I’m honestly not sure there was a forward who had a more productive weekend based on my expectations for him. The biggest thing scouts will consider with Kash is his pace of play. He often looks a bit nonchalant when he doesn’t have the puck on his stick but that is kind of just his way. You will hardly ever find him just using energy for the sake of using energy. He did show moments throughout the tournament where he burst heavily in puck races and beat defensemen to the inside. His stickhandling is so soft too. Combine that with the fact that he has zero panic in his game and you find him shielding the puck on the exterior with his head up, changing his attacking angles, and being one of the most dangerous scoring threats in the home plate area. He’s methodical and controlled to the tee.

I went back to my notes from last year’s tournament and realized I wrote about Kash there as well. I noticed he was trying to manipulate players laterally and he still definitely does that a ton. He’s someone that I’m quite fond of because he has a lot of finesse to his shot in tight spots. He’s able to spin off coverage under pressure, shoot heavily off the rush, and really wastes no time in tight spaces to pull and release. I’ve been watching Kash play since the start of the season closely and he was certainly someone I considered for the initial top-25 ranking. I love how he attacks skating pathways defensively and how he doesn’t shy away from high traffic areas in the offensive zone either. He’s a fairly active player as a centerman. I think there are things he can continue to work on to become a bit more explosive in his skating stride and just add a bit of depth to his movements to become harder to handle. As the tournament’s leading scorer, he continued to produce heavily.

The eye test was very appealing on Alger-East and there was flashes of skill and play driving ability as he showed his craftiness in offensive creation. He’s a well rounded kid who has some areas of explosive elements to his but feel he’s projecting to be a really strong two way player who can do a bit of everything. He’s good at evading detection and finding soft spots where he can receive pucks and the find seams to snap off quick shots or passes to make the best available play. He scored a goal in this game by doing such, sneaking in late and showing an explosive few strides before ripping a puck past the goaltender. While he was the unquestionable leader for his squad in this one, he also had 18 giveaways in the game and will need to clean up his puck management going forward.

Alger-East had a couple of assists and his line with Beuker and Wilke really seemed to click in this contest. Alger-East was a nice fit on that line as the primary board asset and his control along the wall led to some of Saskatchewan’s longer shifts with sustained zone pressure. He is unique in ability to control play on the cycle as he relies on a good old fashion posterior to protect the puck and angle off pressure. He is a bit of a throwback to the days of Jagr and Andreychuk as he frustrated defenders with his ability to keep his sturdy frame between them and the puck. I’ll be interested to see how his game style will project forward but I thought his methodical approach was a nice counterbalance to the relentless pace of Wilke on that line.