In both his April and May mock drafts, TSN's Craig Button has had the Kings selecting Mississauga Steelheads right winger Owen Tippett. Indeed, there's good reason for LA to be intrigued if the 6'1" right-handed shot happens to be available with the 11th pick.
Tippett is a sniper through and through. He also appears to have the hunger to score that the best goal scorers have.
One NHL scout I spoke to lauds Tippett's willingness to attack high-danger areas to get his goals. He also rates the 18-year-old as the purest goal scorer in the Draft -- over the also-hyped Eeli Tolvanen. "Tippett is for real."
NHL.com's Mike G. Morreale compared Tippett to Phil Kessel recently. In this excellent spotlight on the sniper, it's also noted that Tippett is comfortable playing on either wing.
Brock Otten from the fabulous OHL Prospects just released a list ranking the top OHL prospects in this year's Draft. His nuanced review of Tippett's game is worth a full reading -- this is just an excerpt:
Tippett has the best shot of any player in the OHL...Everything about it is elite. Lightning quick release that consistently catches defenders and goalies off guard, even though they know his reputation for shooting at any time. Great velocity on his wrist shot. Tremendous ability to protect the puck and use defenders as screens coming down the wing. And the utmost confidence to shoot from anywhere and everywhere.
Tippett also possesses great speed. Once he gets going down the wing, he's very hard to stop, especially because you're also trying to take away space from him so that he can't get off his shot...
So you've got an explosive sniper with size. In a lot of ways, I see Tippett possessing a Peter Bondra-esque type of ability and potential at the NHL level...
I think the real area of concern is his hockey sense and ability to utilize his teammates. (OHL Prospects)
I do get the feeling that he might one day be a candidate for NHL's "Cy Young Award" -- for the scorer with the widest goal-to-assist ratio -- watching Tippett's highlights, I was struck by how often his assists came from rebounds off his shots.
But Kessel. Bondra. That's 799 goals and counting. However, The Hockey News puts forward another significant concern with Tippett's game:
Tippett has the best shot and is the best natural goal scorer in the draft, but red flags abound. "Is he Patrick Kane or is he Robbie Schremp?" said a scout. "He is 100 percent accountable 15 feet from the net, but the further he gets and the further outside the middle of the ice he gets, it gets lower."
(The Hockey News excerpt from May 29, 2017 Draft Preview issue, available now.)
The total package, however, is tantalizing. Rob Blake and company will be fortunate if Tippett falls to them.
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These highlights feature Tippett's (#74) ability to pick corners and his quick release in tight spaces:
Now, let's look at his skating. In this clip, he blows by 21-year-old OHL Defenseman of the Year Darren Raddysh:
This is the first prospect profile in a series that I'll be doing which will spotlight possible Kings first-round draft picks, all leading up to the Draft on June 23rd.
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