Not to sound critical, but I think you should watch some more of Clarke. Just go on HockeyTV.com and watch a replay of either U-18 game vs. Sweden, and you'll get at least an idea.
Brandt Clarke is an extremely unique player. I'm not talking about his unusual skating stride, but rather he thinks the game from a seemingly alternate universe. He's an improviser, almost a jazz musician on skates because his improvisation is in tune with the context of the situation he is playing in.
He's a player who will purposely draw in two forecheckers simultaneously, then spin a 360 and lace a cross-ice pass on to a teammate's blade to start a rush in the other direction. In the offensive zone, he'll use his elite hands for a litany of fakes as if he wants to rush in the zone, when he's really just trying to open up a defender to commit so he can create a passing lane. I've seen him use the fake pass as often as most defensemen use a fake shot, trying to catch a defender reaching to skate in behind him and become a fourth forward in the offensive zone. Clarke loves to set up in Gretzky's office -- behind the opposing net -- more than any defender I think I've ever seen; he trusts his forwards to cover for him at the point and has confidence on how capable he is offensively.
Where Clarke has really shored up his game this year is on the defensive side. Though he can still be outmuscled and outfought -- he's not Owen Power back there -- his positional play and gap control have really improved in Slovakia. You criticized his transitional defense earlier, but maybe you just saw one bad play? I only ask because this is certainly a strength in his game. His strongest attribute is his hands, passing and calm -- when he picks the puck out of a board scrum, there is no defenseman in this class who is more adept at gaining a few milliseconds of space with a quick move, then firing an outlet pass. Clarke is an exceptional passer, and his anticipation and IQ play up the skill -- it's one thing to be creative, but another entirely to mix creativity with a chess player mentality of always thinking the game one step ahead of the opposition.
Now, I'm not here to tell you or anyone else that Brandt Clarke is the best defenseman in the 2021 class. Though I personally rank him the highest, if someone prefers Power or Hughes, it's really close enough at the top of the draft that these are all legitimate debates and, in reality, none of us will know who is right or wrong for another decade. But I will tell anyone that Brandt Clarke is an exceptional prospect with exceptional upside -- and the idea that his skating or his defense make him a risk to be a good NHL-er is just an extreme stretch of imagination to me.
What I can say about Clarke is what attracts me to him as a player. Quite simply, his combination of hands/passing/shooting/IQ match any Norris winner for the past dozen years in their draft eligible seasons. He's never going to be an elite skater or physical player, but those are four crucial tools for a defenseman where Clarke is either elite or borderline elite. How many star NHL defensemen have an arsenal like that to work with? Skating is a very crucial tool as well, but again Clarke is a good skater -- more proficient in that respect than very recent Norris winners like Mark Giordano and Brent Burns. Is Clarke ever going to be as good as Giordano defensively or in terms of playing mistake-free hockey for seemingly months at a time? No. Will he ever be able to play a physical, power game and blast 100+ mph shots like Burns? Again, no.
But my point is that every great player player to their own strengths. Because neither Giordano nor Burns will ever be able to stickhandle or thread "how did he know that guy was even there?" passes like Clarke.
The real reason you -- or anyone -- should watch Brandt Clarke is because you love hockey and he's really, really fun to watch. He's one of those "what will he come up with next?" players. He's an improvisational artist and he's a truly bright young prospect for whichever team drafts him.
