles.
Projection
If you liked Olen Zellweger in his draft year, you are going to be a fan of Luca Cagnoni. Everything that I liked in Olen, I see the same in Cagnoni.
The mobility, the speed, the creativity, the distribution and the defensive positioning.
Cagnoni’s ability to assess and deliver positive results consistently off the rush is going to pay off at the NHL level.
I see a top 4 NHL defenseman in Cagnoni.
Latest Update
January 17, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.
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Photo Credit: Jeremy Champagne / Brandon Wheat Kings
Nate Danielson is a 2023 NHL Draft prospect, who hails from Red Deer, Alberta and plays for the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings. Danielson was selected in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft by Brandon and made his WHL debut during the 2020-2021 season. Prior to joining the Wheat Kings, he was playing U18 hockey for the Red Deer Chiefs AAA club and for Northern Alberta X-Treme Prep.
Last season, Danielson was a point per game player with 57 points in 53 games. At the time of writing this report (January 8, 2023), Danielson had tallied 49 points in 38 games. At the midway point in the season, Danielson isn’t far off from matching his point total from last season.
Player Profile
D.O.B – September 27, 2004 Nationality – Canadian Draft Eligibility – 2023 Height –6’1″ Weight –185 lbs Position – Center Handedness – Right
Danielson’s Style Of Play
Offense
When he skates into the zone as the F1 and looks to pass to a teammate in the slot as he is driving along the half-wall, but can’t find a quality lane to use because of pressure, he will look to pass back to the perimeter / point. Sometimes he will wait at the point for a teammate to find open ice at the point and then Danielson will look to complete a lateral feed. When Danielson is skating with the puck along the half-wall and he nets enough separation from the attacker who is covering him and blocking lanes to the slot, Danielson will bring the puck to the corner and look to complete a pass to a teammate closer to net front. Usually Danielson is looking to complete a pass before pressure truly tightens up because he will struggle with stick-handling around pressure in tight situations. Instead, when the attack closes in, he does a good job of utilizing whatever space he has. He will complete passes underneath the attacker’s stick to teammates in the slot or between the attacker’s skates. Danielson isn’t indecisive. As soon as he identifies space to use, he attempts a pass. Doesn’t waste time because he knows that the gap won’t be available for long.
While Danielson struggles to stick-handle around tight pressure, he does a good job of shoveling the puck away from attackers and then utilizing his speed and reach to regain control of the puck quickly. So, in tight loose puck battles at open ice, Danielson can leverage those tools to not only win possession, but then create quite a bit of separation for himself.
When skating behind the rush and looking to create puck disruption, he will look to stop the rush from exiting the zone by lifting his stick. He has excellent reach that he can rely on when lifting his stick, so that he doesn’t always have to be neck and neck with an attacker to cause puck disruption. He can be slightly further back and still manage to dismantle the rush.
When skating after oppositional puck movement deep in the offensive zone, he builds up quite a bit of speed on the forecheck with his crossovers, but then ends up coasting. Coasting limits Danielson’s ability to be physical along the boards. Instead of completing a hip or shoulder check to silence puck movement, the attacker has plenty of time and space to complete an outlet pass. Should the puck carrier look to move laterally behind the red line, Danielson will struggle with aligning himself to the puck carrier and that largely can be attributed to Danielson’s shortened stride length when skating east – west.
In situations in which Danielson doesn’t have possession of the puck but his team is running the cycle, should his defenseman pinch up, he drops back and covers for the defenseman at the point. When his teammates have the puck at the point, Danielson positions himself in the low slot to screen the opposing goaltender and give his teammates a passing option to high danger. Danielson does a good job of constantly moving his feet and finding open ice when they cycle is moving around the offensive zone. He quickly identifies where his teammates are, where the pressure is and re-positions himself into open ice.
Danielson’s shot is well-developed. His shot selection is quite good. He doesn’t usually take shots from low danger unless he has no other option on the table. If he has a passing lane at his fingertips, he doesn’t debate about whether or not he takes it or not. He takes it. Aside from his shot selection, he has had quite a bit of success from range with his wrist shot this season, especially with the attack closing in on him. In situations in which Danielson can’t get a clean shot off right away due to the positioning of the opposing defenseman. He will look to coast towards the corner and manipulate the defenseman’s positioning. The defenseman shifts over and has created a quality shooting lane for Danielson. Danielson knows that he can’t use a wrist shot as the wind-up will delay his shot, so he fires a top shelf shot blocker side (far side). Danielson’s ability to move attackers with his own positioning allows him to be a consistent producer at 5v5 in WHL play.
How many goals does Nate Danielson have this season?
Danielson also does a good job of tracking oppositional puck movements / outlet passing. He will track the trajectory and skate into passes. Danielson has a few goals this season that have come off of interceptions. Once he has possession of the puck, he will skate to net front and manipulate / shift the goaltender over to create a gap for him to exploit. For example, check out this goal that he scored against Kamloops from back in October.
Nate Danielson with an interception, skates to the doorstep, draws the goaltender over and then shoots after spotting an open lane. Second goal of the season for Nate.#2023NHLDraftpic.twitter.com/M93EeqsFUT
Here is another goal that he scores after netting the puck via an interception at open ice.
Defense
Danielson’s defensive play is a bit inconsistent. There are a lot of shifts in which he is the last skater back into the zone. He will coast back into the defensive zone. But, there are plenty of shifts in which he will be impactful on the back check. The situations in which Danielson is the last skater back into the defensive zone usually happens when Brandon has driven the rush up the ice, cycled the puck in the offensive zone and then turned over possession. Instead of using his straight line speed to hustle back on the back check, he spots that 3-4 teammates are headed back into the defensive zone at a quick pace and then decides to coasts. Danielson doesn’t leave his defensemen in a lurch. If he identifies that teammates are headed back, he shortens his stride and then coasts, but only to put himself in open ice at the defensive zone blue line. By acquiring open ice at the defensive zone blue line, he opens up a passing option for the teammate who captures possession of the puck. Danielson can then grab a hold of the puck and use his straight line speed to carry the puck back up the ice. The shifts in which Danielson is more impactful defensively occurs when his teammates aren’t in position to face the rush. If Danielson is closer to the defensive zone, he will hustle back. When he is facing the rush in the defensive zone, he does a good job of taking away space for attackers at the point to force ill-advised shots, blocked shots and turnovers in possession. Should pucks come loose, Danielson is quick on his feet, he will capture possession and drive the rush up the ice. Danielson also does a good job of taking up space in the slot and force puck carrying attackers to take medium danger shots versus high danger shots when the attackers are in the slot with the puck. He also does job of defending behind the red line and will put pressure on an attacker behind the red line who is trying to corral loose pucks. The attacker is in a rather vulnerable spot given that he doesn’t have a lot of time to secure the puck with Danielson closing in on him.
As mentioned earlier, Danielson does a great job of establishing open ice to create outlet passing lanes. Once he has possession of the puck and traffic picks up, he does a good job of shaking out of pressure by pivoting quickly.
But, he doesn’t just look to pivot away from pressure. If he has pressure closing in on him and he spots a teammate who is further up in the defensive zone and open then he will look to complete an outlet pass to them. Danielson doesn’t have the handling to shake free, so he makes up for that with well-timed passes to his teammates using whatever space he has in front of him. But, Danielson doesn’t just look to pass when dealing with traffic. If pressure is a bit more relaxed and he spots an open teammate closer to the blue line, he will attempt a pass to that teammate.
If the pressure is rather relaxed and teammates are skating aligned to Danielson’s positioning, that’s when he breaks out his lengthy straight line extensions and drives the puck out of the zone.
Transitional Play
While he does struggle with handling in close quarters, Danielson does do a good job of securing the puck when pressure is skating towards him. He shifts the puck to his backhand or forehand (depending on if the attacker is approaching on the left side or the right side) and doesn’t expose the puck to the attacker. Should pressure close in on him head on, Danielson does identifies space that he can use to pass to an open teammate (underneath the stick of the attacker or between the attacker’s skates) and completes the pass which open space is present. Danielson is quick with his decision making and as mentioned earlier he doesn’t dilly dally.
From a defensive perspective, when it appears that there is an odd man rush brewing, he uses his straight line skate extensions to put himself in position to cover an open attacker. But, in particular, the open attacker who is closer to the slot.
If Danielson is at the point and an oppositional rush breaks out, he quickly puts himself in gear to skate back into the neutral zone so he can face the rush head on. Also, in situations in which one of Danielson’s defensemen coughs up possession of the puck at the point and he is slightly further in the offensive zone, he will use his speed to put himself in a position to cover for his defenseman.
But, in general, as we discussed in the defensive section, Danielson doesn’t always skate back into the neutral zone at speed. He will look to be the last skater back into the defensive zone and provide his defensemen with a passing lane to exploit in order to get the puck back into the neutral zone quickly.
Skating
Danielson crossovers allow him to generate great activation. When driving the rush down the half-wall, he will us his crossovers to generate separation for himself down low. He will also use his crossovers to carve out open ice for himself when the F1 is looking to complete a pass to the slot. Danielson’s crossovers provide him with enough speed to skate by puck watching attackers, catch them off guard and create passing lanes to the backdoor. After activating his speed, he uses lengthy skate extensions to maintain his speed and that comes in handy when he is looking to fly through the neutral zone with possession of the puck.
While Danielson does have a lengthy stride extension that he can use to maintain speed, there are plenty of times in which he fails to deploy those extensions and ends up coasting. By coasting, he loses all of his speed and has to activate once again. Sometimes that works to his benefit as he can delay puck movement to confuse the attack, but it does hurt him on the forecheck from a physicality perspective. Occasionally, he will end up coasting off puck after deploying crossovers at open ice and that makes it difficult for his teammates to gauge whether or not they can hit Danielson in stride with a well-timed pass.
The last thing that I wanted to touch on from a skating perspective is a habit that I’ve seen Danielson use frequently. When keeping himself aligned with his teammate to keep a passing lane alive in transition, sometimes he will keep his skate extended too long to slow himself down because he is scared about picking up too much speed and losing the alignment / lateral passing lane. If his teammate were to deliver a pass to him while Danielson is holding his non-plant foot in place for too long, it could lead to either Danielson falling forward and / or lead to Danielson struggling to use his reach effectively to capture possession of the puck. It also hurts his ability to quickly activate speed once he captures possession of the puck.
Projection
While Danielson’s development is still in progress, he brings quite a bit of quality tools to the table like his ability to generate quality speed in transition, his manipulation tactics to open up space for himself and quick decision making under pressure. Those tools allow him extremely effective at the WHL level and are going to come in handy once again at the NHL level. I have no doubt that Danielson is going to be an effective NHLer in a middle six role. The vision that Danielson has is going to lead to a lot of quality scoring chances in NHL play. He is going to be able to put pucks into high danger areas consistently because of how quick he is to identify space to use when traffic becomes daunting. Should he run out of options, he has a lethal shot that he can use from range.
At the end of the day, whoever takes Danielson is getting a player with an extremely safe floor and a second line ceiling.
Latest Update
January 9, 2023
stats from InStat and EliteProspects
Prospect report written by Josh Tessler. If you would like to follow Josh on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.
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