Projection: Top-6 Forward
Projectable Skills: Hockey IQ, Puck control
Development Opportunities: Agility

His motions are so controlled, purposeful, and detailed. He’s often playing on a line with someone who might drive play a little more with footspeed and be first in the forecheck so that Jacob can sit back and be more calculated in space. I like his game down the line to be a top-6 player especially if he has linemates with control and speed. In a possession driven system, Jacob will shine as he can pull pucks in tight areas, shoot with sneaky accuracy in motion, and shows quality vision to find players, sneak in positioning, and battle hard along the boards with good inside positioning. He’s a player with a lot of smart details in his game and if his footspeed and agility can improve to match the length of his stride and his ability to play at fullness of his reach, he’s going to excel.

After getting to see Jacob during the spring and the summer, the details of his puck control, strong battle along the boards, and his understanding of how to drift into off-puck shot lanes or give second effort to dig for pucks net front make him an interesting package with size, skill, and intellect. At this point, the biggest thing holding him back from being higher is seeing how much he can build on the speed and explosion of his pacing. High potential player indeed who is coming off a four goal performance.

There aren’t a lot of players eligible for the draft who use their wide wingspan to their advantage like Jacob does. Against the Flames team, Jacob’s pacing looked a little behind the action as he was caught chasing the play and wasn’t able to cause a ton of turnovers. Still though, with the puck on his stick he is able to navigate pressure laterally through the neutral zone with pull and drag moves and can bury backhanded shots in tight spacing. It is about finding the moments for him to use his reach and soft touch in goal scoring spaces most often. Those qualities were able to come about a bit more against BWC as he was able to get a few more zone entries. In one instance, he was able to pull a puck behind his hip pocket to make a lateral pass in traffic while in motion which shows his higher end puck touch. If his pacing and footspeed can continue to improve, his puck touch in scoring areas will only be intensified at higher levels. He has the length of stride and the balance to certainly trend up. A very fun player to keep an eye on.

While he wasn’t the leading scorer for Yale on this particular weekend, he was in my view the top forward for their squad. Offensively, he has a quick reactive stick to poke pucks loose, can slip into quality scoring areas off the rush, and uses his size and finesse playmaking to react quickly and find slip passes in motion when he draws the pressure. His impact on these games came from his finishing abilities though. He can really step into a well-placed wrist shot when he wants to. What I’ll be looking for from Jacob is for him to use his size and length of stride to be able to separate and quickly cut in and out of pressure. I have seen those glimpses of high-end vision and controlled passing, but now I want to see how much he can push the envelope to dominate against both quick and powerful opponents.

Our final standout of this article is Jacob Dumansky of Western Canada. I found what made Dumansky so effective was a lot of the same – but a lot of the same done well. Over-and-over he managed to gain the blueline with control, building speed in the neutral zone with some powerful crossovers to either skate the puck across the line, or receive a pass in stride, getting defenders turned around thanks to his overpowering speed, and finding enough time and space to snap shot on goal. He did this at least 4-or-5 times from wings. The shot quality was questionable at times, but he can shoot in step, find soft ice in offensive transition, and make himself an option. Considering by the time I was halfway through the game I could recognize Dumansky making these plays without even needing to double-check the number – I figured it was worth mentioning.

The clear number one forward option for Yale was the slick stickhandling presence of Jacob as he showed a bit of every offensive style category. He was jumping up on the forecheck and into shot blocking lanes, poking pucks loose and chasing them down in the neutral zone, skating away from pressure and smartly taking time off the clock on the PK, and found some prime scoring chances after stepping into transition gap space. I’ve seen him a few times now in the past few months and he comes across as a nice blend of finesse playmaking and finishing off chances when given the opportunity. The size, stickhandling, and situational awareness and adaptability as a long-style puck handler will make him quite desirable as a hockey prospect. He finished with two goals on the day.