Putting himself in the right place was something that Ryan Lee did very well, be it through reading the play or a burst of speed he was able to find himself where he needed to be more often than not. He was one of the chief distributors of the puck and it seemed like whenever the puck ended up in the net for the Jr Kings, Ryan Lee had something to do with it. Not only did he distribute the puck well, but he showed creativity in his passing attempts and looked for unconventional ways to try and get the puck past the defenders. His hold up play was great and he did well to draw defenders in and take their attention away from his teammates so they could get into dangerous areas that he could feed the puck into. His penalty kill work and forechecking ability were excellent, he got the puck off opposing sticks and ate up plenty of time from the powerplay. He chased pucks down in the attacking zone and forced numerous turnovers that immediately resulted in high quality chances or goals for his team. He was constantly lurking around the front of the net and showed very keen instincts on when to dart out front and pounce on loose pucks and rebounds opportunities. He was the key part of their offense in my eyes and he was constantly buzzing, if he was getting on the puck they were able to continue generating chances.

Lee’s quick strides allowed him to burst up the ice and get involved in transition plays, driving down lanes off the rush and timing his exits from the defensive zone to get a step behind the defence thus creating a good amount of odd-man rushes and one-on-one opportunities. Although there wasn’t a substantial amount of individual chance creation for Lee, I thought he had good moments as a puck carrier where he was able to swing wide on defenseman, controlling the puck over the offensive blue line and setting up possessions for his team.