He’s one of the best skaters in a straight line in the draft and puts almost anyone on their heels. That type of speed and transition ability just naturally creates chances and drives possession. While he has missed some games this season, he’s shown little hesitancy in getting back into the fold for his squad. I have mentioned this in the Bauer write up as well but I think with more delays and filtering in open posture off the rush while surveying passing options would open up more for him as a dual threat scorer. Either way, when he finds the puck in the neutral zone it’s like he’s shot out of a cannon up ice. He is the leading scorer on BWC U15 Prep this year and is doing a lot of his damage at 5on5 off the rush.

His skating gives him space to move and he isn’t shy about bursting through transition and almost playing keep away as he moves the puck side to side and bursts past players who know he’s going to try to get end to end. More often than not, Kenzo was off like a rocket once he gained possession and I only found him using delays or cut backs a couple times. It means the choices are often shots from as close as he can get and allows the netminder to square up to him since they are guessing he’s thinking shot. Even with that anticipation, Kenzo has the speed to score on breakaways and curl to the slot heavy and shoot with force. He is able to push on the inside edges through each stride well enough to change angles at times too. I think at this point he’s such a powerful skater that it changes the momentum of shifts in an instant. The fear is that he does miss playmaking opportunities if he gets too tunnel vision focused but at this point he still should be considered as a top-5 option in the WHL Draft.

Right from puck drop, Kenzo Gibson’s physical abilities clearly outmatched everyone else on the ice. In all three zones, he was tremendously strong on the puck and anchored well to fight off checks as he forced his way wide around opponents. He effectively used his speed and long reach to burst into open ice untouched and keep the puck out of reach. In terms of production, he ran a push faceoff play on an O-zone draw, deked the goalie and missed, but the rebound was buried. Later, on the powerplay, he built speed swinging high off the wall, used a shot fake to open a lane, and zipped a perfect seam pass for a catch-and-shoot goal.