Strengths: Skating, Defense, Puck Rush Ability
Development Opportunities: Offensive rewiring

Charlie is no doubt one of the best natural skaters in this draft and has that size and defensive fearlessness to bring physicality and shut down play at higher ends. This season Charlie started exploring how to create offense through puck rushing scenarios but often it led to goaltenders squaring up to him knowing that a shot was coming. He has the physical tools to be a top defensive player in the league and if he’s willing to tweak and adapt to include pace changes, cut backs, and delays to his game, he could be an incredible two-way defender. A player’s willingness to be coached and better themselves is ultimately up to the player and the coach’s trust. At his best, he could shut down rush offense, turn play around, blast through layers of coverage, and then cut back to pass to a teammate as a trailer to set up structured offense or facilitate forwards. He certainly has that potential.

Against Shattuck St Mary’s, Charlie showed strong D to D passes, a willingness to shot block, and aggression to defend his net front area. The same trend continued in my view of the Bishop Kearney game as he wasn’t giving players easy routes to the net and was certainly stick swiping if they came too close. His footspeed is still powerful and he was able to power his way up the ice off rushes and ended up shooting from low percentage places quite often. I’d love for him to cut back and set up the offense or find lateral trailing teammates too. His outlet decisions were met with mixed results too as some of his passes landed right on opponents sticks. The natural abilities are clearly high end and evident but as he continues to grow it'll come through learning mistakes and refinement. If he can simplify some of his decisions, it should lead to more primary assists and less attempts for hero rush goals. He also was able to let go some heavy, heavy, heavy, one timer slapshots on the powerplay that gave bruises to the shot blockers for sure.

I’m not sure many of my scouting reports on Charlie this season are going to look very different. He’s such a natural and smooth skater which gives him room to play both defensively and offensively with how he can open and close space so quickly. He’s still experimenting with how to best attack off the rush and use that speed to his advantage. In the game against OHA, he got the puck poked away a few times, fired some shots on net with people in the lane and no teammates crashing the net, and sort of miscued some of his passing attempts too. I think the bar for someone like Charlie is so high because his natural floor is so high. With a bit more patience, I think his decision making could lead to a whole lot more offense in a quick amount of time. Defensively, he was making some rush breakups look easy and some simpler outlets very effectively. He also chose one moment to really time a huge hit through the chest and announce himself in that regard.

Charlie came in as one of the big fish as he has the size and skating to compete higher up. It is what led to his success in a top CSSHL program last year. His physical elements were on point as he was probably the strongest defender I saw at the event from a stride power and length angle. He can quickly recover, burst up the ice, and really push deeper in the zone with possession to challenge defenders. That type of game still is newer to him from what I saw last year and he seems more like a strong two-way candidate rather than a pure highlight reel end to end flash player. I’d truly be happy with strong defensive stops and excellent consistent transition work to the forward group. His shot gets excellent extension though and drives power through the release. It is more about the timing decisions than the velocity. Overall, I think he’s positioned to be a top-10 in the 2025 WHL Draft.

It really doesn’t take a genius to see how Charlie’s mature skating stride and confidence allow him to bring pucks up the ice by skating to space quicker than others. His approach off the rush is to weave through space until he gets enough of a step to try and burst past defenders wide and drive heavy net front. While I’m certainly glad to see him take more risks than last season, I do think he’s finishing these opportunities at a lower rate than he would like. He created ample chances for himself and a few others but I think he may have to shift the focus a bit towards trying to set up others in prime spots rather than looking for the end to end highlights every time. Either way, this is a good season for him to confidently experiment with different ways to create offense and find an approach that fits for him. He was moving pucks laterally on the PP well and it was a mixed bag sometimes with his shot decisions and passing accuracy. He will be one to watch as I’m sure he will be high on some folk’s lists and a bit more tempered on others. I think we are going to continue to see the unfolding of his approach though and I’m excited for what’s to come.

I thought this was a game which showed off both the upside and the errors that Charlie can continue to tweak and work on as he moves forward. It seemed like he was in autopilot at certain spots because when pucks would get cycled down to him at the point, there were moments he wouldn’t keep his head up to see whether the timing of the shot release went well with potential tips, traffic, or if teammates were driving for rebounds. It turned pucks quickly into low danger shot attempts. He’s such a powerful player and showed that even on one of the final plays of the game as he skated end to end and drove around the defenders to power the puck to the slot. He’s got the physical elements, the size, the power, but his improvements offensively and transitionally will come from the timing and the purpose behind his decisions with the puck. I’m excited for his potential growth and how he will explore offensively this season as a dominant skater.

Once again, it doesn’t take a genius to see the physical elements of Charlie’s which give him an obvious edge on the ice. His skating stride is extremely powerful, he can pinch quickly on the offensive blueline, and he has a strong low snap on net when he finds space to use it. While his physical elements give him that purposeful edge at the moment, there were some whiffed passes, some transition attempts which led to turnovers, and most of his chances I’d say weren’t in the high danger range. Still, his ability to protect the puck and drive play deeper into the zone with consistency has high value.

From a combination of size, power, length of stride, and ability to impact in all three zones, Charlie was one of the best. He had quick reversal plays along the boards, a huge hit while defending entries in open ice, and was driving play further and further into the zone as the game wore on. You got to see a couple end to end rushes, power moves to the middle and his ability to get off heavy wrist shots just from the snap alone. It wasn’t a pure clean game though as he flubbed a shot, allowed a couple players to get behind him off the rush, and a few other things but overall he came away as one of the strongest players overall which makes sense with how he most likely slots in for the upcoming WHL Draft.