Not only was Norman the best defender on this Newfoundland squad, but I thought he was one of the best defenders throughout the entire event. The skating ability is the crux of his game, and he used it so effectively to impact the game positively in all three zones and tilt the ice in his teams’ favour whenever he was on the ice. His ability to escape pressure on both regroups and retrievals was the driving force behind his team’s transition game as he was consistently able to get pucks up the ice using his hands or his feet and generate plenty of controlled exits or entries as a consequence. As a puck-carrier in transition I thought he did a good job of not skating himself into problematic areas and utilizing slip or drop passes once he entered the offensive zone to get pucks to teammates in space. He showed tremendous poise with the puck on his stick at the offensive blueline, peeling back and using his lateral mobility to walk the line with his head up to assess his options and utilizing his hands to beat pressure up high if need be. His skating allowed him to cover plenty of ground while defending in transition, where he would often skate across the ice to gap up on puck-carriers, muscle them off the and initiate the counterattack for his team. It’s still early in the process, but Norman has made an early bidding to be my favorite defender in this entire draft class.

Norman’s skating ability was once again the driving force behind his positive play in this game. He had a handful of really strong plays defending the rush, most notably in the first period when he skated across the ice to close in on an attacker, outmuscle him off the puck and fire a quick pass up the ice that nearly sprung a teammate for a breakaway. His edgework allowed him to pull away from forecheckers with ease on his regroups, which then allowed him to burst into space and initiate some clean entries for Newfoundland.

Losing effort aside, Norman was one of the better players in this game thanks in large part to his high-end skating ability that allowed him to dictate play at times. He was so smooth on his retrievals and was able to beat forechecks with relative ease by scanning to anticipate the pressure and using his edges to explode out of his turns and move up the ice for either a controlled exit with his feet or an outlet up the ice. His puck-carrying was another positive aspect of his game, as he was one of the few Newfoundland players, both forward and defense, who could consistently gain the offensive line and set up offensive zone sequences. Norman also flashed poise with the puck along the offensive blueline, using a combination of head fakes and deceptive edgework to shake checkers and get himself down low in the zone for either a shot or a pass to an open teammate. His rush defending was impressive as well, as he was able to use strong backwards skating and lateral mobility to force attackers to the outside and thwart any attempts to the inside with an active stick.