I thought Messier was one of the more consistent and effective players for Team Bergeron throughout the event, showcasing a strong defensive acumen to go along with a projectable toolkit. My notes on him largely consisted of him making excellent plays while defending off the rush, maintain a strong gap to force puck-carriers to the outside, poking the puck off their stick and finishing them out along the boards. He also demonstrated some good anticipatory reads in the neutral zone, jumping passing lanes to disrupt transitional passes and kill rush plays as a consequence. He even flashed some confidence with the puck on his stick at the offensive blueline, using a head fake and a lateral cut to escape pressure at the line so he could attack into space downhill.

Messier played a quiet yet effective game throughout the tournament, utilizing his size and reach advantage to kill a ton of plays defensively and make quick plays with the puck. On retrievals he often deferred to his partner by drawing the forechecker to him before making a quick reversal to help facilitate the breakout. He made a series of great reads in the neutral zone to step up on puck-carriers and either kill a rush play with a sweeping stick check or force the attacker to dump the puck in behind him. Messier does possess some bobbling issues at this point in his development, which hinders him from being a true puck-moving defenseman, but there is a lot to like in his defensive game aside from that.

I wanted to highlight Messier here for being one of the only defenders who could keep the oppositions rush attack at bay. He showed strong backwards skating mechanics which allowed him to stay in front of puck-carriers, using his stick to thwart any chances to the middle and forcing them to congested areas along the boards. In the defensive zone he did a good job of closing out attackers by maintain a strong gap along the perimeter and angling them off the puck to help facilitate breakout opportunities.