A player who has been beloved and maligned for being enormously talented and yet caught in a nightmare draft year. Let’s meet with Roger McQueen!
Analysis:
This is going to be a very weird draft. A good portion of the previously can’t miss players that would’ve likely had this Top 5 set in stone got hurt at various points throughout the season, and it’s left the consensus on who should go when completely blown open to wild speculation.
Perhaps none more than what’s going to happen to Roger McQueen.
McQueen, a native of Saskatoon, is definitely built in a way that the size-happy Bruins fanbase would enjoy; at 6’5 and 190 lbs, he’s only got a few extra pounds to put on in order to be considered “NHL sized”, which I’m sure is quite tantalizing. Being big does not pigeonhole him into being a bruiser however; he’s actually quite deft with his hands, and can move nimbly and deftly when in tight spaces around the ice in order to both keep control of the puck as well as open up a lane to shoot or pass through, something that his teammates very much appreciate when he can deposit a shot over to them in short order.
He uses all of that space his long stick affords him to turn his possessions into elaborate games of keepaway; frustrating defenders to no end as he maneuvers entirely independently of their backcheck thanks to his stickhandling, and the power he can put behind that shot is not just impressive, but nearly effortless; he surprises a lot of players with how quickly he can pick a corner, and had he completed a season he likely would’ve been neck and neck with Berkly Catton in the points race.
And of course, if he ever has to use his size? He’s more than willing to go throw a big hit or absorb some punishment out in front of the net. His fearlessness in net-front duty helps him glide effortlessly into the opposing defense and begin to bring goalies on a dark, dark path that leads to them looking foolish.
All that makes for a player that, when he’s playing, can be an active nightmare to defend; he becomes impossible to move or maneuver against, he’s got the passing lanes scouted already, and he can shoot with the best of them in short and slick order. It says something that even if he’s played less than 20 games this year, he was well over a point per game, and was nearly a point per game in his sophomore season with the Wheat Kings.
That said, he is not a perfect prospect by any stretch of the imagination, and while he does have warts in his game that should be corrected as he plays; a lot of it has been eclipsed by the fact that almost his entire season was eaten by a back injury.
From a pure skills and mechanics side; consistency with him has been his bugbear; he CAN use his big body to bruise his opponent, but sometimes he’ll just settle for a pokecheck instead. He CAN step up into plays and use his explosive speed to join plays in time to force his opponent to either rethink their attack or adjust into defending a transition chance…but sometimes he figures he’s got enough speed and stops moving his feet; using his hands to try and create chances that just aren’t there.
It’s this kind of frustrating inconsistency in utilizing his tools to the best of their ability that has cast some serious doubts among scouts that his ability to make plays isn’t entirely dependent on being a 6’5 teenager; something that will become infinitely less of a strength in the NHL where any player could be built like a mac truck and plays like they want you dead on a deeply personal level.
I don’t believe that’s entirely true having seen a good amount of his body of work, but I do agree that he can be a little “float”-y in games, and that’s something you will pay for in blood in the league.
But onto that injury.
At first, McQueen’s injury was simply known as “Back Injury”; which was initially was rumored to be a slipped disc, but was clarified later to be Spondylolysis, or a Pars Fracture of the Spine, which can be quite dangerous, but is quite common in both contact and non-contact sports where forced spine extension is a part of the deal (Gymnasts and O-linemen are frequently the victims of this), and while it usually does require a brace, physical therapy, and plenty of rest, it is usually treatable without surgery, and from his direct correspondence with local journalists, it appears he never needed it.
Doesn’t quite matter to scouts however; as people heard the “Back injury” part and immediately began to back away at full speed, as those have a terrifying habit in the NHL of robbing players of their best years, which…is fair! Unfortunately for this young man, any of the things I talked about before the injury were marred by his inability to play any more than 20 games this season. He could’ve been working on all of that before today, but that injury robbed him of the ability; effectively leaving us with an extremely small number of games in the WHL, and a short and disappointing playoffs against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
If the Bruins choose him, they will need to instill both a sense of urgency and a better sense of what his physical attributes can get him when it comes to creating offense and involving himself defensively. They’ll also likely want to make absolutely certain his medical records say that his fracture has 100% healed.
McQueen is the “high risk, high reward” player of this draft. The things he knows how to do well are very, very good; his hands are good, his skating is up to par, his shot is strong, and he’s built like an NHLer. You could even make the argument that many of his critiques are stuff that actually getting to play hockey games for an entire year can hone. The issue is…well…he lost almost an entire year to that back injury, and that back injury will hang over him like a battle axe if he ever reaggrivates it or it becomes something worse.
Personally, while I can definitely see the upsides of this young man, I think the more mechanical issues he has would’ve been something that were at best nitpicks had he played a full season; we would’ve seen the full breadth of his play and be able to contextualize it against his massive growth spurt and his play over the course of the year…and we never got that.
It’s entirely possible he returns to Brandon and absolutely wrecks shop next year, and then goes to the AHL and does the same; he is completely fearless of any punishment taken while maneuvering the puck like a pro, it’s entirely within the realm of possibility that this is a fluke and he turns out to be fine. But the uncertainty is a killer in a league that likes certainty.
I definitely think he’ll make a team happy, I just don’t know if Boston is that team.
Rankings
- Ranked 8th by NHL Central Scouting among North American Players
- Ranked 5th by EliteProspects.com
- Ranked 7th by TSN’s Bob McKenzie
- Ranked 5th by TSN’s Craig Button
- Ranked 17th by The Hockey News’ Tony Ferrari
- Ranked 9th by McKeen’s Hockey
- Ranked 6th by FloHockey’s Chris Peters
- Ranked 8th by FC Hockey
- Ranked 9th by DailyFaceoff.com
- Ranked 9th by Recruit Scouting
- Ranked 12th by DobberProspects
- Ranked 12th by Smaht Scouting