Bordeleau is small, passive, a below average skater by NHL standards and a defensive liability. These flaws weren't just apparent in the NHL, which would be understandable for a player his age, but against his peer group in college and at the WJC as well.
Bordeleau is not below-average in his skating. I'll agree he needs work defensively.
He could probably work on his speed and burst but his edgework is quite good.
His speed is definitely not an asset and it needs to be at his size. There are just too many things going against him.
He has high-level hockey sense...that'll be his meal ticket to a future in an NHL top-six. Yes, he doesn't have top-end speed, but he has good agility, above-average edgework, and at least average speed/acceleration.
He has high level hockey sense in the offensive zone. I don't think that's going to be enough to solidify a NHL role given his other deficiencies. Also his freshman season at Michigan has all sorts of asterisks attached to it and shouldn't be seriously considered when trying to determine his potential IMO.
High-level hockey sense in the offensive zone nicely translates to high-level hockey sense everywhere else. The toolbox is there...he just needs the tools.
What asterisks?
IIRC they beat up on the same 4 or 5 opponents all season due to COVID restrictions and also had their season cut short for that reason. If we took Bordeleau's points per game from that season at face value he would be up there with Jonathan Toews as one of the best D+1 college hockey prospects ever. Bordeleau's D+2 numbers seem far more in line with his performance prior to getting drafted.
He was deployed in a defensive role with guys who will not play hockey above an NCAA level. One of his linemates scored 11 points in 34 games and the other was 14 in 39. Both suck. Bordeleau on the other hand went PPG. Bordeleau was not playing with Beniers, Johnson, Samskovich, or even Duke or Beecher.
He definitely played with Hughes, Power, Brisson, Johnson, etc. on the power play which is where he scored the majority of his points.
He had 2 PPGs and 8PPAs, 1 SHG, 9 ESGs and 17 ESAs. 10 out of 37 points on the power play.
Statistics don't lie!
Was gonna post this but you beat me to it. Hodge clearly has never watched a Michigan game or has any idea what he’s talking about.
The only problem with using the Pavelski comp there is that Pavelski was very good defensively while Bordeleau has struggled a lot. Also, Pavelski was always more than willing to go to the dirty areas and do the little things, which Bordeleau didn't seem intent on doing in the WJC games. Bordeleau has a lot of stuff to work on to make up for his lack of size and mediocre speed. I do think he'll carve out a career as a middle-6 playmaking winger though.
It's best to at least check the stats before making the argument.
