Once again I came away impressed with White’s ability to defend responsibly while demonstrating projectable tools. He showed some good lateral mobility with the puck on his stick during his regroups that allowed him to separate himself from pressure and move the puck up the ice. He used his strong backwards skating to maintain a good gap on rushing forwards and cut plays off at the defensive blueline to force dump-ins. In the defensive zone White was able to use his reach to close in quickly on attackers along the perimeter which allowed him to kill tons of cycle plays and win back possession. I saw some more offensive instincts this time around than I had seen in previous viewings, with White showing good awareness of space in the offensive zone and jumping in down low to make himself a dangerous cross-ice option for teammates.

As one of the more physically developed defenders on the team White was often tasked with dealing with the oppositions bigger and physical forwards. He was defending hard in front of the net by boxing out opposing forwards and keeping his head on a swivel to get his stick on any dangerous passes to the slot. He was killing a lot of plays in transition as well by playing aggressively at the line and making active reads to get his stick into passing lanes. There was one instance where White flashed some puck-carrying ability in transition where he was able to generate speed through the neutral zone, make a hard drive around a defender and get his hands free to get a shot off.

White brought a physical and defense-oriented playing style to the Team Yellow blueline. He combined some strong footwork along with an active stick to gap up quickly on attackers along the perimeter in the defensive zone while using strong angular pushes to cut them off before erasing them along the boards. He made a handful of strong plays defending the rush as well by taking away the middle of the ice, forcing attackers to the outside and guiding them towards congested areas where he could then remove them from the puck with a body check. He was moving the puck quite well under pressure, especially on his retrievals where he could thwart off forecheckers with strong body positioning before executing a breakout pass to his winger.

A tall and rangy defender who could kill plays at the defensive blueline, using an active stick and physical step ups to deny entries. He was equally effective along the perimeter in the defensive zone, keeping a good gap with opposing forwards and closing in on them quickly before erasing them along the boards to remove them from the puck. The puck-moving was inconsistent, but he was able to execute a couple of impressive stretch passes from his own zone that lead to some odd-man rushes.