He draws the eye so quickly and easily due to how well he moves with and without the puck. I think he was one of the few players in the event who was able to transition pucks up ice purely because of outskating opponents in straight lines. He didn’t have to implement too many fakes to find a lane through a zone or two. He was making that hard first curl or cut, building speed in transition, and while struggling at times to create past the offensive blueline or find space to cut back and settle play, you can see the evidence of a player who understands his strength and looks to experiment with how to best use it. He was able to keep pace and positioning at times with anyone and could cut off gaps so early against a good team like Delta. I found that he was excellent offensively at turning low danger moments into medium danger but was dumping pucks back into the zone too quickly, getting stood up at the line, and wasn’t creating the same chances from standstill moments in the offensive zone. The key to his successes will be his skating ability as he continues to explore and round out the consistency of each situation. With a defender who can hit, separate players from the puck, and transition play the other end, you have the floor taken care of well.

I liked pieces of Nathan’s offensive game in this tournament. When he gets going up ice he can really fly, building lots of speed from strong powerful crossovers starting in his own end all the way through the neutral zone. As the lone D on his team’s top power play unit, he was trusted quite often in rushing the puck up the ice and gaining the zone to set up their powerplay. Along the walls in the offensive zone he was very strong, keeping plays alive and doing a great job quickly working the puck off the wall and towards the middle of the ice to make a play. If Nathan can hone into his defensive game a little more he can develop into a very well rounded player.