Prospect Info: Hunter Brzustewicz: 75th Overall 2023 Draft (Kitchener) - RD

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Discuss.

EDIT:

EliteProspects Profile - Hunter Brzustewicz at eliteprospects.com

Rankings:
Ranked #53 by CONSOLIDATED RANKING
Ranked #52 by ELITEPROSPECTS.COM
Ranked #51 by FCHOCKEY
Ranked #54 by FLOHOCKEY/CHRIS PETERS
Ranked #58 by DAILY FACEOFF
Ranked #44 by THE HOCKEY NEWS
Ranked #52 by TSN/BOB McKENZIE
Ranked #66 by MCKEEN'S HOCKEY
Ranked #61 by TSN/CRAIG BUTTON
Ranked #41 by NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING (NA Skaters)
Ranked #82 by HPR/SHANE MALLOY
Ranked #48 by RECRUIT SCOUTING
Ranked #56 by DOBBERPROSPECTS
Ranked #32 by DRAFT PROSPECTS HOCKEY
Ranked #91 by SMAHT SCOUTING

Click to read more...

 

[LemonSauceD]

I had him at the tail end of the 1st round in my personal draft list.

1 year in the OHL, and another 2 years in the AHL, we’ll see what we have with this kid. Seems like a real gem.

 

[F A N]

Hey! I broke down Brzustewicz's game for Daily Hive. Great activator; a nuanced transition game. Struggles to defend speed, and passiveness enters his game far too often when defending in-zone pressure. Regardless, he is probably one of the club's better prospects, but he's a project.

Your assessment mirrors my view of him/my concerns of him. No doubt he's talented and it sounds like he's a great kid. I am a bit worried about the defensive part of his game. Passiveness combined with being undersized is a bad combination that takes a special player (with offensive production) to overcome. He's a good skater with 4-way mobility but his skating isn't elite. The chances are his offensive game won't translate as few do. Take Ethan Bear. His offensive production in juniors was fantastic but he doesn't offer much offensively. Of course, if Brzustewicz develops into a Bear-calibre Dman I would be happy.

There's a lot of potential here. Obviously hoping Brzustewicz develops into a star.

 

[Jyrki21]

F****

As Polish names go this one isn’t even too bad… The Polish version kind of sounds like B’zhu-STEV-ich, but considering he’s from Michigan, Bru-STEV-ich or BRUCE-to-vich make sense as anglicized versions.

 

[Knight53]

1G 2A +3 today. 10 points in 6 games.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

1G 2A +3 today. 10 points in 6 games.

His team has had some high scoring games but HB tied for the D scoring lead is impressive. Looks like we may have nabbed a good one in the third round.

 

[ChilliBilly]

Faber likes every prospect. He was talking up Joni Jurmo at dev camp. I appreciate the work he does, and the details about everyone's games are truly insightful to read, but he sees upside everywhere. If there are 5 NHL regulars in the Canucks current prospect pipeline, I'll be shocked.

todays stats are making me think we could have 6 -7 guys playing NHL in 2 -3 years.

 

[HairyKneel]

todays stats are making me think we could have 6 -7 guys playing NHL in 2 -3 years.

Isn’t it nice to actually have a few D men n the pipeline for a change? Like a breath of fresh air. A good solid D is the engine of the team.We saw that thought the early mid 90’s, the WCE era and Gillis’s run. They should be drafting 3 D men every year. Top 4D are like hens teeth.

 

[Knight53]

Scores in 4 straight games. 1G 2A +4 with half a game still to go. Tied for the entire scoring lead in the OHL.

Vision, Poise, Passing off the charts. Really hope he can make the WJC.

 

[nucksflailtogether]

Excuse my skepticism for a minute, but is it a case of a good player playing on a strong team and a crazy PP or is he driving play, particularly at 5 on 5? Regardless you can't ignore those stats. Even if he were a PP specialist that's an asset. But we desperately need someone unexpected to emerge as a top 4 in the next few years.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

 

[thefeebster]

Excuse my skepticism for a minute, but is it a case of a good player playing on a strong team and a crazy PP or is he driving play, particularly at 5 on 5? Regardless you can't ignore those stats. Even if he were a PP specialist that's an asset. But we desperately need someone unexpected to emerge as a top 4 in the next few years.

Kitchener is a mid level team going into this year. No real superstar on the team, I kinda like Sop. Late coach change last season, so maybe he's bringing out more in some of these players, but I think they might just be sellers at the deadline.

A lot of his points are simply just activating, moving and jumping into the rush, almost rover like. But he does get a lot of PP1 time. But he plays a lot in general, all situations top pair.

 

[nucksflailtogether]

Kitchener is a mid level team going into this year. No real superstar on the team, I kinda like Sop. Late coach change last season, so maybe he's bringing out more in some of these players, but I think they might just be sellers at the deadline.

A lot of his points are simply just activating, moving and jumping into the rush, almost rover like. But he does get a lot of PP1 time. But he plays a lot in general, all situations top pair.

Thanks for that update. It truly does sound like he is full value for the hype machine but you can't be too sure on HFboards.

If I remember from the prospects tournament, his two way play is in need of major work. However you don't get a premier offensive RHD without some sort of warts in the 3rd round so that's not really a concern. Getting big minutes down there should help with that, giving him confidence before he gets to the AHL next year or the year after.

Anyone have a good comparable, stylistically and or potential wise?

 

[AHLdepth]

Excuse my skepticism for a minute, but is it a case of a good player playing on a strong team and a crazy PP or is he driving play, particularly at 5 on 5? Regardless you can't ignore those stats. Even if he were a PP specialist that's an asset. But we desperately need someone unexpected to emerge as a top 4 in the next few years.

There's always going to be an aspect of "good teams provide points for players" but it really does seem that Brustewicz is a key element in making this such a good team. 13 points in 7 games from the defense likely means that while the forwards are converting, they are likely converting because he is a wizard at setting them up.

 

[kranuck]

If the dynamic duo of Benning and Weisbrod was still in charge, I'd be probably sharing your pessimism.

But this current Canuck brain-trust seems to be unearthing some decent d-men in later rounds of the draft and via free agency.

D-Petey, Hirose, McWard, Wilander, Kudryavtsev, and even Brzustewicz and Johannson look like the makings of a decent prospect pool on the blueline.

Not saying every one of them will make it to the NHL. But the blueline pipeline isn't the black hole it once was.

Is that because it's actually better or because the shine hasn't worn off guys.

There was a time when we were set with Juolevi and Woo.

 

[LordBacon]

It seems that we have 2 Nick Lidstrom in our system bois

 

[thefeebster]

Thanks for that update. It truly does sound like he is full value for the hype machine but you can't be too sure on HFboards.

If I remember from the prospects tournament, his two way play is in need of major work. However you don't get a premier offensive RHD without some sort of warts in the 3rd round so that's not really a concern. Getting big minutes down there should help with that, giving him confidence before he gets to the AHL next year or the year after.

Anyone have a good comparable, stylistically and or potential wise?

Well, i may not be the best to answer, as i don't see his defensive play needing major work. There were many OHL games in his draft year i saw where he did not make a mistake but also some where he was a bit sloppy with mistakes here and there. I think refinement is a better word. His positioning is generally solid, but board battles and net-front containment he needs to be more assertive and engage more physically.

I kinda see less physical Neal Pionk as a style comparable.

 

[F A N]

Well, i may not be the best to answer, as i don't see his defensive play needing major work. There were many OHL games in his draft year i saw where he did not make a mistake but also some where he was a bit sloppy with mistakes here and there. I think refinement is a better word. His positioning is generally solid, but board battles and net-front containment he needs to be more assertive and engage more physically.

I kinda see less physical Neal Pionk as a style comparable.

Thanks for the scouting report. I think that's kind of the problem isn't it? He's a hair under 6'0" and being passive defensively at his size is often a death knell. Hughes (who is smaller and elite offensively) is very active defensively. As an undersized defenseman.

I'm not sure about the stylistic comparisons to Pionk. Pionk does engage physically.

 

[Grub]

Is this the first D-men in a long time that pans out for us as a later pick? Hopefully the kid keeps it up but so far so good. We need these late picks to pan out.

 

[Canucker]

Pretty happy to see his early success as I'd been stumping for drafting him...I think a good stylistic comp would be a RH Nick Leddy...I don't think he's going to blow anyone away with any overall skills or physical attributes, but he's not really deficient in any areas either, he just thinks the game very well.

 

[TomWillander1RD]

Well, i may not be the best to answer, as i don't see his defensive play needing major work. There were many OHL games in his draft year i saw where he did not make a mistake but also some where he was a bit sloppy with mistakes here and there. I think refinement is a better word. His positioning is generally solid, but board battles and net-front containment he needs to be more assertive and engage more physically.

I kinda see less physical Neal Pionk as a style comparable.

Your assessment of his performance last season appears to align with his showing in the prospect tournament, highlighting the need for him to focus on enhancing his speed and intensity.

Additionally, he seemed slightly smaller than his listed dimensions of 6 feet and 187 pounds. IMO, he still remains a project player with significant room for development.

 

[thefeebster]

Your assessment of his performance last season appears to align with his showing in the prospect tournament, highlighting the need for him to focus on enhancing his speed and intensity.

Additionally, he seemed slightly smaller than his listed dimensions of 6 feet and 187 pounds. IMO, he still remains a project player with significant room for development.

I think where we disagree is the severity of his issues.

Saw him in person at the prospects camp, i did not get a feeling that his measurements were exaggerated. Plus, he was at the combine so there are official and recent measurements out there. He was 5’11.75, 190lbs. Imo, 0.25 isn’t noticeable or material.

Thanks for the scouting report. I think that's kind of the problem isn't it? He's a hair under 6'0" and being passive defensively at his size is often a death knell. Hughes (who is smaller and elite offensively) is very active defensively. As an undersized defenseman.

I'm not sure about the stylistic comparisons to Pionk. Pionk does engage physically.

Not sure if you saw Hughes as prospect, but he definitely needed work defensively in his College years. He was very lackadaisical, had many "casual kev" moments, many containment issues. Cecconi did a lot of the heavy lifting. I have shift-by-shift games posted on my YouTube. Some were not pretty defensively at all, so much so that someone here complained that i was being negative and showing lowlights, but it was simply all of his shifts in the 6 games. But credit to Hughes, he really worked on his defensive game.

I don’t see Brz as that passive. He needs to be more assertive, yes, but I have seen him throw hits and be engaged physically. Just need to see it more. He often uses his body as a separating tool by edging guys off pucks, rather than a punishing tool. Last game i watched of him was last weekend vs Owen Sound, he had a few legitimate hits.

For my comparable, I look at the way Pionk skates, his size, looks a lot like Brz on the ice. But more so is that way he transitions the puck, creates offence, I see them as very similar.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

It seems that we have 2 Nick Lidstrom in our system bois

One of them is playing with Timrå IK.

 

[krutovsdonut]

It seems that we have 2 Nick Lidstrom in our system bois

good news. we haven't had one since juolevi.

 

[MS]

I'm not going to lie, I was picking up some pretty harsh Adam Clendening vibes from him in the prospects tourney as a smallish slooooooooow puck-moving defender.

He's obviously a big talent and will put up big numbers this year but the question will be how his skating tracks when he hits pro hockey.

 

[Grantham]

I found his skating issues overblown. Only watched him in the prospects games. Straight line speed needs to improve, but edge work is fantastic.

Puck skills were also elite for his age, and overall I came away most surprised as I expected nothing from him. Even defensively he showed well with his gap control and positioning.

Honestly before that he wasn't even on my radar. Really think he has a pro future as he progresses. Awesome to see him tearing up juniors right now!