He definitely is toolsy, but I stand by my earlier assertion that his decision making isn’t great.
???
Did we watch the same player?
This last game, he ended tons of rushes before they started and when in a bad spot he smartly put the puck into safe spots with area passes.
He had one bad stretch pass attempt up the middle in his own zone. He connected on multiple stretch passes that put the play into the opponents dzone.
When he faced a 3 on 2 with the puck coming down his side, rather than attack the puck carrier, he smartly sagged to sit on the center rusher allowing his partner to leave Center and defend the cross-ice pass to the opposite wing. He still had position in front of the pass to the center player and could challenge the puck carriers shot if they walked in much further.
That puck went crossing and was broken up negating a dangerous 3 on 2 setup.
There were a lot of plays where he read the play coming up ice and was there to use his length at the right time and disrupt things with a simple poke.
I see no issue with decision making or thinking the game - in fact, compared to his teammates I would say he was one of the players most ahead of the play intellectually. His hands and puck handling creativity are average but I don't think this will hinder him in the same manner that Edler could play with high end offensive player.
I think he has a clear NHL future and he could be an Ekholm type at the very top end of his outcomes. It's going to be better for him to build a top 4 game at the AHL level rather than jump into a bottom 6 role as fast as possible.