Halley had himself a great tournament playing alongside Héroux for a majority of it, providing strong complimentary support, playmaking acumen and shooting ability while finishing with 5 points in 4 games. He’s an excellent passer in transition, capable of stringing passes together with his linemates that facilitated controlled entries into the offensive zone. He’s not the most mobile skater, but he was able to play a part in his teams transition game as a puck-carrier by utilizing his long stride, strong puck protection technique and reach to shield pucks and extend his puck touches as a consequence to buy himself time to make a play. He was highly effective off the cycle in the offensive zone by using his frame to shield pucks from defenders, keeping his head up to spot passing options and dishing out in front to generate high-danger chances from in tight. He was a trigger man on the powerplay, playing along the halfwall and coming in down low to finish off low to high plays and beat goaltenders from distance at times.

While the less than ideal foot speed and shift-by-shift consistency still continued to plague him, there’s no denying the vast amount of potential Halley possesses. Listed as the biggest kid at this camp, Halley contains all the skill you’d normally find in a much smaller player. His hands are lightning quick, which is the main reason he’s able to be such an effective player in transition despite the skating limitations. He was able to consistently spot teammates in the neutral zone by pulling pucks through defender’s sticks, creating new angles for himself as a passer and executing difficult passes through seams. When he got the puck in the offensive zone, he was so good at carving through defenders to get to the middle of the ice, drawing multiple players towards him in the process before making a subtle yet brilliant slip pass to a wide-open teammate. I thought he did a great job off the cycle as well by using his frame to protect the puck as he circled the offensive zone and either dropping the puck back to a teammate or leveraging his skill to make a hard cut off the halfwall to get to the middle of the ice. The size and skill combination will surely have QMJHL teams frothing at the mouth if his development continues to trend upwards.

It took him roughly four periods, but it seems like Halley has finally arrived at this Québec U16 camp and is flashing the high-end offensive ability that has made him one of the more highly touted prospects out of the province this season. Although his lack of foot speed doesn’t really allow him to be an effective rush player as a puck carrier, his passing ability made him an integral part of his team’s transition game. The way he’s able to thread pucks through multiple layers to teammates in stride, in conjunction with his processing ability that gets pucks off his stick quickly, allows his team to play with tempo whenever he’s on the ice. His use of give and go’s to generate puck touches up high off the rush allowed him to flash some of his high-end puck skills to operate in congested areas and carve through defenders before executing slick passes into space. I thought he was quite effective off the cycle as well, utilizing his size to shield the puck from defenders and make intelligent short area passes to teammates while supporting the play off-puck as well. He showed off his strong shooting mechanics on the game-winning goal when he received a pass in the slot and wired a low hard shot that beat the goaltender clean.