Trae showed off his productive side by gathering nine goals and four assists over five games throughout the weekend. Three hat tricks can certainly make anyone sit up and notice. It is a bit more of a simplistic game but it certainly is effective. Go to the net, follow up chances, battle to good positioning, cut strong along the boards, and elevate pucks in tight. As a July birthday, and as a player who uses his size and strength already to be effective, I think Trae kept his team in the battle as a leader. He can muscle pucks away from players defensively, and push past them into the neutral zone too. That same power can certainly draw penalties or take them, depending on the situation. He’s a predominantly north-south player who is hard along the boards and drives the net. Those players can really impact games.

I think the theme of quite a few players on SaskEast is power and strength. It seems individually and collectively, they had more mature players on their roster and Trae fit that bill as well. At 5’11, 155 lbs, he uses stronger pushes off the rush to blast into the interior. I thought there were moments where I watched where off puck he was waiting to use that strength in bursts rather than applying pressure consistently. He’s someone who I certainly circled on my page, as I did with a number of players on this team, to double back on and get quite a few views on. I did not get to see most of the barn burner of an A-side semi-final game that occurred but the team lost 10-9 in overtime. Offensive explosion. Either way, I think Trae is someone who uses his natural strength to his advantage at this point and I want to see how his game continues to develop.