A versatile and effective scorer for this American team, Heinrich’s finishing touch and assertiveness with the puck made him a key contributor to his team’s offence throughout the combine. As a puck carrier, Heinrich often looked to attack from the high-danger areas of the offensive zone using strong puck protection and puck handling to create separation while working his way to the middle of the ice. Off the puck, he was also effective at positioning himself to be a shooting threat from in between the dots and after receiving the puck, didn’t hesitate to fire a quick shot at the net or when there was open space, drifting closer towards the net to get a better look. His shot had some kick to it but it was the placement and release that made it so dangerous, beating goaltenders over the shoulder or right over the pad and deceivingly changing the angle of the shot at the last second.

After attacking with a shoot-first mentality early in this first period, Heinrich was finally rewarded with the opening goal after keeping the puck on a 2-on-1 opportunity and rifling it past the blocker of the Canadian netminder. He continued to drift into open space as a puck carrier and let off a quick shot where he did a nice job at being able to change the angle of his shot whether it was through body positioning or puck placement which in turn allowed him to effectively get the puck through traffic and onto the net on multiple occasions. He came up big for his team later in the second period when he scored back-to-back goals to erase the 4-2 Canadian lead and pick up the hat-trick on the final day.

Landon Heinrich was another one of those archetypical players who have some range to their game, protect the puck well, and can remain a scoring threat from several different locations on the ice. I was impressed with his ability to fire pucks on net in motion, shooting off one leg as he stepped into his shots, the puck popped off his stick, and with the long reach, he was able to shoot around outreached defenders and change his shooting angle if needed. 1-on-1 he showed some ability to pull pucks through feet and sticks, around his man, creating pockets of space as a result as he moved up the ice. He was able to build a decent degree of speed working around the perimeter to step around defenders, using his frame once more to endure body contact long enough to create some separation and slip away with time and space.