I really came to appreciate Collin’s simple yet effective style of play after watching him closely throughout the tournament. I noted a plethora of strong defensive plays in his own end by gapping up nicely along the boards and using his stick to dislodge pucks, retrieve them and kickstart the counterattack by skating the puck out of his own zone. His strong stick and tight gap carried over to his rush defending as well where he was able to kill plays in the neutral zone before they could materialize and force dump-ins by stepping up at the defensive blueline. His best work in the offensive zone came when he was able to keep plays alive with shrewd pinches below the hashmarks that lead to prolonged possession. He’s not primarily a puck-mover, but he was quite accurate on his D2D passes that facilitated a smooth transition up the ice.

It became clear early on that Collin is a defender who is frequently looking to impact the game offensively from the backend. He had a few flashes of strong puck-carrying in transition through the middle of the ice, using his teammates out on the flanks to dish wide before driving the net and bringing opposing defenders back with him. He was also quite poised on his defensive zone retrievals, showing little panic in his game while drawing in the forecheckers and making outlet passes to the opposite side into space. His best work came from the top of the blueline in the offensive zone where he showed great command of the puck, spotting cross-ice options through seams and executing with hard passes to create dangerous chances. There is a bit of an overreliance on his physical tools in his game at this juncture of his development, but I’m excited to see what he turns into given the skillset.

Collin was at his best this game when he was operating from the offensive blueline with the puck on his stick and when he was given the time to make smart outlets up the ice. He would sometimes panic with the puck when he was pressured in the defensive zone, opting to rely on natural ability to escape it which lead to some turnovers. When he had the space, I found him to be one of the better puck movers on his team, as he was consistently able to spot cross-ice outlet options and execute long passes for controlled exits. He made a great play in the first period on the powerplay.