A write up from Wheeler's top 75 drafted prospects list from March:
18. Rutger McGroarty
McGroarty’s one of those kids who just looks like a pro hockey player. If he walked into an NHL dressing room tomorrow, he would stand as strong as some in it. Then you add in the charisma that made him the natural choice for the captaincy at the U.S. NTDP and with this year’s gold medal-winning world junior team, the light and energy that oozes out of him, and you have to be careful not to put too much stock into the off-ice pieces of the puzzle that he already appears to have figured out. But I think he’s a darn good hockey player and the pieces of the puzzle fit together nicely on the ice as well.
He’s a better skater (it doesn’t look the prettiest through his first few steps, but there’s some power when he gets going nonetheless) than he gets credit for and his spatial awareness, reads and effort level help him avoid losing short races. He’s got raw skill that shows up in his great hands and feel on the puck as a passer. His finishing touch around the net is there in spades, with a hard one-touch shot that he leverages his strong frame to power through when he gets open in the slot. He has always been a sneaky-good facilitator who passes the puck really well and can hold it.
He has particularly mastered the net drive into a high rotation away from coverage that brings him back to around the net. And then when he gets there, he’s got the strength to shoot from bad postures/off balance. He always seems to put his shots into good locations (along the ice, low blocker, high short side), too. He’s dexterous. He’s a tone setter. I’m a big fan.
The ice normally tilts in his favour, he’s such a smart player, he can score, he works, and he just understands where to be out there and how to put himself in positions to create offence. He has also reinforced his strong statistical profile from the NTDP at Michigan, where he was a point-per-game freshman a year ago and has played above 1.5 points per game as a sophomore this year despite a pretty severe injury in the fall (a broken rib and punctured lung). As I write this, he leads the Wolverines in scoring despite having played five fewer games than his peers.
If he can get a little quicker from the jump, he’s got all of the other makings of a legitimate top-nine forward who can play up and down a lineup with a variety of player types. I think he might be ready to turn pro at the end of this season, too.
