iginla has been on a meteoric rise this year after starting off the season under most peoples radars due to having previously been buried on a deep thunderbirds roster. in short, everything about his toolkit, play style, and habits looks like a slam dunk nhler. hes an elite forechecker. quick on the puck, ready to engage physically, and adept at small area handling. he has fantastic positional awareness be it in terms of supporting teammates by providing passing lanes or navigating space around defenders. he shows great cutbacks and responsiveness to pressure on the puck. his vision and manipulation are both solid and while youll see plenty of ideas fail at this point, the combination of these attributes with his physical play should make him a menace in the offensive zone. goes without saying how great his shot is. heavy, accurate, off his stick quickly, and hes excellent at driving interior scoring lanes, too. he exists to generate pro-style scoring chances and his pace, compete, physical intensity, and ability to play off his linemates all combine to give him a great outlook. tij would be a fantastic addition to this team. we would get much needed help in terms of developing a heavier forechecking game and stronger offensive zone possessions. everyone wants to compare him to his father, but to me, he reminds me of what hagel looks like in tampa
that said, he does have some potential drawbacks. lots of plays die on his stick. my gut is that its basically just the trade off for getting this type of player, but he frequently tries to power through defenses when he shouldnt or force plays that arent there (due to overconfidence and not poor reads imo), and its not uncommon to have a full game viewing where you see tons of ideas going nowhere. what can kind of play into this point is that hes also not conventionally dynamic in terms of skillset. dynamic is definitely a tick work in scouting, but its true that outside of his heavy shot, i dont know if theres anything that overtly high end. his skating isnt special and his playmaking is carried more by his vision than technical ability/creativity, for example. to his credit, though, hes always trying to generate something and its not just mindless get the puck on net type plays. a couple other minor complaints are that i dont know know if id call him a 200ft player (though its easy to project him as competent long term) and while hes had reps at C, i think hes more likely a winger at the next level
switching gears to carter george, ill preface i havent done a ton of goalie work yet (i usually like to have a more solidified skater ranking before blending them in), but i can offer a brief report. george's game is all about stability in net. calm, cool, and collected. always focused on positional play. patient with shooters, too. feels like hes always squared up to the shot before its even off the attackers stick. now, hes pretty lacking in terms of frame or any truly defining abilities, but hes more than capable of highlight reel saves and even single handedly winning some games. he definitely plays much bigger than he is. this poor kid sees so many shots with owen sound. in fact, the most shots against in the OHL as of writing this. certainly would think hes capable of handling an intense workload. personally, im less high on tools with goalies and more interested in composure and discipline (part of why i liked fowler last year), so while im not set on anything yet, it wont be surprising if im high on him come draft day
like i said, im not fully in the 2024 goalie space yet, so ill refrain from defining a top 3 or 5. some names to watch, though: George, Gidlof, Leenders, Moysevich, Nabokov, Saarinen, Vinni, Yegorov. should note its not a particularly great goalie class this year, anything before mid/late 2nd feels too early at this point
and finally, as frustrating as its been watching us avoid drafting centers, i dont believe this is the class to go early on one. if a helenius or someone makes it to our pick, by all means go ahead, but i will likely not be banging the table for one, wherever we pick in the first, because i expect the wingers and/or defenders to be better value
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