Really good 2015 draft profiles on HFBoards

[Big Ev]

Just thought people might be interested in this HFBoard's posters draft rankings and profiles. They are very in-depth.

http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/sh....php?t=1903817

Example: Kylington (Ranked #33):

Oliver Kylington:

Offensive zone ability: A
Offensive transition ability: B+
Puck movement and possession retention: B
Defensive transition ability: C+
Defensive zone ability: D

Defense: athletic
Offense: forceful

Keywords, unique identity traits: skating, shot, unique offensive weapon from the blue-line
Room for improvement: needs to fill out his frame, handling forwards down-low, net presence, gap-control and protecting middle of ice in defensive zone

Full analysis:
Oliver Kylington is what we can at this point easily classify as a pure offensive defenseman that plays the game with fantastic skating ability, a great shot, and great offensive zone ability where he plays at a high level and with a certain confidence as he enjoys to both generate offense on his own as well as to get involved in it by jumping into holes and joining the rush, sometimes even headlining it himself. Coming in at roughly 6'0 175lbs, Kylington is at this point somewhat undersized and can sometimes be pushed off the puck, despite having quite a decent compete level as he doesn't mind engaging and battling for 50-50 pucks.

One of the better skaters in this draft, Kylington boasts high-end top-speed as well as the ability to explode with acceleration and displays good overall mobility in all aspects. Skating is a staple in Kylington's game as he utilizes it in pretty much everything he does with or without the puck. He displays the ability to skate with the puck and does so by either taking off with a few strides to bring it out of immediate trouble in his own zone, to longer-rushes, to his ability to escape checks in the offensive zone, all the way to him being a good option for holding the blue-line and keeping the puck in the offensive zone.

In the offensive zone, Kylington displays good vision, as he does have the ability to hold the puck and zig-zag around the offensive zone before throwing the puck off to open teammates. Has good vision in that respect to make passes and find open options. Also displays ability to jump into holes to get his shot off. His shot is fantastic and he can fire one-timers with no problem as well as having a big arsenal of different shots, has no problem in getting it on net at all. Kylington is a real potent option for producing offense from the blue-line in both even strength and powerplay settings. Has to be one of the best powerplay options from the back-end in this entire draft class if not best overall. Also adept at holding the blueline as his reads are decent and his elite skating ability allows him to move with ease and hold the pucks in playing them back in deep as needed. Shows interest in engaging even physically in those situations if it is required to commit his body to retain posession.

However, Kylington really has quite a bit of work to do in most of defensive aspects of the game. His most glaring weakness and where there is tons of room for improvement is his coverage in defensive zone, especially in more stationary settings where the play is already set-up in his zone. Kylington is in that regard very raw, as he has "soft" coverage where he doesn't really show good body positioning in regards to being on the "inside" and angling the opposition to the outside. His gap control there is inconsistent as well, as he often plays too far away from attacking forwards. Both of these factors make it too easy to play against Kylington in his zone, as forwards attack his space and play within scoring areas too easily.

His defending of the rush is better, mostly because of his skating ability. And while not lacking in hockey IQ, Kylington is still raw in this aspect as well as he is inconsistent in tracking his man and prone to "lulls" in his focus, where he will lose a man or fail to control him from the inside, exposing the middle of the ice.

Despite his great skating mobility, he really needs to fill out his frame as he mostly has trouble covering bigger forwards down-low, and even on the rush, if he does not break it up with his skating ability, he is in danger of being simply overpowered and pushed into periphery from stronger forwards. At this point in time, there is not enough protection of middle of the ice from Kylington, although while I doubt that he will ever excel in that respect, some of that should still be fixable as he matures.

Overall, I think he is at this point a pure offensive defenseman that is more of an unique offensive weapon than someone who would exhibit consistent control of the game from the blueline, which is what I think is required to be a "real" #1 defenseman. Kylington impacts the game by utilizing his skating and skill-set and more weaves in and out of action than exhibiting a consistent impact over it. However his nose for offense is lethal and can really hurt you when he does get you. So while there is not that constant shift-to-shift positive impact, he does have his moments where he will just make a play that will result in a goal or at least in a glorious scoring chance.

I think his upside is quite clearly that of an offensive defenseman and an obvious first unit powerplay option. Although I doubt that he will ever be an elite #1 defenseman, there is the potential that he could still play on the top pair if he irons some of his deficiencies out. He would best be paired with a defenseman that has a strong sense of positioning and is physically up to par in his own zone. Realistically, his upside is easy to imagine as a second pairing offensive defenseman that can play on the first PP unit. I think ideally, you would want in your #1 slot someone who can control the game in all aspects better, and use Kylington as a unique offensive weapon from the blueline and a powerplay option. If one projects Kylington into that slot, he could have tremendous value with the type of skillset that he brings.

Development focus: Developmentally I would like him to add weight and strength to his frame, start developing structure to his defending and improve his gap-control in defensive zone. Needs to start polishing up his defensive game and take control of the middle of ice by pushing the opposition to outside with his positioning (and a filled out frame down the road).

Projection: Unique offensive weapon from the blue-line, would be best slotted as an offensive weapon that doesn't have to be that all-around #1 defenseman who exhibits control on ice. Realistically, second pairing and 1st powerplay unit. Excellent PP option. Would be best paired with a physical defenseman that has a strong positional sense and can handle forwards down low.

[Pengwin7]

Wow - those are really deep... and a LOT of players covered.
By the sheer amount of write-up and grading for each player you can tell this guy really cares about putting in good work.

I don't know the guy, but big props to him for such coverage!

(thanks Ev)

[STLblues]

Wow these r awesome

[CascadeFilly]

Thanks, Ev, this is some great stuff!

[chuckcouples]

Thank you Big Ev for sharing the link.

The writer could definitely use an editor as the write up on Kylington is a grammatical nightmare. This is the opening sentence on Kylington.

Oliver Kylington is what we can at this point easily classify as a pure offensive defenseman that plays the game with fantastic skating ability, a great shot, and great offensive zone ability where he plays at a high level and with a certain confidence as he enjoys to both generate offense on his own as well as to get involved in it by jumping into holes and joining the rush, sometimes even headlining it himself.

[Big Ev]

Thank you Big Ev for sharing the link.

The writer could definitely use an editor as the write up on Kylington is a grammatical nightmare. This is the opening sentence on Kylington.

Oliver Kylington is what we can at this point easily classify as a pure offensive defenseman that plays the game with fantastic skating ability, a great shot, and great offensive zone ability where he plays at a high level and with a certain confidence as he enjoys to both generate offense on his own as well as to get involved in it by jumping into holes and joining the rush, sometimes even headlining it himself.

haha I actually think it's better that the writing is poor because usually good hockey scouts are blue collar hockey dudes who would write like this as well

[JagrBomb]

is it too late to return my prospects guide?

just kidding

[roenick27]

Nice Find Big Ev. Thanks for sharing.

[STLblues]

Thank you Big Ev for sharing the link.

The writer could definitely use an editor as the write up on Kylington is a grammatical nightmare. This is the opening sentence on Kylington.

Oliver Kylington is what we can at this point easily classify as a pure offensive defenseman that plays the game with fantastic skating ability, a great shot, and great offensive zone ability where he plays at a high level and with a certain confidence as he enjoys to both generate offense on his own as well as to get involved in it by jumping into holes and joining the rush, sometimes even headlining it himself.

Luckily I never got involved in "Fantasy Grammar"......I could not care any less about grammar on these forums......which shows on the reg when i scribe my comments

[Axeman33]

Luckily I never got involved in "Fantasy Grammar"......I could not care any less about grammar on these forums......which shows on the reg when i scribe my comments

Grammar on forums vs grammer on a article/column are two different things. I do my best to keep my grammar up to par whether I am writing a column for anyone else to read, or simply writing on a forum but that's just me. Obviously the person who wrote these wasn't too worried about it. I would have to assume these weren't printed/posted anywhere official.

[The Good Sir]

Wow Big Ev, great find. I'll definitely be perusing this post in the lead up to my draft

[mounD]

Aside from being an insanely long run-on sentence, there's nothing actually grammatically incorrect with the first sentence in the Kylington profile. Clearly you guys have never read judicial opinions ... or Faulkner.

[chuckcouples]

haha I actually think it's better that the writing is poor because usually good hockey scouts are blue collar hockey dudes who would write like this as well

I will disagree with this statement as I know a full time amateur scout for an NHL team that has a doctorate in sports psychology and has his name on a few published textbooks. People from all walks of life can be good hockey scouts.

When I first made my post about the grammar, I thought I was looking at an article from a website. Now that I realize it is just an individual posting on a message forum, it makes a lot more sense. The individual, NKI, should be commended for the amount of work he put into this.

[Big Ev]

I will disagree with this statement as I know a full time amateur scout for an NHL team that has a doctorate in sports psychology and has his name on a few published textbooks. People from all walks of life can be good hockey scouts.

When I first made my post about the grammar, I thought I was looking at an article from a website. Now that I realize it is just an individual posting on a message forum, it makes a lot more sense. The individual, NKI, should be commended for the amount of work he put into this.

Agreed just saying a lot of them are just guys who know hockey and when doing a scouting report it will often look like something liek that with a lot of rambling.

[Axeman33]

Agreed just saying a lot of them are just guys who know hockey and when doing a scouting report it will often look like something liek that with a lot of rambling.

Isn't this why most websites have editors?