A three assist camp showing from Luke Warrener highlighted the playmaking and puck moving prowess that he brought to the table. He was an excellent distributor who wasted little time firing passes over to the open man, not allowing the defenders any opportunities to close him down and steal the puck off his stick. In addition to how quickly he moved the puck off his stick I was impressed with the deft touch he showed on the passes, he had a great feel for his passes and was able to perfectly weigh them and set his teammates up in stride to make their next move. He did well to find space in the offensive zone and set up for a one-timer on numerous occasions, posing a constant shooting threat that the opposition had to watch out for.

Luke Warrener was apart of a strong defensive crop for the Buffalo Jr. Sabres throughout the Port Huron Silver Stick, combining some great size with athleticism along with puck skills and decision making to be effective all around the ice. His reach and mobility managing gaps allowed him to get sticks on pucks, denying zone entries, and being quick to manage the puck off of turnovers, forwarding it up ice to an open man for a quick, easy transition. His size let him take up plenty of ice around the crease in the defensive end, picking off passes, removing bodies, and standing ground to protect the goalmouth was another strength of his. In the offensive zone he sought out some nice cross-ice lanes on occasion and was able to connect on some quick passes to open teammates, setting up some dangerous scoring chances in the process. His slapshot from the line was another element of his game that stood out. Often the slapshot isn’t much of a point of interest of mine, but he had some good power, accuracy, and was able to generate some rebound chances as a result.warrene

It wasn’t the perfect game for Warrener but overall, he looked like a very stable and reliable defender on the back end in this one. The 6’3 defender asserted himself heavily into plays along the boards showing smart instincts to use his body to eliminate puck carriers by pinning them to the boards allowing for supporting teammates to scoop up the loose pucks along with a strong defensive stick to poke pucks up the boards and away from the net. Although his passing ability was a bit inconsistent when it came to longer range plays, I thought his first passes up the ice were crisp when he kept them simple and short which is what he did on his team’s second goal to turn a loose puck at the defensive blue line into an odd-man rush the other way.

This was a quiet, if not uneventful, game for Luke Warrener but he was effective and did everything that was needed of him. He was very effective on the defensive side of the puck, making intelligent decisions and effectively taking away the options of puck carriers and using his reach extremely well to knock the puck loose and open up a battle for possession. He closed the play down well and while taking the pass away with his stick he also took away the shooting option with his body position, stifling the opposition and making it easy for him to close in and win the puck. He was a quick passer of the puck once he gained possession and moved play up the ice well, and his passes were weighted perfectly to set his teammates up for their next move.

In this game I got to see a bit more of an offensive side of Luke Warrener than I have seen previously, getting open for a couple of one-timer opportunities from the top of the circle. He got up in the offense and was decidedly more involved, receiving the puck and quickly distributing and following up his passes with pace to get in and support his teammates. His movement was solid to set himself up for shooting chances, he was getting looks from all over the top of the zone and used his skating to open up lanes to get the puck through. His work defensively was pretty straightforward, he was effective applying his long reach to poke checking the puck carriers and getting his stick in passing lanes to break up plays. It was a simple and effective game that Warrener played, but his involvements were noticeable.

Luke was running the point on the PP early on and using his lengthy reach to move pucks side to side. Since he is obviously much larger than many of the players on the ice, it meant that when he built momentum, he could power around the back of the net and through a few layers with noticeable ease. I think he still does need to work on the first few steps of agility and explosiveness but there is certainly some big potential to unlock. He rushed the puck through the neutral zone and tried to dangle a defender wide as well. Throw in a rocket of a slapshot which missed the net wide and seemed mistimed and you get a picture of the potential. I’m sure many scouts are going to be keeping tabs on his progression.