Balcar immediately caught my eye for his physical tools, mainly his skating. Every stride was long and powerful, and he had the four-way mobility that I'm always looking for as a baseline skill in defenders. His feet enabled him as a puck carrier, as he possessed the lateral mobility to sidestep oncoming pressure and the straight-line skating to push play forward if the opportunity arose. Justin's footwork was the primary element I noticed in his game, as it helped him gain separation from forecheckers and then make a controlled play up ice. There was some notable offensive involvement from the Jr. Knight, as he effectively used this same mobility to evade oncoming pressure and create shooting lanes to get pucks through, finding the back of the net off one of these point shots. He was active at rotating off the point into space, being aggressive on pinches to keep pucks in, and just chipping in offensively with practical plays. My initial assessment was that Justin has the physical characteristics of a defender who should get plenty of attention for the 2024 OHL Draft.

Justin was a force on the defensive side, applying hit after hit, defending his blueline and making zone entries difficult for the Waterloo squad. He was incredibly aggressive in the neutral zone, never sitting back and always looking to apply pressure and shut down transitions. I've typically noted Balcar for his mobility and involvement in the offensive zone, so it was great to see another element shine bright in this game.

There was a little bit of everything from Balcar. I thought he defended well, keeping attackers to the outside and neutralizing their efforts. After winning possession, Justin was confident, never panicking under pressure, showing some flashes of handling pucks around forecheckers to escape and buy time to find his outlet passes. On the offensive side of things, he was rotating down the wall, moving around the offensive zone and trying to spark offensive chances. It was just an all-around solid performance where he showed a wide variety of abilities in small spurts.