Projection: Top-4 Defender
Projectable Skills:Skating stride, wrist shot
Development Opportunities: defensive detail, wider vision for playmaking consideration off the rush

Boston has some of the highest upside of anyone in the draft class due to his skating ability and the accuracy of his wrist shot. For Estevan this season, Boston would confidently use the length and power of his skating stride to win puck races on retrievals, power through crossovers behind his net, and attempt to slice through coverage up ice in order to get into prime goal scoring opportunities. Teams came to expect and plan for this along the way because often he gets very narrow focused on being that end-to-end rush scorer. The focus next season should be to open his stance upon zone entries and use more fakes and hesitations to give himself an ability to be a dual-threat shooter and passer to a trailer. Without developing this element to his game, he’s going to become very predictable and smarter systems will stifle his impact. Defensively, he can break up plays early and stay in gaps very well but other times he can lose a player on the outside and down low. I’ve called him the wild stallion of the draft because his upside is tremendous but his details are less structured than others in this range or after. Some scouts might think he’s a unicorn and the missing piece while others might not want to take on the challenge. His skating stride, ability to evade pressure down low, and the snap and accuracy on his wrist shot are comically high-end though. Good teams with hands-on development might fall over themselves to draft him.

You usually don’t have to wait long in a game before you see Boston Tait building speed out of the defensive zone and trying to get into the slot areas to shoot. One of his best traits is how accurate his wrist shot is as he targets the top corner far side. I’ve watched him score tons of goals this year in similar fashion. He creates space for himself off the rush by separating on entries and looks to pick that particular top corner. He certainly has a lot of upside for a goal scorer. Boston netted 30 goals in 24 games as a defender in the Sask U15 league.

When Boston decides to puck rush and step into open ice, which is often, his individual potential attributes show how dominant they currently are at this level. He uses little fakes to shake pressure and drags the puck the length of his stick to explode laterally to his right. He loves to find space for heavy wrist shots back against the grain. His release power and accuracy are a difference maker. When he is puck rushing, there is rarely any evidence of lateral scanning, open posture along the wing, or any consideration for passing whatsoever. Some of the higher-end players knew once he took off that he was looking for shooting lanes. To counter him it is just about getting sticks in lanes with the right timing. Either way, most teams would love to have a player like Boston in their prospect pool. The wild stallion continued to run wild and scored some important goals for Team Gold. His individual elements are very high end.

The wild stallion of this draft is off to a terrific start on the season with 11 goals and 5 assists in 6 SAAHL U15 games. At 6’2 and 165lbs, the lanky defender can drag laterally in motion and has the shot whip and power you love to see from an activating defender. Quite often, he leads the puck rush, stays deep in for the cycle, and essentially plays positionless hockey for much of his icetime. That does leave lots of challenges defensively in some spots. The reality though is that not many players are able to slice through the competition and get scoring chances in the high slot like he has been early on. One to watch.

You’d better believe the scouting eyes are going to be on Boston all throughout this season. I watched him during a spring tournament and he’s a wild station. The defenseman has exploded out of the gate this season with 16 points in 6 games, including 11 goals thus far. You can see on the snap in his wrist shot that it has ample flex and power from almost everywhere in the offensive zone. One of his attempts came off a readjustment in the high slot to find an open lane through determined shot blockers. The potential on Boston is very high, especially with his long skating stride, ability to adapt against pressure through the neutral zone laterally, and the shot release. This will be a player that people will be watching more closely once the Sask Camps come around since for Estevan he almost roams like a midfielder all over the ice in positionless form at times.

The first thing you notice about Boston is how much growth he still has left in his acceleration, stride length, depth of his cuts, and power. He’s a lanky kid right now and still has room to grow to extend his stride length a little further. He has that ability to move side to side and then heavily snapped a low wrist shot perfectly far side. Boston can shoot very well in motion and at his extension. I felt like there were a lot of little moments in transition as he used 10-2 strides to evade pressure in the offensive zone to keep possession. I think you can easily throw in the category of “potentially most improved” as a projection of maybe how he looks in Sept and how he’s gonna look in April. He has all of the elements to potentially pop down the line and it’ll just be about tapping into those elements and dominating possession consistently.

I don’t know if Tait is the highest ceiling defender at this tournament, but man do I appreciate how consistent he is from shift to shift. You can throw him out every third shift with the confidence that it will likely be a stress-free affair. He spent so little time defending in this game as he took engagements early, used his length and mobility to slow the attack down, used his physicality to separate, and showed simplicity in his puck movement to kickstart the counterattack. His physical tools should translate well to higher levels and his sense as a defender with a simplified and repeatable process will help with that transition.