Playing a handful of games in a u17 league last season for the Vancouver NW Hawks AAA program, Jack Poole showed off some mature skating that clearly aided in his ability to hang with older competition. His usage of mohawk turns, backward crossovers, pivots, and stops, and starts made him incredibly tough to contain as he danced around the offensive zone and weaved his way into the middle of the ice with evasive puck handling and weight shifts between his edges. All his movements came with such great momentum and speed, coupled with soft puck touches, making him extremely dynamic and slippery. His agility would throw defensive systems into a panic at times, creating lots of ice downlow in the offensive zone for Poole to send pucks to quickly, with accurate and firm passes, creating brief moments of favorable numbers down by the opponents crease as he would draw defenders out of their position, and or force them to be caught puck watching. I’m always impressed seeing younger players play up an age group, regardless of what quality opponent, as it shows they have some ability to adapt to playing the larger and quicker opposition, in which Poole displayed, his ability is his next-level skating.

Poole plays a simple north/south game but it’s one that really put his tools to good use, and he always seems to make an impact. Poole is blessed with size and uses that length through his stride. He is never churning his feet which makes his pace deceptive and defenders that underestimate his speed are quickly left in the rearview mirror. There are not many bells and whistles in Poole’s game. He skates in straight lines and hangs around high danger areas. I do really like his playmaking abilities as while he is not overly creative, he always has a plan before gaining possession and makes smart decisions in service of possession.

He was credited with 4 points but I believe one of the assists was actually Jason Gao instead. Jack brings size, reach, length of skating stride, and lots of finesse for a person who can build exit speed very well. He’s one of the less aggressive top-end players on St G though and often doesn’t slip into the main character space as others can do. This lets him drift out wide, back pass, and set up others for the glory moments a bit more often than he elects to take them. Today, I really loved the speed and mobility of his cuts when under pressure. This allows him to be patient when circling the zone or finding space away from pressure to pass into the interior. His offensive tool kit though is quite full.