Projection: Top-6 Shutdown Center

Strengths: Playmaking, Vision, Defensive Play

Development Opportunities: Skating, Pace

Lazare’s intelligent and mature style of play makes him one of the easier projections to the league among the forward group this year. In the offensive zone he’s consistently looking to find ways to exploit defensive zone structures by deceptively hiding his intentions by using look offs, in turn creating space for his options before threading a pass through a seam to a dangerous scoring area. He’s as engaged as they come in the defensive zone, always supporting his defenders down low, handling zone rotations adeptly and helping initiate breakouts through strong positioning.

Lazare has a harder time playing to his strengths in open ice. While I don’t think has a bad skater by any means, he does have issues separating as a puck-carrier in transition. He often looks to slow things down in the offensive zone rather than playing with tempo, which worked quite well at the M18 level but can become predictable as he moves up the ranks.

The highly regarded forward has been trending up since the CCM Challenge, where he was excellent, and his strong showing tonight came as no surprise. Lazare was commanding plays, skating aggressively with constant movement, and seemed to be involved everywhere on the ice. He was consistently spotting and executing cross-ice passes that lead to high danger scoring chances. He plays a highly tactical game, using his strong lower-body strength to generate powerful strides that keep him a step ahead of his peers, making him a constant forechecking threat that can break down defenses with or without the puck. He’s extremely strong on his skates, he cruises the ice, uses his body to win puck battles and pushes opponents to the outside while both are in motion. What separates him is his ability to drive the offensive game through his playmaking and the constant threat he creates around the perimeter. He’s an intelligent, creative two-way forward who scans the ice constantly, and excels at finding teammates through seams and across layers of coverage He demonstrates strong maturity in his defensive game, backchecking and supporting his defenseman as a reliable third man low. I found Lazare really solid, and he might be the best two-way centerman in this class in my mind.