A very profound defender who was highly effective on both sides of the puck. He’s a powerful and fluid skater who covers a tonne of ground and would often join the attack and provide support if he wasn’t in possession of the puck. He’s got really good puck skill and moves the puck at a high level showing precision and a high panic threshold. His defensive game is suffocating and he simply overwhelms players at this level with his ability to close gaps and lanes, often forcing turnovers by inducing panic. There’s areas to grow and at times he could make better decisions but liked his game as a whole.

I thought Chase did a solid job of supporting the play around him, he was a bigger body on the ice and he did well to insert himself between the puck and opponent to win possession and quickly move the puck to his teammates. His positioning was solid so he was able to do this often and become a bit of a headache for other teams. He was strong in his battles and handled the puck well once he won it, skating out of the zone and finding open space to feed the puck into. He was solid in the defensive zone making some very good interceptions by reading the intentions of the defense and anticipating where the puck was going. His play in his own end led to them getting on the attack more often and wearing down the opposition.

I thought Chase showed a range of positive moments throughout the game from the strength and pace to his skating stride all the way to his second efforts and physical engagement to push players off routes. He was able to implement some quick stick handling in transition and a hard shot but wasn’t quite able to put it all together in this one. I do like his power in straight lines to his stride and his posture while on rush defense.