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Prospect Watch: Bryce Pickford
As I begin to take a closer look at this next crop of prospects that are due to be drafted in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, I’ve noticed that there is a ton of quality defensemen to be had. So much so that if a team wanted to wait until the second or third round of the draft to try and acquire one, they could still find real value on the blue line.
In my mind, one of those prospects mentioned above who would be a value pick in the second round would be a guy named Bryce Pickford. Bryce is a right-hand shot defender who plays for the reigning Western Hockey League’s (WHL’s) Champions, the Seattle Thunderbirds. What makes Pickford so valuable, in my opinion, is that while he currently stands at only 6’0 and 160 pounds, he somehow still manages to play with the kind of grit and determination you would expect to see from a guy who is 6’4 and 225 pounds.
But besides Pickford’s refreshing old-school willingness to drop the gloves to come to the aid of a fellow teammate after the opposition makes a dirty hit, he surprisingly has shown the ability to use his hands for scoring goals as well. A trait that the Thunderbirds roster that’s chalked full of already drafted NHL prospects and his stats from last season might not lead you to believe. For instance, last season Bryce finished the regular season with far more penalty minutes (50) than total points (17). Still, as you’ll see in the video link provided below, Pickford possesses the ability to undress the opposing team’s defense by stick handling unscathed through all five players on the ice just to finish off the play by rocketing it past their goalie.
The only difference between Bryce and some of this impending draft’s top defenders is that Pickford understands that his primary responsibility is to prevent the opposition from scoring (hence his +25 rating from this past season). Then and only then, if the opportunity presents itself, will he jump up into the rush and assist the offense in trying to score a goal. This, my friends, is the sign of a defenseman that just gets it and will probably have a very long and prosperous career in the NHL.
I’ll leave you with this. If you still need an NHL comparison for Bryce, think of Jared Spurgeon if he had Luke Schenn’s grit.
Prospect Watch: Liam Greentree
As the 2024 season looms ever closer, I feel it necessary to start to provide you with a few names of some promising prospects who I think you need to keep an eye on. One such name is Liam Greentree. Liam is a 2024 draft-eligible player who stands at 6’2 and 198 pounds. He is a right-winger who plays for the Ontario Hockey Leagues (OHL) Windsor Spitfires.
Now, Liam is viewed by several so-called experts as a potentially late first-round pick. Still, by my evaluation, he will likely surprise many people this season with his game and potentially be taken just outside the top ten next summer.
I based my hypothesis on the fact that Liam scored more goals than any other rookie in the OHL last season when he totaled 25. Yes, that means he even managed to outscore the highly touted Michael Misa (who is projected to be 2025’s number-one overall pick), who finished the season with only 22 goals, but who won the OHL’s Rookie of the Year Award (Emma Family Award) last season because he finished the season with more overall points than Greentree.
But how does he do it, you may be asking? To go with his NHL size and strength, Liam already possesses the kind of high-powered shot and quick release some players can only dream about having. Whether he has space to let it go from above the faceoff dots or finds himself in tight with traffic, Greentree always manages to put the most behind his shot. He may have picked up this trait from watching the Winnipeg Jets star Mark Scheifele who Liam once compared his game to in a prior interview. Let’s hope this comparison is accurate because Scheifele set a career-high in goals this past season with 42.
What could help Greentree reach such lofty goals is that teammates: Matthew Maggio, Jacob Maillet, Alex Christopoulos, Oliver Peer, Brett Harrison, and 2022 4th overall pick Shane Wright all are either aging out or potentially moving on to bigger and better things. So Liam will likely get the playing time he thus deserves next season for the Spitfires.
His first chance, however, to prove his worth to the masses this upcoming season will be in just a few days when he suits up for Team Canada in the 2023-2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which will be held July 31st through August 5th in Trencin, Slovakia, and Breclav, Czechia. It is here where Greentree will not only get a chance to shine playing alongside some of the best Canada has to offer but be allowed to line up across from some of the players who currently sit above him in those mock drafts. And so, you don’t miss your opportunity to catch Liam donning the Red Maple Leaf with pride, make sure to tune into NHL Network for all the action.
Sam Dickinson is one name that should already be up on the Flyers 2024 Draft Boards
With the 2023 NHL Entry Draft now behind us, it is never too early to start looking ahead at the next crop of young upcoming players who will be available to select in the draft next summer. That statement resonates even more true if you are the Philadelphia Flyers, who are just now embarking on a total franchise rebuild.
Now, of course, it is still extremely early to try and nail down exactly where the newly promoted President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones and General Manager Danny Briere will be making their first-round selection from next summer but given where the team finished this past season, and the players Briere has already shipped out or chosen not to resign I feel like it’s a pretty safe bet to say that Philly most likely will find themselves picking from within the top ten once again next offseason.
With that being said, Sam Dickinson is one prospect who will be available above all others in this upcoming draft class that should already be up on the Flyers Draft Boards. Sam is a 6’3, 194-pound left-hand shot defender who plays for the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). A team that the Flyers are very familiar with, seeing that they just drafted Dickinson’s defensive partner, right-hand shot defender Oliver Bonk with the 22nd overall pick this year, as well as the Knights center Denver Barkey who the team took in the third round with the 95th overall pick.
What’s with the Flyers’ fascination when they hear “This is London Calling,” you may be asking? Well, you could say Keith Jones and the Knight’s Head Coach/ Part Owner Dale Hunter have some history. They played together for five seasons in Washington D.C. for the Capitals from 1992 to the end of the 96-97 season. So, it should go without saying when Hunter calls up his old teammate and says you have to come check this kid out. You best believe the Flyers executives and their scouts will be on the first plane out of town.
But this interest in selecting Dale’s players isn’t solely based on nepotism. It’s founded on the fact that these players also possess a lot of skill. And why wouldn’t they? After playing in over 1,400 NHL games, scoring over 1,000 points, and totaling over 3,500 penalty minutes throughout his 19 seasons in the league, I think it’s safe to say that Hunter has developed not only quite the eye for spotting talent but for developing it as well seeing that he now has amassed over 900 regular season wins coaching in the junior ranks.
In saying that, Sam is just the latest prospect in a long line of Knights players who have been or are currently being cultivated by Dale Hunter. And it is this writers opinion that because of the tutelage he has received while playing in London that Dickinson projects to be not only one of this draft’s top two-way defenders but a top-five pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft as well. Sam’s assets may include his NHL size and strength, but what really sets him apart from the pack is that he is able to combine his herculean-like attributes with an immense amount of speed that he uses to jump up and join the rush offensively.
To prove this, in just his first season playing in the OHL, Dickinson scored nine goals and 14 assists for 23 points in 62 games played during the regular season. He built upon that newfound success in the playoffs by scoring four goals and four assists for eight points in 21 games.
But while Sam is already projected to be a top-five pick in next summer’s draft, what I believe will let him maintain his current draft stock is his ever-evolving shot from the point. As the season went on last year, I saw Dickinson feel increasingly more comfortable unleashing his behemoth of a shot from the point when traffic was in front of the net. This proved effective primarily because Sam concentrated on trying to keep the puck on the ice so that it did not lose any velocity on its way to the back of the net.
In addition, I would like to see Sam introduce a little more physicality to his game. But in doing so, he has to be careful because this can prove to be a double edge sword if not done correctly. For Dickinson already excels at the art of using his size to force the opponents to the outside, which creates tougher angle shots for them to shoot from. He also is skilled at tactfully removing the opposition from in front of his goaltender’s net to eliminate the possibility of a screen. But Dickinson does not use brute force to outright knock the opposition off the puck, for example when crossing the blue line. So, if he adds this to his repertoire and manages to do so cleanly, Dickinson just might follow Bonk’s footsteps by holding an Orange and Black jersey up on draft day so that the pair can continue to build upon their success together at the pro level.
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