I come away more and more impressed with Sullivan and his potential with each passing month. He possesses the size and the skating ability to be a defender at the next level, and the way he uses it to kill plays all over the ice is very promising. He was leveraging his lateral mobility along with his reach to close in quickly on puck-carriers in the neutral zone, often providing a physical edge as well to veer them off their route to either knock them off the puck or force them to dump it in. Even when he got behind the play, he was able to utilize his long stride to recover and backtrack on puck-carriers to nullify odd-man rush opportunities. He broke up several cross-ice feeds while defending the rush, and at times was able to locate the loose puck afterwards, skate it out of danger and move it up to a forward for a controlled entry.

A big stay-at-home defender who knows how utilize his size to come out on top in physical battles. Sullivan showed good awareness in the defensive zone by keeping his head on a swivel and getting his stick into lanes to block passes to dangerous areas. He even flashed some intriguing offensive capabilities that I hadn’t seen from him prior, most notably as a puck-carrier off the rush where he was able to attack the zone wide and use his reach to get a puck around the stick of a defender and feed the middle of the ice.

Sullivan’s mature defensive game was good enough at this camp to earn him a spot on Nova Scotia’s final roster for the upcoming QMJHL Cup. He was one of the better one on one defenders throughout the entire event, using an active stick and strong backwards skating to stick with attackers and either poke pucks loose or get his stick into shooting lanes. He was anticipating the play very well in the defensive zone, which allowed him to use his reach to cut off plays below the goal line. Sullivan did a good job keeping his head on a swivel while defending as well, allowing him to keep track of any incoming threats and block any passes to dangerous areas. The puck-moving is still a work in progress, as there were a few bobbles without pressure while he was skating up, but I think he’ll be a really strong shutdown player and penalty killer for Nova Scotia in October.

While he may not of contributed a whole lot on the offensive side of things, Sullivan’s defensive contributions were unmatched on both sides in this contest. The 6’1 and 170 lbs defender showed disciplined and intelligent in-zone defending throughout the game, guarding the front of the crease while keeping his head on a swivel to keep track of players around him. He was using his long reach to consistently get his stick into passing lanes to nullify any potential high-danger chances from the slot, while also using his body to block shots when the opportunity presented itself. There were also a couple of times in this game where Sullivan made a fantastic diving play on an odd-man rush to break up a cross-ice chance.