Kid isn’t scared of anything and the stage hasn’t been too big for him at all, during these Worlds.
Haven’t watched him much outside of an U20, U18 type format, but have heard his name is being thrown around (with high praise) by those who’s opinions count. So I’ve been looking forward to watching how he thinks the game at a pro level pace during this tournament. Test passed with flying colors in these handful of games. He also hasn’t been helped like you’ll see sometimes, with the bigger ice surface.
I find myself looking for things wrong with his game, and that’s usually a great sign. His thought process is correct, but sometimes his partner or the winger aren’t thinking that far ahead. These aren’t blind passes to imaginary friends because a kid is panicking. He expects others to think 2 plays ahead, and that’s how it will be in the league. I mention this all the time because it’s so important, and it’s literally ignored on this site. One of the major differences between an NHL player and players in other leagues isn’t natural talent. It’s how they process the game, as it happens. This kid was doing it against NHL players very well.
The kid can flat out play the game, and there’s no reason he shouldn’t be a 1st Round pick. In fact, there’s a lot to suggest he could be a top 15-25 pick even. Will people be floored if he went even higher, ahead of some other dmen who people have penciled in? Probably would be, but maybe they shouldn’t be.
This is his coming out party to the draft media types/public, but I can tell you he’s been talked about for awhile by those who matter. Lots is gonna depend on the ceiling teams attach to him. How much they think his game can still grow. I haven’t seen him enough over the last two years to even give an educated guess on that.
He has NHL retrieval skills already, but it’s his recovery skills, as well as how good he was in transition, and how he actually pushes pace against NHL players, that’s real impressive. Like he’s been playing at a high level for awhile. That’s an 18 year old kid. Haven’t seen this since Seider raised eyebrows doing the same.
All in all though, just haven’t seen enough of him to say he’s that type of a prospect, and likely won’t before the draft. He doesn’t scream off the tape as someone who’s raw, and sometimes teams will see that as not having a ton of growth to his game. That said, nobody should be surprised if he goes much higher than anticipated by the draft media.
If he’s not a 1st Round pick, it’ll be a draft order type of reason.. Where those who are really high on him didn’t have a pick in that range, or simply had another kid they really liked too. Think it’s safe to say he probably goes in the last 1/3rd of the 1st Round, unless there’s issues we’re not aware of with his character, etc. Like I said, I’m not familiar enough with him, just going off his pure talent.
Lots to like.