LD Jeremy Hanzel - Seattle Thunderbirds, WHL (2023, 187th, COL; traded to NSH)

Kcoyote3

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So hot right now.

Seriously though, great first pass, involved and engaged defensively, decent skating. Also fun fact, according to EP, he holds the record for highest plus minus ever in a WHL playoff run at +26.

Now a lot of his production has come from the great team in front of him, but I think there's something here with how he plays. Wouldn't be surprised to see him taken late as a double overager.
 

WarriorofTime

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Jul 3, 2010
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Hanzel is a no brainer to get drafted as a 19 year old. Gotta remember these are guys who were in Covid the first go around, so easy to speculate that there would have been more misses than usual that year. Only question for me is whether he gets signed right away and is playing pro hockey or if the team decides to not sign him right away (since they have two years to do so) and have him play as an overage player in the WHL with the plans to sign him whenever his team’s season ends.
 

Bubbles

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Apr 16, 2004
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Hanzel is a no brainer to get drafted as a 19 year old. Gotta remember these are guys who were in Covid the first go around, so easy to speculate that there would have been more misses than usual that year. Only question for me is whether he gets signed right away and is playing pro hockey or if the team decides to not sign him right away (since they have two years to do so) and have him play as an overage player in the WHL with the plans to sign him whenever his team’s season ends.

He's 20. He can't come back.

Definitely someone will take a chance on him late. Just like Milic, NHL teams completely missed the boat last year on these guys.
 

WarriorofTime

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He's 20. He can't come back.

Definitely someone will take a chance on him late. Just like Milic, NHL teams completely missed the boat last year on these guys.
He can come back as an overage player. Each team is allowed to ice 3 of them a game. Next year that will mean players born in '03. You don't see many NHL prospects go back as overagers because the ELC slide does not apply to them, but if the player is not yet signed, they can go back and wait to sign them.
 

Bubbles

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He can come back as an overage player. Each team is allowed to ice 3 of them a game. Next year that will mean players born in '03. You don't see many NHL prospects go back as overagers because the ELC slide does not apply to them, but if the player is not yet signed, they can go back and wait to sign them.

Right, you are correct.
 

Skinnyjimmy08

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Mar 30, 2012
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Hes having a VERY good season and i expect him to be taken in the later rounds. Honestly i am not a huge fan of his NHL potential right now but after some time in the AHL you never know what could happen.

Either way I feel he definately needs to be drafted

+70 in regular season this year... are you kidding me??!.. the next highest on this insane TBirds team was +50
 

tunnelvision

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I've liked his play at the memorial cup. Great passer and puckhandler, fluid in changing skating directions and passing angles, decent vision too. Those are valuable skills in retrievals, breakouts and PPQB'ing. He can hold a candle to anyone on Seattle's blueline in that respect imo. I think his defensive awareness has been good despite couple obviously bad reads in the last two games. I see top speed and acceleration as his biggest weaknesses as of now. With some improvement in that area I think he's a future NHLer.
 

WarriorofTime

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I guess he is going back to Major Juniors for an overage season. They have two years to sign him off the Reserve List, so he likely will get an ELC once his season ends.
 

Pierce Hawthorne

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He was very, very impressive in Avs camp/preseason. Probably the biggest standout tbh.

Drew a lot of comparables to another Avs Dman in Devon Toews with the way he played. Just so smart and cerebral with his decisions, solid puck skills, good skater, decent size but not really physical beyond what was needed.

Obviously Toews is an elite #1D in the league so expecting that from Hanzel isn't really realistic but he seems like a good pick for the Avs early on and someone that could very well be a future NHL guy.
 
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Bear of Bad News

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Dang, I like Hanzel a lot - was hoping to get to see him in person in Denver some day.
 

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