2022 NHL Draft Notebook: Vol 3
Notes/clips on Logan Cooley, Danila Yurov, Joakim Kemell, Nathan Gaucher, Noah Ostlund, and Denton Mateychuk
Volume Three. Volume One covered Tristen Luneau, Seamus Casey, Conor Geekie, Brad Lambert, Matthew Savoie, and Shane Wright; Volume Two looked at Ryan Chesley, Mattias Hävelid, Elias Salomonsson, Isaac Howard, and Frank Nazar. Volume 3: Logan Cooley, Danila Yurov, Joakim Kemell, Nathan Gaucher, Noah Ostlund, and Denton Mateychuk. Still working with DY-1 viewings for this notebook, we pivot to preseason/early season DY games beginning today and we’ll have a notebook encompassing first DY viewings two weeks from now. Enjoy!
Logan Cooley
After not being all that impressed with the creation abilities of Isaac Howard and Frank Nazar, the USNTDP’s pair of top scorers, I was very interested to see if Logan Cooley may have been the driver of their success. And to a degree, I think it’s correct to say that Cooley’s ability to play through checks and connect his wingers through the middle of the ice enabled a lot of Howard and Nazar’s production.
Cooley was also a very interesting player to watch because I got these viewings during the time period in between when the Christian Dvorak to Montreal rumours started to heat up and when the trade actually happened. On Twitter, this is the period when the #discourse is often at its peak (for Oilers fans like me, it’s also a period of an unshakable feeling of impending doom). This piece by Jack Han was the most interesting part of that discourse for me.
This talk about Dvorak’s ‘offensive sequencing’ seemed relevant to Cooley’s role as a centre with USNTDP-- often making short passes in the middle of the ice to connect the NTDP’s squad of talented wingers, many of whom are coming from programs where they did not need to work off their teammates a whole lot. By making plays between checks and providing a short passing option for his wingers, Cooley was essential in helping those wingers share the puck and use the entire width of the ice, even if it meant he wasn’t directly involved in quite as many scoring plays as Howard or Nazar were.
Here’s a nice example, although an excellent defensive play from an opponent stops the chance from materializing. A winger carries the puck down the wall, Cooley presents a short option, and then one-touch passes it into the middle of the ice for his teammate driving the net.
Again— he’s a short option, recognizes that he has no room to make a play himself, so he drops it back into space for a teammate.
Even this quick touch pass in the slot to set up a one-timer.
The reason why this small-area, ‘play between checks’ game will be important for Cooley is because he isn’t a puck-dominant entry creator and because he doesn’t seem to be particularly talented at bringing the puck off the wall and into the slot. He’s a good skater— I have it labeled as a 55-grade right now (a tick above average)— but not anything more than that, and I thought he struggled to find lanes through the neutral zone with his skating fairly frequently.
He’s attacking a big defenceman with a bad gap down the wall here, but can’t create any sort of advantage and turns the puck over.
There were a couple nice flashes that may hint at an ability to get off the wall, but it didn’t look consistent or something that he could easily replicate.
Here’s a sweet move to split two defenders and get to the inside lane. It’s a nice move for sure, but the defence is really poor here.
And here’s Cooley receiving a pass with speed on the wing, burning a pivoting defenceman, and tucking the puck in from a bad angle for a beautiful goal. Awesome stuff, but Cooley’s not going to be up on the wing like that on the breakout often as a centre at 5v5 and he was able to expose a bad gap from a poor-skating defenceman.
It’s tough to know how much credit Cooley should get— sure, the defence could have played both better, but you can say that about nearly any play. But also, he’s a guy that largely played USHL competition and far more often than these awesome plays occurred, I saw Cooley get contained to the wall and struggle to leverage his skating.
Cooley does have some nice hands within the slot, I will give him that.
Here’s a between-the-legs finish.
I may doubt his ability to get off the wall, but I don’t doubt his ability to recieve pucks in the slot and translate those touches into scoring opportunities. He’s got a nice small-area game.
My early-season projection for Cooley is a 2C-ceiling, likely middle-six centre with that Dvorak-type “linkage/connector” ability. He might not get on the scoresheet an absolute ton, but his small-area skills and passing are real weapons for a centre. If he can continue to move the puck to space with defenders draped upon him in the NHL, he’s going to be a really useful player for his teammates to utilize as a support option in the offensive zone. I’ll continue to track his ability to get off the wall and create some opportunities himself as he plays with the U18s this upcoming season; developing a more consistent threat as that type of player is the biggest thing he could do to raise his ceiling in his draft year.
Danila Yurov
Yurov’s hands are sooo nasty.
Naturally, a player attempting to make the plays Yurov does can run into a little bit of turnover issues. The goal should be to attack defenders one-on-one, not one-v-three or one-v-four.
You have to know when to move the puck. Sometimes, Yurov can be a little susceptible to overhandling. The first move here is awesome, but then he gets himself into a one-v-two situation where he’s over his head.
The Russian is definitely a scorer, largely working out of an off-puck role where he can receive a pass, maybe throw in a move, and then shoot on goal. He’s not a guy that leads the rush with frequency— he’s more dangerous receiving the puck with speed than working up to top speed with it himself.
Danila isn’t much of a playmaker. He doesn’t have a whole lot of sense for passing lanes and the timing required to thread pucks through, often trying to force passes through sticks. And that lack of timing can force him from having to pass around sticks, which throws off pass accuracy.
Yurov surely projects as a winger who can bring distinctly above-average finishing ability with his combination of puck skills and shooting. I’m not sure he projects to be much of a play-driver due to a limited transition role and his preference to do a lot of work away from the puck, but finishing impact is a valuable trait even if not accompanied by possession influence. If he can begin to utilize his teammates more and move the puck around the offensive zone by making one move and then finding a play rather than attempting to string several puck moves together, I think that’s when Yurov could begin to bring some positive possession impact.
Joakim Kemell
I’ve already seen a little bit of talk about Kemell potentially usurping JYP teammate Brad Lambert over the course of the season. I haven’t seen JYP’s first games of the season yet— that’s on the schedule for next week— but I hear Kemell has outplayed Lambert thus far. The one major factor in this Lambert-Kemell talk that does look like it goes in Kemell’s favour is slot penetration. In volume 2, I talked about how Lambert seems to have gotten accustomed to almost exclusively playing on the perimeter. In contrast, Kemell’s most promising trait is his ability to slice off the wall into the slot for shooting looks. I don’t think there’s any questioning that Lambert has considerably more skill— and that’s no slight to Kemell— but Kemell does an excellent job leveraging his puck skills to get to the slot whereas Lambert likes to skate the puck around the perimeter with no real endpoint in mind.
Let’s look at Kemell’s ability to get off the wall. On the powerplay, he likes to exploit the nearest defending forward, forcing them to commit either to him or to the defenceman manning the point. If they choose the defenceman, he’ll cut right into the middle of the ice.
He loves to attack that space in between the strong side winger and the strong side defenceman. Wingers are used to guarding the point and playing on the blueline side of that forward on the wall— Kemell loves to attack that.
Kemell does a great job getting to the slot, but those high slot shots aren’t particularly threatening. The next step is going to be honing his creation from those spots. He definitely has work to do to start to translate slot penetration into high-danger chances, but seeing him look for this frontdoor, against-the-grain pass was a promising arrow. He isn’t just making the same pre-programmed play every time, he’s processing his options each time.
Kemell continues to attack the middle of the ice off the rush. Here’s a sweet inside move on a zone entry.
Receiving a drop pass and attacking the middle of the ice.
Creativity! Kemell’s certainly got it. Here’s the between-the-legs shot attempt.
And here’s a between-the-legs pass attempt.
Neither of them worked. But I like that he tried them.
Kemell’s a really fun player to watch. He’s creative, he attacks dangerous areas, and he’s off to a great start to his professional career with three points in his first two Liiga games this season. Looking forward to watching at least one of those games next week; I’ll have clips and notes for you regarding that in our next notebook.
Nathan Gaucher
Gaucher had an excellent statistical DY-1 season, topping a point per game for Quebec. But I was quite underwhelmed by what I saw from Gaucher. He’s a big centre that can get moving pretty fast at times, but sorely lacks on-puck creation ability and projects as a mere puck retrieval/off-puck scoring contributor at the NHL level.
He can’t create off zone entries, bringing the puck into traffic and lacking the puck skills to escape it.
And when he does get a clean rush chance, Gaucher doesn’t have the skills to get to the middle. He doesn’t attempt to leverage his size to drive to the net either, content with staying in the outer lane and settling for an outside look.
The real killer for Gaucher is his inability to use his teammates and move the puck around the ice.
We talked about Logan Cooley and that ‘connector’ role— if Gaucher was a good enough passer and comfortable enough in traffic to utilize his teammates effectively— that ‘connector’ ability combined with his puck retrieval skills and presence around the net would make him a valuable player. But he doesn’t have that small-area skill, and so he really doesn’t impact the game much at all except for a little bit of finishing ability and a netfront game on the PP.
Some positives: Gaucher is 6’3” and is definitely useful in a netfront role on the powerplay. Here’s a deflection.
And here’s a nice netfront goal after receiving a pass in front.
He’s also able to make some nice passes, but only when he isn’t under imminent defensive pressure.
He’s no long shooting threat, but Gaucher can deposit opportunities around the crease and is tough to move from those areas.
I suppose there may always be a role for a big guy that can get it on the forecheck, win battles in the corner, and make his presence known around the crease, but there’s no ability to create his own chances and it’s difficult to envision him in more than a bottom-six role.
Noah Ostlund
I don’t see Ostlund as a major difference maker at this point— he doesn’t drive pucks into the slot very consistently and doesn’t flash a whole lot of offensive skill. He is, however, excellent at supporting the puck and could make a very useful top-nine centre. There’s no question that Ostlund is a very intelligent player away from the puck, both offensively and defensively.
Let’s look at the offensive instincts.
Ostlund, on the weak side here, times his curl with the movement of the puck and ends up in the perfect position for the tap-in finish.
He’s very nearly on the end of a pretty passing play because of this excellent drive towards the backpost.
Ostlund likes to support the forecheck up high as F3, waiting for pucks to pop out and then activating into the offence. His wingers win this puck down low— guess who’s waiting up in the slot for the pass and one-time finish.
Another high puck support shot opportunity.
He gets a takeaway as F3 here, picking off a pass and slipping a saucer pass through to the netfront.
Ostlund’s playmaking is so-so. He seems to do a good job spotting options, but lacks the timing or passing touch to consistently make good on the pass.
Here’s a good play— sweet little backhand pass on the entry creates a good shot chance.
Now for some poor plays. Ostlund is looking for the high slot option here, but the lane is never really there for him and it’s picked off.
It looked like the slip pass against the grain to the post may have been an option for Ostlund here, but by the time he attempts to pass it back that way it’s way too late for his teammate to do anything with it.
Here’s a legitimately good read, but the pass is behind his teammate.
He can’t force this pass through. The ideal play is probably to drive on the backhand and then decide whether to shoot or pass when you’re closer to the net— by stopping up and going to the forehand, Ostlund makes the pass his only option and the defender is able to respond.
Another factor for Ostlund is that he’s small— 5’10” and 163 pounds— and really gets pushed around near the boards.
That creates an interesting question as for where Ostlund plays down the line. His puck support game lends itself to the centre position— prefering to act as F3 on the forecheck has the additional benefit of helping Ostlund get back down ice to fulfill his defensive duties as a centre. Does moving Ostlund to the wing also mean that you’re also expecting him to play as F1 or F2 more frequently on the forecheck? Because he won’t be particularly useful in those roles, not nearly as useful as he is at F3 where he can play to his strengths. Centre really does seem to be the ideal position for him, but traditional hockey knowledge favours the big strong centre that can check and be checked in the middle of the ice. If Ostlund’s team moves him to the wing, it could diminish his value by hurting his puck support utility.
Denton Mateychuk
Here is THE Denton Mateychuk clip.
Puck retrieval, he uses his mobility to find some space, then hits his outlet on the wall, joins the rush, gets the puck back, and centers it for an awesome chance. This is such an incredible play.
Mateychuk is super fun, and I’m not entirely sure whether I like him or if I like him a lot yet, but there are lots of green arrows within his game. He’s a good skater, he seems to move the puck quite well (just how well is what will dictate the degree to which I like him) and he’s super eager to activate offensively. I watched two WHL games from last year and one from the U18s. He looked awesome in the WHL games, super involved and consistently looking to start the breakout and follow the puck up ice, and was so-so (far less involved, as expected) in the U18 game in limited minutes.
Let’s talk transition. I’m a little unsure of Mateychuk’s problem solving ability against an incoming forecheck, but only because he’s generally so good at finding space and moving the puck quickly that he doesn’t encounter a lot of high-pressure situations on the breakout. And we’ll get plenty of looks at Mateychuk’s activation here too, because he likes to follow his breakout pass and stay involved up ice.
Puck retrieval, skates to some space, makes an outlet, and then he’s the third player up ice with the offence.
I’ve talked about the importance of using the weak side as a defender in transition before. Mateychuk likes to skate to the weak side, rather than pass to his d-partner as we often see. Works effectively for him here, and then he’s involved on the entry.
Here’s an awesome play. Mateychuk curls into a pocket of space and delivers a stretch pass for the zone entry.
And just an ultra-quick read here with pressure incoming.
An area of transition where Mateychuk looks really comfortable is on these ‘reset’ type transition plays that aren’t full breakouts. Hard to find a better play to make here— he builds up some speed, finds an entry pass, and then gets involved offensively. Awesome.
He’s able to utilize his skating to beat the first wave of pressure in those spots, which opens up more passing options up ice. This is a good passing read after beating F1, the execution just isn’t there.
Puts F1 behind him, finds an entry pass.
Spins off F1, a bit of a scary moment in his own slot, but Mateychuk doesn’t panic and finds an outlet.
Here’s a nice first move to beat F1, but then he overhandles and coughs up the puck.
And now a couple activation clips that didn’t start with a Mateychuk outlet.
Here he is skating hard to join the rush and present an option for his forward on the wall, allowing the play to keep flowing forward.
And here he is making himself an option on the breakout with speed up ice.
That’s a lot of good stuff. I’m curious to see how Mateychuk does when facing a forecheck that does a better job taking away his skating lanes with the idea of forcing him to move the puck. I didn’t get to see him in those types of situations very often, but he didn’t look quite as comfortable.
From the U18s: the Swiss forechecker stays in front of him and rather than hitting the wide open weak side, he goes glass and out for some reason.
You can see the forecheck cheating towards the far side of the ice here because that’s the direction of Mateychuk’s forehand. The rim to that side puts his forward in a tough spot, I would’ve liked to see him try to go against-the-grain to the near winger. Admittedly, it would’ve been a tough play either way.
He has room to skate here but he doesn’t, and the stationary outlet is one that leaves his forward with nowhere to go but to retreat back in the direction of the pass.
It’s something I’ll be watching for this upcoming season, I don’t think it will be much of an issue. One thing is for sure: when Mateychuk is able to get back on a puck and get his feet moving, he looks dominant out there. Very enjoyable to watch.
One last note I wanted to throw in. We can see Mateychuk basically just conceding this puck race here. That’s because he doesn’t have any puck retrieval strategies to help him out in situations like these as a smaller defenceman!
Luckily, Jared Spurgeon is to the rescue. Hat tip to Greg Revak for showing me this video a while ago.
Want to see more of Mateychuk before getting into projections and the like, but that transitional profile is looking incredibly promising. One of the top defencemen in the draft, I would think.