Jackson’s stout and responsible defensive game was the perfect complement alongside Quinn Norman, providing a stability alongside one of the best defensive pairings in the tournament. He was so effective at killing cycle plays in his own end by maintain a great gap along the perimeter and utilizing his reach to knock pucks loose and help initiate the breakout for his team. His rush defending was equally impressive, as there were a few times where he made a physical step up that helped deny controlled entries into his own end. I noted a couple of efficient rush sequences as well, where he was able to pull the puck off the halfwall in his own zone to skate the puck out, gain the offensive line and feed the middle of the ice for a scoring chance. He wasn’t overly creative with the puck at the top of the offensive zone, but he kept his head up and was able to fire shots through traffic that found their way on net more often than not.

Every time I watch Jackson, I get more and more excited about his potential as a tall, lanky and mobile defender at the next level. He’s one of the better in-zone defenders I’ve seen in this class so far, combining high-end footwork with a long reach to keep a tight gap on opposing forwards as they tried to pivot away from him along the perimeter before dislodging the puck with a heavy lean and a swift stick check. He’s able to cover a lot of ground with his long stride, which allowed him to close in quickly on puck-carriers as he skated vertically in the neutral zone to kill plays in transition. He had some strong moments on regroups as well, utilizing his edgework to spin away from forecheckers in his own zone before making a hard and accurate outlet up the ice. He even showed some intriguing lateral mobility and shiftiness with the puck at the top of the offensive zone, which allowed him to create seams for himself to get pucks through and on net.

What makes me the most excited about Jackson is the untapped potential he seems to possess. He’s a super athletic kid with immense confidence and superb instincts, which he primarily uses to kill plays off the rush by keeping a good gap and forcing attackers to the outside. His elusiveness for a player of his build is quite exceptional as well, which allows him to shake forecheckers on retrievals and skate himself into space to initiate breakout plays. Jackson was doing his best work from the offensive blueline, where he combined all of his high-end traits sidestep checkers at the line with deceptive skating maneuvers to get down low into secondary and tertiary layers of coverage in the offensive zone. This is a player who I’m really looking forward to seeing develop throughout the course of the year.

Playing alongside Norman for the majority of the game, I thought Jackson showed a lot of strong two-way qualities of his own that not only made him one of the better defenders in this contest but one of the better skaters as a whole. He had some stifling defensive stops, using a combination of his strong skating and physical play to stymie plays along the boards or step up on opposing puck carriers as early as the offensive blue line to regain possession for his team and get pucks going back the other way. I thought he did a good job at choosing opportune moments to join rushes up the ice to create odd-man rushes and was making smart heads up plays with the puck on his stick which included a seeing-eye shot from the point that found its way past the opposing netminder for his team’s second goal of the game.

I thought Jackson was able to leverage his skating ability at multiple moments in this game to either defend at a high level or create from atop the offensive blueline. He kept a great gap while defending the rush, often forcing attackers to the outside before squeezing them out along the boards and taking away their time and space effectively. His best work of the game came in the offensive zone, where he was able to show off his elusive feet and slick stickhandling to beat pressure at the line and attack down low to get a shot off from a dangerous area.