Watched jost a lot last year playing in the bchl. West kelowna shut him down physically to knock the vees out of the playoffs. (He was banged up going into the series but still.). It has always been his biggest knock.
Now there were not a lot of teams in the bchl that could do that to him. I've seen him go into the corner, retrieve the puck, stick handle through 4 players and get a chance on the goalie from 5 feet away. His stick work in corners looked pretty elite up close.
He's now being faced with much bigger and more legit competition and he will have to make adjustments to his board work.. I think the fact he is on the boards fighting for the puck so much that we talk about it to such great lengths, is actually a good thing.
His time and space has also been cut back drastically in the past year, and at this tournament. Most of the hiccups I've seen from him in this tournament can be attributed to that. I have zero doubt that with a little more adjustment to the speed of the next level play he'll be fine(let's not forget, bchl is a pretty weak league, albeit great for developing his offence.) his iq is off the charts, he thinks the game at elite levels, but his quality of competition have rarely been at that level. It's a new challenge that I have little doubt this 18yo can handle.
Also consider his performance at the u18's and combine when trying to better compare him to his "peers". He did not test weak at the combine, and he excelled against his peers at the u18's.
Think of his boardplay the same way you think of a rookie center taking draws in the NHL. He still has elite potential there.. but without the qoc, it can be hard to unlock.
