One of the flashiest offensive defensemen within the entire 2009-born North American class; watching Brock Cripps play is always a treat. His puck skills coupled with his lateral mobility, edgework, and power make him nearly impossible to contain for the majority of his peers. He can create space for himself so easily as he walks the blueline, evading, deceiving, and challenging puck pursuers 1-on-1 while working with momentum. With magic hands he was able to pull pucks through and around bodies, creep high into the slot, and fire high-quality shots on net, showing off a heavy and hard wrister in the process. The dynamism and creativity on display, along with the speed at which he plays at makes him a weapon at all times when he’s on the ice. Capable of carrying the puck in transition whilst attacking laterally and changing direction, it only takes a few quick crossovers for him to get going up ice, executing plenty of 2-line transition plays throughout the course of a game. Once he hit that top speed, he was very difficult to contain and slow down.

Projection: Top Pair Defender
Projectable Skills: Possession IQ, Offensive manipulation
Development Opportunities: Skating, Escaping pressure with the puck from a standstill

Brock’s understanding of space, timing, and using his inside edges to counter momentum as a puck carrier in motion is high-end. When he can’t escape pressure with his feet, he often protects long enough to make smart passes to teammates. He is at his best when he’s attacking in motion off the rush because he can anticipate, shift, and manipulate forecheckers to continue driving play forward. He is confident through his crossovers and moves well with power. His ability to read body language and manipulate others leads him to high level passes on the PP to set up one-timers on the wings. Tactically he’s as strong as almost anyone in this draft which is why he crushes weaker teams with intelligence and consistency. The thing which could hold him back is his ability to escape pressure when he’s not already in motion. The top teams this year could plan for his strengths and counter them to make sure he had to pass the puck early and take the puck out of his hands at 5on5. A lot of his defensive work is built on that same anticipation to use his stick early to break up plays and follow up with physicality along the boards if he can. His comparables in some aspects include Lukas Dragicevic, Mazden Leslie, Tristen Doyle, and Hudson Thornton.

The scoring pace of St. George’s is baffling at this point. Brock is a highly intelligent defenseman who plays with the puck control and decision making in flow of a top-end forward. He’s constantly pushing up the ice, turning away from pressure to find outlets, and uses the strength of his teammates to boldly push himself into scoring space. He’s already found himself in some U18 games playing forward and even taking faceoffs.

Our top-ranked defender from the event, Brock Cripps of Western Canada was the most creative, skilled, and smooth defender present. He’s such a powerful skater in all directions, with a great first step he creates plenty of separation, gets defenders turning around, and can open passing lanes to funnel pucks to the middle. His ability to fake, freeze, and jump around his nearest man high in the offensive zone opened plenty of space for him to walk into the slot with and get pucks on net with a snappy release. He can pull and push pucks around opponents in 1-on-1 situations very well, making him even more valuable on the breakout as he was confident, quick, and controlled getting around forecheckers with speed and control. Using mohawk turns, crossovers, pivots, and tight turns, he was able to create separation. The key element to his game that made him so valuable was his courage to skate the puck around the offensive zone as if he were a forward, this really helped him apply greater offensive pressure, pulling in defenders as he worked below the goal line, centering pucks to the middle and creating plenty of shooting opportunities for his teammates in dangerous areas. For his size he put up a great fight in battles as well, shoving opponents off the puck as he angled them towards the boards, along with battling for space in front of his own end to be capable of intercepting passes.

Cripps was doing Cripps things all night, creating chance after chance that would have resulted in goals most nights. One play, in particular, stood out as a microcosm of what makes him such an exciting prospect. After a long powerplay shift the puck was dumped into the neutral zone by the Manitoba penalty killers, Cripps picked up the puck to circle back on attack, but every other teammate headed off for a change. Instead of delaying, you could see Cripps eyes light up as he attacked the offensive zone one on four, driving wide before unleashing a spinorama off the wall, working inside outside in the next defenders triangle, then cutting back interior between the remaining two defenders, jumping through contact to end up on the other side of the offensive zone with complete control of possession, four fresh powerplay attackers joining him, and a tired penalty kill. He may be unorthodox, but he is a game breaker.

This was easily the most impressive game I have ever seen from Cripps as he dominated from whistle to whistle. He assisted on every single British Columbia goal and was selected as the no brainer player of the game. There are few who approach the game the way Cripps does; he spurns the routine play without fail, looking to invent and create danger at every opportunity. At times it can get him into trouble but in games like today he can completely take over. His head is always up assessing the defensive structure and probing for weak points. He carries the puck in a neutral position and athletic posture, making him very difficult to read as he attacks downhill. You wouldn’t necessarily teach his stride but his unpredictability and feel for space means that he can enter and exits zones without defenders even getting a stick on him. Cripps seems to elevate his game playing with a high calibre of teammate as they can better get open for themselves. With that extra inch of separation Cripps will find you and he utilized his vision and execution to maximum effect in this game.

I think I’m developing a sense of Brock’s consistency in his transition efforts and his confidence on a game to game basis. He has an uncanny knack for quick decisions when he senses gaps in that pressure while in motion. It gives him the capacity to have the confidence to skate into a sea of sticks and still adjust to little pokes by changing the passing angle and giving that backhanded saucer to the tape to a teammate who barely squeezed past a defender on the far side. Even the smallest passing windows come across as routine sometimes to him because of that control and sensing of pressure. He finished with a goal and an assist and it came across as a very regular outing for the smart, transition defender. There was one moment where he got caught out of position at his own blueline and was left to reach and hope to not get called for a penalty. Adjusting and owning those moments matter too.