Players that really developed their skating after being drafted

[Erik Alfredsson]

Definitely Mark Stone. His skating was very bad when he was drafted, partially why he went in the 6th round. Then it just got better and better every year, even once he got into the NHL he improved his skating every year.

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

Tavares like OP said is the posterchild for this, he was among the slowest skaters in the OHL when he scored 72 goals.

Stone is another good one. Nic Roy looks like he has gotten a lot faster than he was at 18/19 as well.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Draisaitl for me when he came into the league was the example of a guy with powerful legs but poor technique. He looked like he was skating uphill at times, but now he can zip down the ice very quickly.

 

[TheStuntman]

I find it amazing where a sport that demands their players to start to learn how to skate essentially after learning how to walk to have any shot of making the NHL, to be so full of players that were awful skaters. I would think that skating would be the one thing every NHL caliber hockey player would be good at or at least passable. Anyways my contribution would be Corey Perry...Wait no he still sucks at skating never mind.

 

[teravaineSAROS]

Anton Lundell

It's a veery common pattern among Finnish prospects. Barkov, Rantanen, Aho, Teravainen, Ristolainen and Laine have are all night and day as far as skating pre- and post draft goes.

 

[Figgy44]

Leon Draisaitl and Ethan Bear.

Draisaitl was considered a poor skater in his draft year, now he's one of the fastest players in the league and is extremely strong on his skates.

Bear's skating kept him from the NHL, until last offseason when he worked extremely hard all summer. The results were huge and now he's a top-4 D for us.

Hopefully that trend continues with Evan Bouchard.

Barb Underhill and Dawn Braid are the names I keep hearing for skating coaches. Did those guys get skating instruction from Dawn or Barb or was it someone else? I seem to think Dawn is the name that pops up the most for the West and Barb for the East. I could be wrong though.

 

[finnishflash13]

Amazing that NHL players can be considered "bad skaters" and still be world class hockey players.

I would say T.J. Oshie has improved his skating since playing.

 

[Brownies]

I find it amazing where a sport that demands their players to start to learn how to skate essentially after learning how to walk to have any shot of making the NHL, to be so full of players that were awful skaters. I would think that skating would be the one thing every NHL caliber hockey player would be good at or at least passable. Anyways my contribution would be Corey Perry...Wait no he still sucks at skating never mind.

I think it's partially a problem of perception influenced by how the media are writing these stories of young players taking skating course during the summer after a tough first or sophomore seasons. It might be true that they are working hard on their skating, but the it's not true that they've never attended power skating sessions, etc. It's been common for anyone remotely good in pee-wee, bantam, etc to attend summer camps. There's always going to be some guys faster than other, though it's true that hard work can help you improve but it's not true that some of these guys realize at 22 after years of playing hockey that they suddenly need to work on their skating.

 

[cowboy82nd]

Leon Draisaitl and Ethan Bear.

Draisaitl was considered a poor skater in his draft year, now he's one of the fastest players in the league and is extremely strong on his skates.

Bear's skating kept him from the NHL, until last offseason when he worked extremely hard all summer. The results were huge and now he's a top-4 D for us.

Hopefully that trend continues with Evan Bouchard.

Is Ethan Bear really a top 4 D? I truly am asking. Never seen him play.

 

[Chips]

Tom Wilson. He’s gotten a lot faster since his rookie year, not to mention he no longer constantly, randomly trips himself up and falls over. He was weirdly bad about that early on.

 

[Llamamoto]

Is Ethan Bear really a top 4 D? I truly am asking. Never seen him play.

Absolutely. Tippet trusted him more at 5v5 than Klefbom by the end of the season.

He shouldn't be on our top pairing though, so the Barrie acquisition along with a healthy Larsson should split up those minutes more evenly.

 

[Casper The Soy Ghost]

Brian Boyle. Man you should have seen this guy when he first got traded to the Rangers from LA. He looked like a total goof on the ice, this 6'6' bender who could barely stand on his own two feet.

Coming to the Rangers and having Barb Underhill saved his career.

Pretty much this. I was about to post the same story, lol.

 

[StreetHawk]

Once you reach the NHL level, it's pretty much minor adjustments and refinements. Maybe you add some strength/balance, make someone's stride a tad more efficient etc. But nobody is going from average/below average to above-average/elite skater at this level. So I can't really think of any guys really 'developed' their skating at this level.

I think that’s the main thing. If you are a non first round pick, your skating will need to be up to par to even get a sniff at the NHL level. So all guys who need work on it will have to do so before they get to the show.

some first rounders are afforded the opportunity to make the show and work in it there. Like Tavares and guys like Horvat. Boeser will as well but he’s been injured going into the off season so that limited what he could do.

 

[johan f]

Sedins.

 

[Sensinitis]

Once you reach the NHL level, it's pretty much minor adjustments and refinements. Maybe you add some strength/balance, make someone's stride a tad more efficient etc. But nobody is going from average/below average to above-average/elite skater at this level. So I can't really think of any guys really 'developed' their skating at this level.

Sure but the question is improvement after being drafted, not improvement after reaching the NHL.

 

[wabagee]

Blake Wheeler, He finally found fitness and learned to skate. To bad it took him so long. Just imagine his ego if started strong though! Train wreck.

 

[DropTheGloves]

Is Ethan Bear really a top 4 D? I truly am asking. Never seen him play.

He was the team’s best defender at times last year. Not huge, never going to be a big point producer, but he’s extremely smart and plays a great positional game. Think prime Andy Greene, which is where I think his top end is. I believe he’d be a top four on most teams even now though.

 

[Pitaya]

Leon Draisaitl and Ethan Bear.

Draisaitl was considered a poor skater in his draft year, now he's one of the fastest players in the league and is extremely strong on his skates.

Bear's skating kept him from the NHL, until last offseason when he worked extremely hard all summer. The results were huge and now he's a top-4 D for us.

Hopefully that trend continues with Evan Bouchard.

Draisaitl’s skating surely improved from his rookie year

But there is no need to exaggerate. He is nowhere near one of the fastest players in the game, like probably not even in the top-50

 

[ponder]

I find it amazing where a sport that demands their players to start to learn how to skate essentially after learning how to walk to have any shot of making the NHL, to be so full of players that were awful skaters. I would think that skating would be the one thing every NHL caliber hockey player would be good at or at least passable. Anyways my contribution would be Corey Perry...Wait no he still sucks at skating never mind.

It’s all relative, though. Mostly, the “bad skaters who become good skaters” are about average skaters at the OHL/WHL/whatever level, so we assume they’ll be well below average skaters in the NHL, as the NHL is a higher bar. Some of them improve a lot though, and become average NHL skaters, or even strong NHL skaters.

BUT, an average OHL/WHL/whatever is still an elite skater for a competitive hockey player, it’s just weak for a “cream of the crop” type that gets drafted into the NHL. “Bad skaters” have skating that’s not quite at the level you’d hope for, for an 18 year old who’s getting drafted by an NHL team - they’re still elite skaters for basically any other cohort.

You look at guys like young Horvat, Draisaitl, Tavares, Rossi, it’s not like they instantly stand out as bad skaters when you watch them. It’s more that, if you really focus on their skating over the course of a game, you notice some shortcomings. Rossi and Tavares didn’t have the bursts of elite acceleration you like to see, Horvat and Daisaitl had somewhat short/choppy strides, etc. But these guys all have/had good enough skating to be outstanding overall players when they got drafted. Bad FOR A TOP PROSPECT is not actually bad.

 

[StreetHawk]

Probably take into account your size and skill level.

smaller player who doesn’t skate well is likely going to struggle to score since they can’t separate from the D and don’t scare them to create space.

a bigger guy if he is physical needs to skate well enough to get to the opponent to lay a bit otherwise if you’re late you aren’t going to deceiver a big hit or cause a turnover or bad pass.

 

[JT Kreider]

If Tavares is considered a player that has greatly improved his skating I shudder how slow to think he was before and wonder how he was a unanimous 1st overall pick.

 

[hamzarocks]

If Tavares is considered a player that has greatly improved his skating I shudder how slow to think he was before and wonder how he was a unanimous 1st overall pick.

Loool ya tavares still isnt a good skater. Maybe on the isles he was better but JTs biggest weakness is skating. He has the hands, and IQ to be a consistently elite player but he skates similarly to 37 year old Spezza

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Bo Horvat

In his draft year he was barely in the top 15 and it was a mini surprise the Canucks took him at 9th.

If he skated then how he skates now he would have been in the top 5.

He changed a lot about his skating mechanics and credits his skatig coach who used to be an amateur Figure Skater.

she taught me how to skate back in the day. then twenty years later i see her in the news working with dan hamhuis and i’m like what? wow was i lucky

 

[McDNicks17]

Barb Underhill and Dawn Braid are the names I keep hearing for skating coaches. Did those guys get skating instruction from Dawn or Barb or was it someone else? I seem to think Dawn is the name that pops up the most for the West and Barb for the East. I could be wrong though.

Not sure if they worked with someone outside the organization, but David Pelletier is the Oilers skating coach.

 

[brodano]

alex tuch