Photo courtesy of "See Best" on Flickr
By Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell)
As we inch closer and closer to the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, I’ll continue to plug away at as many prospect profiles on the top draft eligible players from the Ontario Hockey League as I can. All of my 2012 draft eligible profiles can be found at the bottom of the article.
Without further ado, here is my prospect profile on 2012 draft eligible defenseman Matt Finn of the Guelph Storm.
Matt Finn
Age – 18
Position – Defenseman
Height – 6′ 0″
Weight – 197
Draft Projection: 17-24th overall
OHL Team: Guelph Storm
2012 Regular Season Statistics: 10 goals, 38 assists, 48 points, minus-13, 58PIM, 61 games played
2012 Playoff Statistics: zero goals, two assists, two points, minus-1, 10PIM, six games played
NHL Comparable(s) – Dan Girardi
Upside – 8.0/10
Strengths – Finn is a solid two-way defenseman. He sees the ice well and always seems to make the right play in both the offensive and defensive zones. His game is simple, but quite effective. He’s very poised and composed on the back end and he won’t shy away from taking a hit if it means making a good play. He makes a good first pass and in general his passes are almost always perfect. He’s a very smart player and he always seems to be in good position. While Finn is very good defensively and on the penalty kill, he’s also capable of contributing offensively and is a pretty good powerplay quarterback. That said, he’s better defensively than offensively.
Weaknesses – Finn is a pretty well rounded defenseman and he made great strides towards improving his game in many areas this season, but one area he needs to continue to work on is his skating. One scout said echoed my thoughts on Finn when saying “he has slow feet and little acceleration so he can get caught in a stand still and be beaten to foot faces.” He went on to say that Finn “also needs to improve his strength down low to (help) battle bigger forwards.”
Career Projection – Second pairing (#3) defenseman – Finn is very good in many areas and has the smarts and skill set to have success at the NHL level, but due to his skating ability I don’t see him becoming a top pairing defenseman unless it improves a fair bit. That said, his outstanding positioning really helps him make up for it. All things considered, I think he’ll be a good #3 defenseman.
2012 Draft Eligible Prospect Profiles:
Scott Laughton – Oshawa Generals
Slater Koekkoek – Peterborough Petes
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NHLToddCordell@Gmail.com
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