His ability to pick out and make the right pass in transition is already tops on the team (maybe next to Gio). Got a good repertoire of escape moves and deception against the forecheck that also reminds me of a young Gio. It's glorious to watch him sense the lanes open up and drive hard through the neutral zone for clean zone entries. Rarely see him make a mistake with the puck on his stick.
He still struggles, understandable given that he's a rookie, to contain big/skilled forwards and interrupt the cycle to get the puck out quickly, but I have full confidence that he will get there. He's already improved a bunch to my eye in his defensive positioning and 1 on 1 defense. He's just scratching the surface of his potential.
It sure is nice to have four 22 and under young defenders excelling in the league and getting better everyday instead of watching the likes of Bartkowski (infinite puking), Grossmann, Wideman, and Jokkipakka fail to execute the simplest hockey plays and bleed goals and shots against and get crushed every time they step on the ice. Still can't believe Bartkowski played 42 games for us when we were supposed to be competing for the playoffs, and also played 4 playoff games where his pairing with Engelland almost single handedly sunk us. Thanks Gulutzan
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