C--Casey Mittelstadt
19 yrs. old
6'1" 201 lbs.
2017, eighth-overall
Career stats: 6 games | 1 goal | 4 assists | 5 points | +1
Buffalo Sabres rookie center Casey Mittelstadt has rated very high in a number of prospect rankings and is considered one of the top NHL prospects for 2018-19. Just a few examples of who placed him where:
--NHL Network ranked him fifth amongst the top 50 prospects of 25-and-under
--Steve Kournianos of @TheDraftAnalyst has him rank fourth on his list for the Sporting News
--Scott Wheeler of The Athletic has Mittelstadt ranked fourth
--TSN has him fifth
and so on and so on.
Mittlestadt was selected by the Sabres with the eighth-overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft and they were thrilled he dropped to them there. Buffalo general manager Jason Botterill, overseeing his first ever draft as a GM, told the media after the first round that they were "ecstatic to get [Mittelstadt]," When asked if he thought Mittelstadt would be there at eight, a big, cat-that-just-ate-the-canary, ear to ear smile came across the rookie GM's face. "Isn't that the cliché?" he asked with an internal chuckle in response. "You've got to say, 'Oh I couldn't believe that he was there?"
Botterill knew exactly what he was getting in Mittelstadt and was thrilled he dropped to the Sabres at No. 8. The prevailing theme he and his scouts saw with Mittelstadt may have been summed up nicely (albeit maybe just a tad overzealously) by Wheeler when he wrote last weekend that the Eden Prarie, Minnesota high school graduate has a "rare mix of [being] already-incredibly-talented and yet still super, super raw."
Mittelstadt's talents were laid out by Wheeler in another piece as part of a 10-part series he did for The Athletic called, "The Gifted," where he analyzed top young prospects "that [are] so uniquely different from everyone else in approach or in ability, that you can’t help but notice [them]."
As he dove into his detailed analysis complete with videos, Wheeler pointed out that Mittelstadt's hands are high on his stick giving him maximum maneuverability and that he makes very difficult plays look easy. Some other traits that Mittelstadt displayed were his "composure" and "anticipation" and how the plays he's a part of are "dictated by [his] contribution." He's "always the biggest factor in the plays that happen when he’s on the ice," wrote Wheeler.
Wheeler highlighted one of Mittelstadt's most important attributes when he documented how the teenager always pushes things to the center of the ice using a number of videos as examples. Including Mittelstadt's first NHL goal seen here via sabres.com:
"In that situation," wrote Wheeler, "a lot of young players probably stop up. They look for the cross-ice pass or put the puck back down low when their net-front option releases from the defensemen to open up. But Mittlestadt isn’t a lot of young players. He’s thinking: 'attack the middle' and as soon as the puck touches his stick he turns and takes two strides to do that."
The raw part of Wheeler's assessment, as well as Botterill and his scouts, is obvious for most teenagers--the need to add strength to play at the NHL level. The 5'11" 199 lb. Mittelstadt was infamously shown being unable to do a pull-up at the NHL combine, which isn't a big deal when you have the talent an hockey IQ he has, but it was fodder for a while.
However he landed in a good program a the University of Minnesota and played in a rugged Big-10 conference on a Golden Gophers team where the opposition's focus was almost solely on him every game. He figured it out against bigger, stronger, older opponents and excelled in the process with 11 goals and 30 points in 34 NCAA games. He furthered the notion that he can hang with the big boys scoring with five points (1+4) in six NHL games for the Sabres last season.
But Mittelstadt knows what needs to be done and this off season was dedicated to getting stronger. “For me it was getting in the weight room, obviously; everyone knew that,” he said to the media at at the NHL Players’ Association’s rookie showcase event last weekend. “Skate as much I can and work on a lot of little things, but my main goal was definitely getting stronger.”
The strength will eventually come as he fills out his frame and adds muscle leaving lack of experience as the only real drawback to his game right now. Apparently that aspect doesn't look like too much of a problem for Botterill as he traded away top-six center Ryan O'Reilly and has Mittelstadt slated at the No. 2 center on the team. Botterill won't throw the rookie completely to the wolves as he acquired veteran center Patrick Berglund in the O'Reilly trade with the St. Louis Blues but the fact that they traded O'Reilly, whom some look at as a No. 1 center, shows the confidence they have in Mittelstadt.
Maybe the most important aspect of Mittelstadt is found in his character and composure he displays on and off the ice. Botterill talked of Mittelstadt's conviction when the youngster decided to finish his high school career at Eden Prairie before heading back to the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers prior to the draft. Playing for the Golden Gophers, Team USA at the World Juniors and the Sabres made for five teams in a year but it didn't phase Mittelstadt.“I completely enjoyed it,” Mittelstadt said of his journey (via Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times.) “It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind, I think, moving and going back and forth places. But I’ve loved it, so I won’t complain too much.”
At the 2015 NHL Draft the Buffalo Sabres selected center Jack Eichel second overall to be the future No. 1 center on the club and traded for O'Reilly to be No. 2. Three years later Eichel is the franchise center and O'Reilly has been replaced by Mittelstadt. Both of those are very good one-two punches but in a few years, that Eichel/Mittelstadt duo may be amongst some of the best in the league. It all starts this season with Mittelstadt cutting his teeth in a full time No. 2 center role. And I don't think the 19 yr. old will have much difficulty with either the high expectations placed upon him or the transition.
Building the 2018-19 Buffalo Sabres roster:
LW, Conor Sheary /
C, Jack Eichel /
RW, Sam Reinhart
______________/
C, Casey Mittelstadt / _________
LHD, Marco Scandella /
RHD, Rasmus Ristolainen
G, Carter Hutton
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