As one of the biggest defenders already for this Saskatchewan class, Parker brings a safer simplicity to his approach to play. This came out in his ability to be strong defensively by poking pucks to the corner, staying with players physically on the outside, and making some retrievals look easier. I think his calm approach settles play very well but also his growth might come from being riskier, more decisive, and improving that explosion in his stride to take a few more chances. He showed a lot of the pieces of elements though from neutral zone carries, jumping on loose pucks, pulling pucks into better shooting lanes, and using his longer skating stride to his advantage. I’d love to see him filter in more risk into his play as he looks to improve.

The big, right handed defender played the left side and spent a lot of the game really squashing rush chances early or using his long strides to be first to retrievals and make sure pressure was behind his pacing. He can really cover a lot of ground in just a few strides while accelerating. I watched him fire some low snapshots wide and had better success pouncing on pucks while pinching and slicing into the slot for a release. Right off the bat, his skating gives him such a natural advantage and he often made a few plays seem simplistic. I’ll be doing my full one-on-one views of him eventually to see just how much upside is still untapped.