Projection: Top Pair All Situations Defender
Projectable Skills: Defensive IQ and Transition play
Development Opportunities: Exploring offensive rush situations

In Geras, you have the best defensive defenseman in the draft class. He is such a natural skating athlete that he uses his fluidity and skating power to anticipate routes, aggressive squash zone entries, and quickly moves pucks to teammates in motion to attack the other way. He is truly a monster at one on one rush defensive play. Offensively, he was beginning to experiment more in transition as he has the skating ability to push up ice and get himself into shooting lanes. Overall, his best elements are his skating stride and using his stick to separate puck carriers from possession. There is offensive upside there to explore and I think he will end up being an all-situations number 2 defenseman who anchors your top pair and PK while also being able to run the PP if you don’t have any options of defenders with extra offensive flair. There are little things to tweak and fix in certain defensive situations too but what you’re getting is the kind of defender every Memorial Cup hopeful is craving.

I’ve had a bit of a tougher time communicating this year what kind of player and upside I think Joqquin has as far as his importance to a lineup at the next levels, but I may have found a good comparison. I’ve often heard from WHL programs that they truly focus on the offensive potential of a player when it comes to taking high-end lineup players. They want those offensive instincts to come to fruition on the scoresheet and bring fans into the building. I get it. Joaquin isn’t the player who is taking the chances offensively with end to end rushes, forcing possession, or making his defense partners cover for him as he takes risks. As a stylistic comparison that folks might understand, Joaquin reminds me of players like Mattias Ekholm, Jake Muzzin, and most accurately Chris Tanev. They are often the underappreciated backbone of teams who are blocking shots, killing penalties, and making outlet passes with efficiency. Joaquin is so good at recognizing pressure in the defensive zone, adjusting, and finding his D partner or delaying to make a timed pass to his outlet up the middle. I don’t think his play goes unnoticed with the Edge team though. I’m sure they know how valuable he is. There are certainly situational moments to clean up but his defensive reads and his active stick defensively make him such a joy to watch play hockey.

At this point, he’s the most explosive and well-rounded two-way defenseman in the CSSHL U15 Prep. He closes gaps, finishes with physicality, understands passing and shooting lanes, and delivers a quick first step and strong wrist shots from the point. He certainly leans towards outlet passing over end-to-end rushes and strong wrist shots in traffic vs one-on-one dangles, but the details and efficiency of his play are tough to ignore.

If you are in the market for a defender who can match up defensively in all situations against top-tier offensive players then Geras is your hockey player. He’s got the anticipation to cut off skating lanes, the stride power and balance to adjust to agile attackers, and the understanding of systems and quick decision making to make quick cuts and retrievals look effortless. You’ll find him with his head up, making strong outlet passes to the tape or softer little backhand lead passes to his forwards. In the offensive zone, he can step up physically in a pinch, play catch with his wingers on the PP, and can sometimes use his quick release half backswing snapshot to get pucks hard and heavy on net. If it helps the understanding, I think he’s the Miro Heiskanen of the CSSHL U15 Prep division as a stylistic comparison. What I mean is, his value in stabilizing your blueline is higher than his offensive numbers will be. While others might grab those top PP minutes or show up on the highlight reels more often, Geras will be a coach's dream for matchups.

He played very confident in the games I watched of him this weekend which isn’t necessarily a surprise to me. Last season you saw different flavours of his play sometimes depending on his deployment and situation. Sometimes he was very active where others he was move reserved. He’s a tremendous skater and builds power and mobility with ease through the neutral zone. He makes smooth D to D passes in motion and has a lot of the fundamentals of play down quite well. I wouldn’t be surprised if he spent the entirety of the year trying to expand his repertoire of creativity off the rush because sometimes his choices end up being based on power, and finish in predictable ways. His heavy shot can hit a goaltender in the chest and negate the chance. There’s so much to work with for Geras and he should be one that scouts keep tabs on the entire season near the top of the draft. His power and mobility on the backend are assets teams covet highly.