Projection: Top-Four Defender with Offensive Upside

Strengths: Mobility, Puck-Rushing, Gap Control

Development Opportunities: Incorporation of Tools

Frost was part of that Connecticut Jr. Rangers that disbanded early on in the year before making the jump to the M17 Québec league where I thought he was playing well below his weight class. He was able to take over shifts there, leveraging his mobility to rush pucks up ice and create dangerous individual scoring chances for himself by turning around defenders. It was hard to gauge how well he defended given he did so little of it in M17 and against weaker competition, but his play ag the QMJHL Cup against the best of his age group helped solidify him as one of the best defenders in this class. I think he’ll need more development time than most due to the path he was forced to take this year, but I think the upside is worth it for a player like Frost.

Frost is a defender with plenty of developmental runway due to his size and solid physical tools. Some of his best moments at camp when he was able to leverage these aforementioned tools to get pucks out of danger and up ice quickly, primarily on retrievals where he was able to separate from forechecking pressure through crossovers below the goal line and wheeling the puck out from behind the net to initiate breakout. He made the most out of his puck touches in transition, maintaining his momentum through receptions with his head up to assess his options and make quick outlets up ice which allowed his linemates to play with pace. He took the space that was offered to him in the offensive zone, jumping down from the line when he realized an opportunity looking to make himself a backdoor passing option. He’ll need to work on his play under pressure, but he does have plenty of the tools that could make him a viable QMJHL prospect.

The large majority of my notes on Frost consisted of his strong gap control while defending off the rush, which allowed him to deny plenty of zone entries and either force offsides or dump ins behind him. He also flashed a physical side to his rush defending from time to time by keeping puck-carriers to the outside and finishing them off with a hip check along the boards to remove them from the puck. His contributions in the offensive zone came mostly through aggressive pinches down low and even had a couple of impressive give and go sequences off the line that got him some puck touches low in the zone.