Travis Konecny hands down for me. May still grow from 5 10. Perfect complement to Bennett on RW. Right shot. Passes all four elements the Flames draft on: Skill, character, hockey sense and work ethic. Just hope he is still available at 15. This article below suggests otherwise.
How Many Teams Will Regret Passing on Travis Konecny
POSTED BY PUCK DON'T LIE ⋅ MAY 13, 2015 ⋅ 2 COMMENTS
FILED UNDER DRAFT, OHL
“I try not to look at the rankings and I’m just going to do what I can do get a team to like me and just hope I can get as high as I can.”
Don’t worry Travis, I’m pretty sure there is more than one team in the middle of this year’s first round that is hoping you drop to them. Travis Konecny was the first overall draft pick by the Ottawa 67s in the 2013 OHL Priority Draft. The London, Ontario native spent years wowing scouts with his tremendous skill but then something happened, he didn’t grow as quickly or as tall as his peers. Konecny is one of the more skilled players in this summer’s NHL Entry Draft so much so that he stole the show at the CHL top prospects game this season, a game that featured Connor McDavid, and likely top-5 picks Mitch Marner and Dylan Strome. So why is Travis Konecny ranked anywhere from mid-late first round by scouting services? Because he’s 5’10 and 170lbs soaking wet.
As a 16 year old rookie, Konecny averaged over a point per game playing for Ottawa. That is a feat accomplished only nine times in the past decade, and one that puts him in a category with some guys named McDavid, Hall, Tavares, Stamkos, Seguin, Galchenyuk ever heard of them? (for the record the other two on the list are Ryan Ellis and Matt Puempel). Konecny accomplished something not done by guys like Strome, Marner, Lawson Course, or Pavel Zacha all OHLers who are projected to go ahead of him in the draft.
Looking to build on the incredible rookie season, it looked as though Konecny entered this year with a specific goal in mind, show the scouts that he is not just an offensive dynamo, that he could play the total. Unfortunately as a result his offensive production dipped. He didn’t put up the out of this world numbers seen by Marner, a player he was often compared to. The thing is, Konecny still produced more PPG than his rookie year and did so while battling through injuries as well as being the best defensive forward on his team.
In terms of skill, Konecny has just about everything you could ask for. He has blinding speed, incredible creativity and a knack for maintaining possession of the puck despite his smaller frame. Add to that a deadly wrist shot the ability to find the open space in the offensive zone and you’ve got one of the most dynamic offensive players in the draft. One think Konecny does that other top prospects often do not is contribute on the first PK unit. He possesses and awareness on the ice and an undying motor that gives hope that he can contribute in all three ends at the NHL level.
7333816“He’s too small, look at his production, he’s not what we thought he was offensively”, these are the knocks you hear most often when ranking Konecny in the 15-20 range of the draft. He will drop because he did have a slightly off year (which says something considering how impressive he was to watch), but someone is going to get a heck of a player. My gut feeling is that Konecny won’t get past the Los Angeles Kings at pick #13 and once again we’ll hear “where do they get these guys” when he is producing at Tyler Tofolli levels in 2 or 3 years. When looking for a comparable player, the name Sam Bennett comes up all the time. The one I see every time I watch Konecny in person is Zach Parise. Like Parise, he plays a two-way game, can play center or wing and has a physicality to his game that you wouldn’t expect (just ask Filip Chlapik about it after the top prospects game). When I watch Konecny I see his three-zone play, his creativity with the puck, and the fact that every shift seems to flow through him. Put all that together and I see one heck of a player that might surprise some people on draft day.
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