ASU Hockey Player Only Days Away from NHL Draft

With the NHL Draft coming up in less than a week, Arizona State’s Cullen Potter is that much closer to having his rights owned by an NHL franchise.

In hockey, 99% of prospects who get drafted to the NHL don’t see The Show until a couple of years later. That one percent is typically reserved for those drafted in the top five.

It’s totally different compared to other leagues such as the NFL, NBA, or MLB.

In the NFL and NBA, once you’re drafted from college, you’re immediately playing some form of professional ball.

For MLB, if you’re drafted and not signed within a few weeks, you’re automatically eligible for the next draft, and the team that drafts you loses your rights.

For the NHL however, teams can hold your rights for up to four years once drafting you.

With that time, it allows the player to develop their game properly without any added pressure, and allows teams to monitor their development.

Potter, who will be entering his sophomore year at ASU, already has a leg up on his fellow draft constituents.

His skating.

In today’s NHL, being an elite skater is one of — if not the — most important traits to have. An inability to develop high-end skating has hurt some of the game’s most promising prospects like Mikhail Grigorenko, Griffin Reinhart, and Evgeny Svechnikov.

Scott Wheeler, of The Athletic, did a breakdown of this draft’s superlatives by ranking the class’s best skaters, shooters, hands, and more.

Out of 23 prospects, Potter was at the top of the list for skating.

Wheeler said: “Nobody can wind up like Potter, who is one of the fastest skaters I’ve scouted — both in straight lines and rounding corners through his edges.”

Significant praise from one of the game’s most in-depth prospect analysts.

It shouldn’t be a surprise though, as skating was always his strength. It was about improving what else he could do on the ice and not stick out like a boy amongst men.

Potter was also listed as an honorable mention for prospects who had the best hands.

Still, the one aspect of his game that kept winning everyone over was his skating. And in a separate piece for The Athletic, Wheeler made a comparison of Potter to a Frank Nazar/Jeff Skinner type of player.

“I don’t think Nazar or Skinner are perfect,” Wheeler said. “Nazar’s a little more competitive/interior-driven than Potter, but Nazar went 13th, and Potter is going to go later than that. There are similarities in size, skating and handling (Potter might actually be even faster than Nazar, which is saying something).”

The 5-foot-10 forward’s size has definitely scared off a lot of scouts, but he’s made it a point to not allow his size to be a deterrent by improving his defensive game and engaging physically.

“With an added defensive dimension and a more robust physical game, Potter has significantly expanded his floor and reduced risk in his profile while retaining his dynamic offensive abilities,” Elite Prospects said in his draft profile.

They continued: “While scanning habits, especially off the rush, need to become more of a routine, Potter’s U18s only furthered our team’s conviction as a player with first-round upside. By far the most dangerous American forward, the skill gap between his profile and his cohorts was massive.”

Whoever drafts Potter isn’t getting a perfect player — but what player is? He’s a lot more NHL-ready than people think, and depending on where he ends up, a little over-ripening never hurt anyone.

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