The crux of Berube’s game is his skating ability, which he used to positively impact play all over the ice throughout the tournament. He’s a player who really knows how to use his edgework to his advantage, especially on retrievals where he was able to anticipate pressure and turn away from it on a dime to initiate the breakout. He’s also a strong backwards skater who uses lateral crossovers to close in on attackers skating down the flank and cancelling them out along the boards and kill zone entries in the process. His play in the defensive zone was quite good as well, showing awareness down low to get his stick on pucks and thwart passes to dangerous areas of the ice. In the future I’d like to see him utilize his mobility more on the offensive side of things, especially from the offensive blueline where I thought he was a bit too trigger happy.

A defender who’s able to ride his edges very well as he navigates with the puck, which allows him to separate from defenders as he looks to move the puck up the ice. I noted him a few times for his timely activations down the boards in the offensive zone which allowed him to keep pucks alive and also engage himself in board battles that gave his time a numbers advantage in tight quarters. There were moments where he was able to leverage his skating in the offensive zone to walk the line and use some agile footwork to gain some separation from a checker to open up a shooting lane for himself in order to get pucks on net from the point.

I came away impressed with Berube’s overall toolkit and strong off-puck instincts which allowed him to be one of the camps more effective offensive defensemen. You could frequently find him activating off the rush, acting as the trailer option in transition and getting plenty of puck touches in the high slot. He possesses power in his skating stride as well as his crossovers which allowed him to pull away from forecheckers as he wheeled around the net on retrievals while also executing plenty of controlled exits and entries with his feet. He demonstrated some confidence with the puck on his stick from the offensive blueline and was able to get away from pressure using his agility and a series of head and shoulder fakes to get into secondary coverage. You definitely saw the confidence growing with every puck touch throughout camp and I look forward to keeping tabs on his progression throughout the year.

Berube played a simple yet effective game that allowed him to be one of the better defenders in the entire contest. He was using physical play along the end boards to kill the oppositions cycle plays, win puck battles and make quick outlets up the ice to initiate the breakout. I thought he some impressive sequences defending the rush as well by stepping up at the defensive blueline to deny zone entries and force dump ins on a consistent basis. He showed poise on his puck touches as well, especially below the goal line where he stayed calm in the face of pressure, would make a quick lateral move to create space for his hands and make an accurate outlet up the ice.

Berube was showing great confidence throughout this game and a willingness to jump into the play whenever the opportunity presented itself. He was consistently getting into good spaces up high off the rush to make himself a passing option, which allowed him to get off a few dangerous shots from the high slot. He was able to leverage his agility and mobility from the offensive blueline to shake some checkers to get down low in the offensive zone and attack downhill. His confidence really shone through in the third period when he baited in a forechecker in the defensive zone before putting the puck between his legs and getting around him before moving the puck up ice to a forward. Berube scored his teams 6th goal of the game in highlight reel fashion when he carried the puck end to end before firing a perfect backhand shot upstairs from below the circle.