Khodorenko is another player who escalated his schooling to enter Michigan State in his Draft year. Khodorenko is a late 98 Birthdate who spent that last two seasons with the USNTDP. Khodorenko had a pretty productive freshman season for Michigan St. considering the team’s struggles and playing much of the season as the 3rd line centre, scoring 7 goals and 11 assists in 35 games.
Patrick is a big body. He can bull his way through checks when he keeps his feet moving and plays with a purpose, he just doesn’t bring that style of play all the time. Khodorenko displays a good amount of puck skills and can make things happen in the offensive end; however, he needs to develop more of a willingness to go work for the puck. In our viewings, he doesn’t engage in enough battles and the ones he does, he doesn’t show enough effort and plays smaller than his size. Patrick has good creativity with the puck, he likes to use his hands to draw defenders to him then feed the puck to the open areas. While Khodorenko wouldn’t be described as an explosive skater, he has good straight line speed and above average footwork. In order for Khodorenko to get the most out of his game going forward he is going to have to show a better work ethic and be harder to play against. When he does these things, he can really be difficult to handle in the offensive zone. While we don’t see Khodorenko’ s ceiling much higher than a 3rd line centre who can provide help on special teams, if he develops his board play and learns to use his physical tools to his advantage, Patrick could develop into an NHL player.