Ziggy Stardust
Master Debater
Was cleaning out my hard drive and I stumbled upon this Word document of Anze Kopitar scouting reports that I collected into a single document back from his draft year in 2005. Thought it would be a fun read to share these and look back at what reporters had to say about Kopitar eight years ago.
Source: www.centralscouting.nhl.com
Source: http://www.nhl.com/futures/2005draft/euro_prospects072905.html
Source: http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/3833152
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05209/544916.stm
Source: www.centralscouting.nhl.com
Big, strong Slovenian born player who spent the 04-05 season in Sweden with Sodertalje. Good skater but could use some more first-step quickness. Excellent over all skill level. Has good size and fine tools. Excellent understanding of the game, good positional player. Has a good shot, can score in many ways. Smooth hands, effective at face offs. Good, hard working competitor with excellent attitude. Has the size but do still need muscle and strength.
Had an excellent season with Sodertälje U20 in the Swedish junior league. Also played on the league-team, first games in the Swedish league in January, on the 4th line with limited ice-time. Won scoring-title SWE Jun league, World JUN U20 Div I in Dec. World Jun U18 Div I, in April. On the Slovenian National team in February at the Olympic qualification tournament and at the World Championship. Has all the tools needed to be the first Slovenian born player in the NHL.
Source: http://www.nhl.com/futures/2005draft/euro_prospects072905.html
And now for something completely different, as Monty Python used to say.
The top European prospect for the 2005 NHL Entry Draft -- and that takes in all 18-year-olds from Sweden, Russia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Slovakia, Germany, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and a few other countries -- is from Slovenia! That's a first.
Anze Kopitar, 18 next month, is older than his country. Slovenia was the northwestern most part of Yugoslavia, a largely mountainous region that gained independence in 1991.
Kopitar is a 6-foot-4, 215-pound left-shooting center whose father, Matjaz, is a coach with the Slovenia national program. Anze caught the world's attention at a Slovenian tournament in January 2003, then had an excellent performance in the 2004 World Under-18 Tournament and he was even better last season when he had six goals and five assists in five games. But no one was prepared for his performance when he stepped up a level to the World Junior team and led the Group B tournament with 10 goals and three assists. He played for Slovenia in the World Championships at age 17.
Kopitar moved to Sweden to play on the Sodertalje junior team last season where he had 28 goals and 21 assists in 30 games to win the scoring title.
Not only is Kopitar likely to be the first Slovenian ever taken in the first round of the Entry Draft, some scouting services have him ranked in the Top Ten.
According to the NHL's Central Scouting Service, Kopitar is a big, strong forward who moves well for his size. He has good straight-forward speed but could improve on first-step quickness. He has an excellent overall skill level and an excellent understanding of the game. He has a good selection of shots and can score in many ways.
Kopitar has the finesse game and can get his way with his size and toughness. He's responsible defensively and is a hard worker with a good attitude. He is the first Slovenian-born world-class junior player.
Source: http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/3833152
Not only is the very likeable Slovenian the first ever notable prospect to emerge from that country, but according to ISS, he's also the top European player available in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.
After ISS first profiled the 17-year-old back in the fall of 2004, Kopitar quickly became the focus of European scouts and other media outlets. The Hockey News also ran the profile story and soon after Slovenia's best-kept secret was revealed for the rest of the world.
"There was a difference after that last article," admitted Kopitar to ISS recently. "A lot of scouts came to the games more often to see me so, yeah. There were always a lot of scouts at our games, just not because of me but because of guys like Nicklas Bergfors and other players."
Kopitar admits that initially the extra attention was a distraction as the new experience took some getting accustomed to.
"It was hard at the beginning because I wasn't used to it," he said from his home city of Jesenice. "Here in Slovenia, there are no scouts at all. But then I started to realize that it's not a big deal if someone is watching you, you just need to stay calm and not be nervous or feel the pressure."
Clearly Kopitar adjusted quickly and went on to have a tremendous year on several fronts, including leading his junior club team with 49 points in 30 games.
"Yeah, I'm very happy with my season," Kopitar said. "I won the junior scoring title and played the whole playoffs with the senior team in Sodertalje, so it was a great season for me. I didn't get much ice time in the playoffs, but I think it was good experience."
In international play Kopitar represented Slovenia at the World Junior Championships, scoring 10 goals and 13 points in just five games. Unquestionably his nation's only superstar, the teenager was also added to the men's team for their appearance at the World Championships in Austria where he says he enjoyed his career highlight.
"The World Championship game against Canada," the center said easily. "They're the Olympic Champions, the World Cup Champions and they're the best team in the world right now and I think it was a great experience just to play against them."
Kopitar scored once in the six games Slovenia played at the tournament and, according to one NHL executive, never looked out of place.
"He stepped into the World Championships and he certainly didn't embarrass himself," said the NHL head scout. "He was one of the best players on the ice."
The talented youngster was a popular target in Toronto recently where Kopitar met with 26 NHL organizations during their pre-draft player interviews.
Unfortunately, his favorite team, the Red Wings, was one of the four clubs that passed on sitting down with him. But Kopitar says there were several organizations that made very positive impressions on him.
"Both Atlanta and Columbus were good, Dallas was actually a really fun interview and Vancouver was good," said Kopitar. "All the interviews were good though; I didn't really have a bad feeling about any of them afterwards."
Kopitar admits that playing in Columbus or Atlanta are two scenarios he would quickly embrace, as he would relish the opportunity to play with some of the NHL's top young players.
Over the course of the season Kopitar grew a bit taller and added about eight pounds to his frame, now tilting the scales at 6-foot-2 1/2 and 210 pounds, and he also addressed the concerns his critics had laid before him.
"I improved on my foot speed, my defensive play and also my offensive skills," he said. "I think the biggest part was with my defensive play and with learning to move my feet faster."
One ISS scout says that although Kopitar isn't ready to jump to the NHL yet, he's certainly got all the tools to make it big in the league.
"His skating isn't as good as (Sidney) Crosby or (Benoit) Pouliot and he has trouble turning, but when he's got the puck, from the blueline in, he's as good as any player in this draft," said the scout. "He's a big, strong kid so he rarely losses battles in the corners. I think he just needs to mature more and fill into that body. He's got big feet and that might be part of the problem with his turning."
When asked if the fact that Kopitar hails from a non-hockey nation was a deterrent, the NHL scout countered by saying, "He's coming from a country that doesn't produce a lot of hockey players, but he played in a country (Sweden) that does, and he played very well."
Kopitar isn't afraid to be a trailblazer for future hockey players back home.
"I know that hockey in Slovenia is not so big but if I go to the NHL someday, hopefully a lot of young guys will start to play and be successful just like me," said Kopitar.
Wayne Gretzky became known the world over as "The Great One" and one day soon, at least in the country of Slovenia, Anze Kopitar will proudly be anointed as "The First One".
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05209/544916.stm
The day might come when the world's premier downhill skier hails from Havana, its finest golfer from the shores of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.
After all, the best European prospect in this year's NHL Entry Draft, winger Anze Kopitar, is a native of Slovenia, so just about anything is possible.
That is a most improbable pedigree -- only one player from Kopitar's country has been drafted -- but it's easy to understand why he is a popular choice to go in the top 10. When a guy is 6 feet 2 1/2, 210 pounds and has Kopitar's shot and instincts, scouts don't care much about his address.
"He's a hockey player," said Goran Stubb, NHL Central Scouting's top man in Europe. "A player. He has very good vision, a very good understanding of the game. His technical skills are very, very good. ... He's very good with the puck. He can score goals, and he can set up goals."
Kopitar spent the past winter playing junior hockey in Sweden, winning the scoring championship in the process, and represented his country in several international tournaments. He not only played for Slovenia in the under-18 and under-20 world tournaments, but also in the world championships in Austria.
He was the youngest player in that event and did nothing to make scouts who projected him as a high first-rounder to second-guess their decisions.
"He played against the U.S. and against Canada in the world championships and did well," Stubb said. "Of course, he didn't have many players [to work with]. When he passed the puck, they didn't pass it back to him."
Although Slovenia is not one of the world hockey powers -- "They don't have many hockey players," Stubb said. "They don't have many rinks." -- Kopitar grew up with the game; his father is an assistant coach with the national team.
That background aside, the consensus is that Kopitar's development has been Pejorative Slured, at least slightly, by growing up in a country where there is little hockey played.
If his roots were in Sweden or Russia or Finland or the Czech Republic, Kopitar would have been able to hone his abilities against higher-caliber competition from the time he took up the game, instead of having to always compete against older players, just to have a challenge.
"I believe he'd be a better player right now if he'd been in one of those countries, for sure," Phoenix scout Willy Lindstrom said. "The hockey in Slovenia is not that great."
Neither is Kopitar's skating, which is the one concern most scouts seem to have about him. All agree his acceleration and speed must improve, but few doubt that they will.
"His skating is something you may look at and want to question," said Greg Malone, the Penguins' head scout. "But he's the type of guy who, with his work ethic, that will come, probably."
Developing hockey sense is a lot harder but, for whatever reason, that seems to have come naturally for Kopitar.
"His hockey sense and reads on the ice are very good," Malone said. "That's the thing that's most impressive about the kid. You're like, 'Wow, where did he pick this up?' "
Kopitar had good instincts long before he joined Sodertalje's junior club in Sweden for the 2004-05 season, but the rest of his game benefited from the time he spent there. Sodertalje made out OK in the deal, too, because Kopitar put up 28 goals and 21 assists in 30 games.
"He made a wise decision to play in Sweden," Stubb said. "He improved a lot."
And he should be able to get better. For even though Lindstrom already describes Kopitar as "a natural-born player" who has "good size and sees hockey like a senior guy," he won't be 18 until Aug. 24.
Blend his size and skill with a bit more experience -- and factor in Kopitar's willingness to work on his game -- and he has the potential to be an impact player for a long time.
"He's got a lot of upside, because of his size and his work ethic," Malone said. "He's a determined kid.
"The bottom line is that, down the road, this kid should be a pretty good hockey player."
