Projection: First-line winger
Projectable skills: Puck skills, finishing touch, lateral mobility
Development Opportunities: Diversifying offensive game, two-way play, playmaking

I won't lie; evaluating Braidy this season has been challenging. My final evaluation of his game exiting the summer events spoke to wanting to see him in a more structured "team environment," hoping he'd show new elements come regular club play. The high-octane offence and razzle-dazzle skills have always been apparent, but I didn't see much of him contributing in more practical ways, and his impact was more or less this run-and-gun style, leaving me cautious about getting prematurely enthusiastic. Unfortunately, I didn't really see much change this season. The Majors' game plan for most of the season has been "give the puck to Braidy and let him do his thing," which hasn't been ideal to squash my concerns entering the year.

Braidy is undeniably an exceptionally gifted player with the puck. His combination of puck skills and lateral mobility is among the best in the class, and he has all the offensive skills in his toolbox you're looking for in a player. Where I have a slight pause is how he is currently applying his tools, as I think there is an opportunity to better utilize them to ensure his game remains successful as defenders improve at the next level. My optimism on Braidy hinges on how much he can diversify his offensive game and not rely so much on rush offence as his primary source of value. Adding more playmaking to his progressions, diversifying his rush patterns, and contributing more in established offensive zone sequences are things I've noted all year for Wassilyn to continue to focus on adding to his repertoire to balance out his game. There is no reason to believe Braidy can't incorporate these changes into his game, and if he can, I think he will be an incredibly impactful player at the junior level and potentially beyond.

Having started much earlier this season, I've seen Braidy just shy of fifteen times over the various events this off-season, which already exceeds my sample on many of the 2007s last season. There's no denying he is a sensational player (and was the best player at the PSI All-Star Challenge), but that doesn't mean he is a perfect player and has no opportunity for improvements and development. What's stood out to me over these past few months is that there isn't much diversity in his rush patterns. Coming down the right side, more than half of his rushes involve the same move with a cheeky, deceptive move between his legs onto his backhand, stunning the defender and creating space for himself. In other rushes, he beats defenders wide simply by being quicker than them, without much change of pace or misdirection needed. Both of these work nearly every time today, but I can't help but think at higher levels, he won't be as fortunate with his rush sequences being so predictable. I'd like to see him work on incorporating different styles of attacking (more delays, different moves with the puck, changes of pace, etc.) to have more advanced tools at his disposal moving forward when the competition becomes more challenging for him. This piece isn't meant to discredit Braidy and his abilities, but I wanted to write this now to see how he progresses throughout the season. I've only seen him play over summer events which tend to lack structure, so it's possible things look much different come regular-season play, but I'll be watching closely to see how this aspect of his game develops.

Like Cali, it wasn't a spectacular game for Wassilyn (and the Majors all around), but he still had his flashes. He was constantly relying on his puck skills to try to advance play, dangling his way by defenders, and trying to attack the middle of the ice. Regardless of where he was on the ice, if a defender was trying to close him down, Wassilyn was asserting his puck skills and confidence to navigate around them with quick lateral moves. He nocthed one of the Majors goals, blasting a one-timer on the powerplay short side.

My viewings of Wassilyn at the Steve Richey were precisely what I've come to expect: he is deadly off the rush. When Braidy is flying at top speed and with his magician-like puck skills, he can deceive, manipulate, and deke his way by any defender and access the dangerous parts of the ice on command. Braidy's ability to use bursts of speed, quick dekes, and change of direction was on full display on so many rush sequences, creating scoring chances all through how he layered and combined those elements. As always, he scored on a handful of these, namely one impressive sequence where he put the puck under the defenders' stick to win the outside lane and quickly fired one past the goaltender from this exterior position. While this play is always impressive, I've previously written how I've been hoping to see some diversity in how he attacks off the rush to be more projectable to the junior levels. While there have been improvements in this area, it still is mainly creating through identical sequences over and over again, leading some doubt to creep in in my mind, resulting in Adam Valentini passing him on my latest rankings. Using different patterns off the rush, using more delays, and adding a bit more playmaking are all things I think he can add to his offensive arsenal to make him more unpredictable and more difficult to defend when he faces superior junior-level competition. This isn't meant to be overly negative toward Braidy; I am just vocalizing the minor nitpicks on my mind that led to the change at the top of my rankings. He has all the tools and abilities to make these changes, so it isn't a significant concern at all, just this is the level of detail that separates the top few players where the margins in talent level are so thin.

While it wasn't a sensational performance from Wassilyn, I wanted to note him for my own OHL Draft purposes. I thought Braidy did a great job "simplifying" his game and played a solid match within a powerful team. Of course, there were his typical moments of dangling and showing off his high-end puck skills, but for the most part, he was connecting plays together, contributing to cycle sequences, and keeping things simple yet effective. He didn't find the scoresheet, but Braidy had a handful of scoring opportunities, namely a breakaway chance that the Korean goaltender made an impressive save on a Braidy Wassilyn deke attempt, which is no easy feat. While this wasn't a standout performance, seeing him in this setting helps add a new perspective to feed into his projection moving forward. Every environment I've seen Braidy in since the spring events has been "give him the puck and let him do his thing," which is impressive when it works, but I've always wondered what he'd look like in a more team-oriented style. This game was my first look at him through that lens, and I thought he performed well, and I look forward to seeing how he continues to play throughout the event.

Braidy was his usual self, blazing through the neutral zone and creating tons of scoring chances off the rush. So much of his success comes from his ability to accelerate down the wing, torch defenders, and create chance after chance through these sequences. Of course, if the defender overplays him going wide, Wassilyn showed he's more than capable of cutting to the middle underneath the defender and creating chances flexing his high-end puck skills and lateral mobility. His game had more of a passing element than I've seen in the past, but this speed to these exterior cut-in sequences was certainly the bulk of his scoring chances. Braidy registered a goal and an assist in my viewings; both fit under the theme of him leaking up ice, receiving a stretch pass, and converting on these rush sequences.

As always, the physical tools and skills in Briady's game were apparent but never really resulted in dangerous chances. You could see what Braidy was trying to do in this game, but the Vaughan defenders always found a way to shut him down. He was trying all game to create off the rush, beat defenders wide, and cut in toward the net. Solid defending neutralized most of these opportunities, and Wassilyn couldn't penetrate the middle of the ice. However, there were flashes of deception and delays that opened up space and passing lanes for him to exploit, resulting in some impressive passing sequences. In the last minute of the game, Braidy knocked home a rebound net front to bring the Majors to within one.

This was the quietest game I've seen from Wassilyn regarding chance creation, but his tools were still ever so apparent. He used bursts of speed to transition the puck through the neutral zone, beat defenders wide, and create scoring chances off these rush sequences. As always, he was eager to attack the middle of the ice, flexing his elite puck skills to navigate around defenders into the dangerous parts of the ice. It may just have been due to the trouble-generating offence in this game, but I noted Braidy to be cheating quite a bit for offence. Especially on the penalty kill, floating up ice for stretch passes wasn't ideal. This isn't meant to be overly critical and discredit Braidy, but with the margins being so thin at the top of the draft, I need to hyperfocus on the minute details to help me be confident in my evaluation and rankings. The strengths of all the top players are very evident, but assessing opportunities for development and potential shortcomings will be the key down the stretch of the season.

Wassilyn was his same old self over the Titans Tournament, dangling through everyone, burning defenders with explosive skating, and creating highlight reel after highlight reel. All of this was great to see, and I could expand on it plenty, but that's the Wassilyn I've seen all summer. In my final write-up from the spring/summer season, I voiced some "concerns" about Wassiyln in that I wanted to see him diversify his game. I saw some have success with the same set of moves repeatedly, and I wanted to see him add new elements to his game. So it was nice to see that over the Toronto Titans Tournament, Braidy was using his teammates so much more. He was using give-and-goes, and one-touch passes, and added an effective playmaking layer that I hadn't previously seen that often. The razzle-dazzle and flash in Braidy's game will always be the selling point, but ensuring he can add value and create offence in other ways will help him thrive as he keeps climbing the hockey ladder.

Seeing Braidy live cemented how advanced he is from his peers. He is so explosive, especially laterally, and just his skating alone makes him nearly untouchable. He can use changes of direction, changes of pace, slick cuts, or turns to dodge, evade, and escape any defender trying to close him down. Further compounding on his top-end technical skating ability is his elite puck-handling skills. His hands are almost video-game-like quick, and when combined with his advanced skating, make him nearly unguardable. It was remarkable the plays he could complete while playing at top speed. He didn't need to slow down to execute an impressive move; everything happened seamlessly at top speed, which is always remarkable. All throughout the weekend, Wassilyn showed his finishing touch mainly through powerful shots beating goaltenders cleanly over the shoulder. In one game, he scored countless goals, from finding open space, receiving a pass, pouncing on a loose puck, and ripping home a quick shot from the slot. The raw physical skills alone make Wassilyn a fascinating prospect. Add in the goal-scoring touch and playmaking ability, and you have the whole package.

Wassilyn is such a powerful and efficient skater who dictates the game with the puck on his stick. He is calm under pressure and uses calculated puck touches to bait defenders one way and then swiftly cut in the opposite direction. At times he was unstoppable, going end-to-end shift after shift, creating chance after chance. However, There were instances in this game where Braidy was taking on a lot. Trying to do it all himself, and it just wasn't working. He was getting closed down and turning it over, all while teammates were wide open. After a few shifts of this, a flip must have switched, and he was a playmaking machine. Whether the coach or a teammate told him to look for his linemates, it was nice to see him rebound and fix the issue in a matter of shifts.

Wassilyn was the focal point of Everest and created so much offence. Almost every time his side had a scoring chance, Braidy was involved. At the core of his contributions was his skating and craftiness. Wassilyn is an explosive skater who can hit top speed after a few strides. When he's motoring up ice, he can shift lateral, and chain slick puck moves to be very difficult to contain. He found plenty of space in the neutral zone to be wide open for stretch passes to spark breakaways and 2-on-1s. On these odd-man rushes, Braidy connected on passes to his teammates, setting them up for quality chances. Similar to his ability to find open pockets in the neutral zone, Wassilyn was sneaking into space in the offensive zone, sparking a few catch-and-release shots for himself. The game I watched of Braidy at the WSI wasn't the best sample, as his team was outmatched, but this game was a much better chance to evaluate Braidy, and he is undoubtedly a player I am excited about.

The biggest standout of the game here was none other than Braidy Wassilyn, his hattrick and assist accounted for four of the five goals his team were able to put on the board. He played with such great speed that he was able to punish the opposition seemingly at will. His first goal came off a nice read in the offensive zone to pick off a pass and he beat the goalie with a perfectly placed shot. He got involved again early in the second half as he made a nice pass down low to Cali to put away to give them a two goal lead. He consistently put himself in good positions to get chances and was able to convert when the opportunities presented themselves. He carried the puck with pace and had a really nice chance on the powerplay as he galloped through center ice and drove hard to the net where he threw a backhander towards goal. He was the clear driver on offense and seemed to be on the puck every time I looked up.