Skills Analysis: Owen Power, Kent Johnson, and Matt Beniers
Looking at the University of Michigan 2021 NHL Draft Eligibles
In this post, we are again teaming up with our favorite scout, Justin Froese. We are going to dive into transferable skills involved with three of the top 2021 NHL Draft prospects, all of whom happen to be marvelous freshmen at the University of Michigan.
Owen Power #22 (Defenseman)
Power is a promising, big, mobile defender who brings every facet to the game. The left-handed defenseman is especially effective at the building blocks of the game: the skills that truly drive performance. In the video below, Power grabs a contested puck, makes a simple play, and then ends up leading the rush.
Details:
Power positions himself well to grab the contested puck that comes out of the scrum. All the while, he’s looking around and shoulder-checks three (!) times.
Noticing that his first option (a pass up the wall to his winger) is covered, he surrounds the puck and protects it from turning into a wobbly and difficult-to-handle puck. This is a little detail that makes a huge difference.
Using his large frame, he protects the puck, feels the pressure, and makes a crisp backhand pass to the support player on the face-off dot, turning this sequence into a positive puck possession.
Power doesn’t wipe his hands clean and call it a day. Instead, he continues to work by beating the forwards up the ice to lead the rush and become a valuable option on the rush.
Next, let’s look at Power’s awareness.
Details:
Power recognizes that the opposing player is all alone and attacks his time and space. Instead of being complacent and back-pedaling to his net, Power skates forwards to angle and dictate the available space. Power effectively closes the gap on his opponent and drives inside his hands to knock the puck away.
Power’s stick detail is elite. Like herding sheep, the stick pushes the player where he wants him to go and then goes stick-on-puck to steal the puck away.
Right before he corrals possession, Power looks to see where he teammate is. Armed with that information, he dishes the puck and regains possession for his team.
Owen Power has honed well-executed defensive skating. Just like in basketball, defenders want to shuffle and avoid crossing their feet - the same principles hold true in hockey.
Details
Coming off the bench, Power can’t preemptively set the gap extremely tight like he does in the last video. His first move is to powerfully pivot into the middle of the ice. He doesn’t get tangled or allow any additional space for opponents to work inside of him.
Once he has the puck carrier isolated to the perimeter and running out of space, Power pivots and begins to shuffle skate (again, with excellent stick positioning). Those shuffles allow him the ability to react to anything the offensive player may do.
His stick is in a position to eliminate inside passes and keeps the offensive player’s vision limited while allowing for the backcheck time to get back into a defensive posture.
Kent Johnson #13 (Winger)
Kent Johnson is a human highlight reel given his terrific hands at high speed. He’s the type of player that pulls fans out of their seats with his offensive ability.
Read how Kent Johnson & other players use offensive angling to pin the opposition’s feet and have an easy time on the rush making defenders into pylons.
Manipulating opponents is the bread and butter of Johnson’s game, and we think it will translate at the next level.
Details:
Johnson jumps on a loose puck and turns back and reloads by skating up the middle. A key habit of Johnson is his desire to skate the puck through the middle of the ice, inside the dots.
He attacks the first forechecking opponent head on. This forces the forechecker to lock their feet and allows Johnson to make a simple move off of their heels to beat him clean. Textbook.
Throughout the clip, Johnson shows his ability to combine his skills on the puck independently of his skating. His use of linear crossovers enables him to constantly change his trajectory and freeze opponents. His dynamic stance allows him the ability to make plays off of either foot instead of planting his feet to become a static check.
In addition, we see Johnson’s ability to maintain his pass receiving window and find the spaces between the oppositions checks.
Details:
Skill and speed are essential assets for players making the progression towards the higher levels. A common issue is that the higher you get, the harder it is to find players without these assets and thus, your competitive advantage can disappear.
What differentiates these players are the ones that understand how to create speed differentials. Changing speeds, taking elongated or angled routes, and timing the progression of play allows players to find the space needed to facilitate play.
Here, Johnson transitions from the back-check to the attack by taking a long sweeping arc, spanning the diameter of the ice. Like a chameleon, he blends his approach behind the back of the first forward until he sees the opportunity to find a soft spot in coverage on the zone entry, exploding into the open ice past the opposing forward.
While there is an appreciation of how slick he can be through the levels of opposing defenses, many of those efforts will become futile against a team or system where space is at a premium and mental agility isn’t a scarce trait amongst opponents.
Matty Beniers #10 (Center)
Matthew Benier turned heads with his prominent role for the 2021 Gold Medal-winning Team USA at the WJC. Beniers was able to quickly adapt his style of play to the scenario he was asked to play. Regardless of the situation, he is always giving his team an edge, an impressive trait for an underager.
There are nuances that do concern, namely, the way his game is built. Daryl Belfry has referenced helping Hayley Wickenheiser (the consensus best women’s player of all time) develop her game by how she received pucks. He coined styles of gameplay, “the bull” & “the spider.” He emphasizes the importance of balancing between the two. In Beniers, he skews toward The Bull and learning how to balance both styles will be the trick for him.
“The bull” is a player that receives pucks by pressuring players and pouncing on loose pucks. At young ages and at lower levels, there are lots of pucks for these types of players to pounce upon. The higher the level, the fewer of these pucks are available.
“The spider” is a player that positions themselves well and allows the puck to come through them like a spider in a web. These players are more adept at receiving pucks at the higher levels where loose pucks are less frequent.
In this clip we see the elements of Bernier’s “Bull” game.
A wide, powerful skating base with strong flexion points at his knees and ankles give him the motor to get where he needs to go.
An impressive motor and his assertive nature give him chances to pressure the puck carriers and force turnovers.
We see a lot of strong qualities here and the makings of a ruthless player who pursues pucks through the Zamboni gate. Yet in doing so, he can be counterproductive in consistently producing high-danger chances. Meanwhile acquiring the puck off the pass is a strong indication of hockey IQ and allows for higher, more sustained offensive production.
The adaptation between these two styles are quite unique and requires differing mindsets. Here we see Beniers play the ‘Spider’ and take a more strategic approach to the play.
He stays in the middle of the ice in a quality support position through the defensive zone and neutral zone.
Once in the offensive zone, he finds soft areas in which his teammates can pass him the puck - behind the net being a perfect ‘quiet area’ for him to have time and space.
Teaming Up
Let’s watch these players team up using the skills we covered. Power uses his transitional skills while Johnson uses his skating to get into a high-danger area.
Elements to notice:
Grab the puck
Cut the net
Establish puck in the middle
Scan for help
Slow down to maintain space
Timing and speed in the outside lane
Shot on the ice five-hole
Further Reading
Further Scouting Reports
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