Although there’s concerns over his mental attributes, there are other qualities that make us a believer in him as a productive winger. We touched on his skating but haven’t discussed his ability to execute with his shot or passing while going at top-speeds, which he can. He just executes at a much-higher rate when he has less-options presented to him. This fits well with why we believe that he can accomplish a lot more if given a straight-line to work with on the wing. His most successful plays for us this year have been when he only needs to identify a portion of the ice and has a linemate looking to feed off his playmaking ability. Furthermore, when put on the wing, he can use his excellent top-speed and frame to cut aggressively towards the front-of-the-net. Away from the play, he’s a competitive kid who is willing to finish his checks and use his frame effectively, but there’s still some pace concerns depending on the game. Part of this goes back to his anticipation; he looks to be defensively responsible and forecheck aggressively, but there’s a slight-lag when determining what he wants to do depending on the play-type. Where there’s far less lag in his responsiveness, is when he’s identified a shooting-lane. He can really fire the puck, showing an advanced understanding of how to rotate through a shot, resulting in a good-amount of velocity both when stationary and when flying down the ice. His slapshot is a cannon as well; he had the most success with it on the powerplay which makes sense, since with less players to navigate around, he can find his soft-ice option quicker and get into a position to generate scoring chances. We feel that the less time he spends attempting to drive-play, and the more time he spends trying to put himself in a position to receive a pass and get off his shot will help him translate successfully. He’s not just a primary shooter though, displaying rare-duelthreat-elements. His passing isn’t as creative as some of the other high-end players in this class, but he can thread sharp passes at low-percentage angles. He can also play the half-wall on the powerplay, but at the NHL-level, we think he will be more suited to being a trigger-man with the man-advantage.
