Grant Jokic is another Buffalo Jr. Sabre who has been a consistent standout piece for over the last 2 years now in many events. Offering a good mix of skill, physical play, scoring, and playmaking ability, he was used in many different situations leading to making his presence felt in a multitude of ways. On the puck he invites contact, isn’t afraid to get pushed or shoved, and powers his way around and out of defenders grasps in an effort to slip by them and get into the ice he wants to attack. These attempts to penetrate the slot region and or around the faceoff dot work in tandem with his playmaking ability. Often adjusting his passing angles and such as a result of hooking pucks around bodies with some strong control of his lower hand when adjusting reach and position, he’s dynamic in close quarters and is an effective playmaking piece because of it. There were nice moments of off-puck awareness in the offensive zone for Grant where he sifted into soft, uncovered ice and was able to catch-and-release pucks in short order. Factoring in the skills on display and his athletic frame with a good base of skating ability and you have a player that can both drive play, along with finish play off, whilst remaining physically intense in either role.

Although he’s not the biggest of forwards, I was very impressed with Jokic as he did some of his best work at this event from around the blue paint. He was extremely active around the net, using his quickness to jump onto loose pucks, getting in front of the goaltender’s eyes looking to deflect pucks and even showing a great deal of creativity with his passing to set up dangerous chances from in tight with quick reactionary plays to catch defenses off guard. He’s also very quick on his feet, maneuvering his way through traffic both with the puck and without using quick cuts to avoid crowds and find open space in the middle of the offensive zone while also being a heavy forechecking presence, applying pressure to opponents on breakouts using his agile footwork.

Playing for the Illinois Selects, and a product of the Buffalo Jr. Sabres AAA program, Grant Jokic was a standout thanks to his work ethic and off-puck tenacity, along with some nice goal scoring intangibles to deliver some value on the other side of the puck. He took extremely smart forechecking routes and quickly closed the gap with a powerful stride, finishing some plays with a strong body check and or getting a stick on a pass attempt, forcing a turnover and hemming the other team in their zone. He continually made great plays on the forecheck, whether it be as the lead-man forechecking, or the second man coming in to support, he read the plays well and applied great pressure. Throughout the viewings I found Jokic to be one of those players who works really hard shift-in and shift-out, and ultimately would eventually get rewarded for it in some way or another. He had also shown some nice manipulation and deception of his release point off the rush, popping the puck into his hip pocket to protect it from defenders before quickly snapping it on net – some decent creativity in a pinch to create ice to get a shot away.