One of the best thinkers of the game in this draft comes from the QMJHL; Moncton’s Caleb Desnoyers!
Analysis:
Caleb Desnoyers is going to be the hope for a very lean year for the QMJHL, who may only have one or two players going in the first round. Thankfully, like most of the hopes that have rested on his shoulders this year; he’s more than willing to keep those hopes alive.
After all, he’s probably already seen where it needs to go, and already put them into play.
Desnoyers comes to us from the Moncton Wildcats; a program that has brought us players like PA Parenteau, Brad Marchand (for like a year before he was traded to Val D’Or), Ivan Barbashev, and Corey Crawford, and has been the straw that stirs the drink for the club as they’ve embarked on one of their most successful campaigns to date; with the League trophy in their sights. Desnoyers has been a major part of all that through one simple thing; playmaking.
Lots of playmaking.
Desnoyers’ passing and stick skills are exceptional; able to get passes to his teammates with a soft, deft touch which are paired with a level of vision that feels almost like cheating. His ability to drop passes into the dangerous areas of the ice and onto a teammate’s stick are truly something to behold; wherever he is on the ice, and even if he’s well-covered, he always seems to find the tiniest seems imaginable and manages to thread the puck straight through to other Wildcats, which usually ends with a goal scored. He’s also very good at fooling defenders; either using his skating to bring a player intentionally wide to open up for a pass, or just as comfortable cutting into the middle of the ice to try and force the defense to protect the net…creating ice for a follow up chance that might now be screened or the goalie may be down and out.
He’s also a major threat on defense; Desnoyers is well aware he’s a big kid, and takes ample advantage of that by planting himself directly in the lanes of any forechecker he’s assigned to, and with his craftyness with his stick, has turned himself into an active nightmare of a transition player; able to turn a surefire shooting lane into a chance headed the other way in a very short amount of time thanks to his ability to read the play as it’s happening and catch forwards trying to be cute with him.
Combine all of that into a 6’2, 172-pound frame..and you have a player that draws a ton of attention for the Wildcats, and uses that attention as a weapon; he knows he’s gonna do something, and so does the defender…and he catches them looking just about every time.
But, like any prospect at this point in the draft; he’s got his warts. He’s got decent skating, but not elite speed like a lot of his peers; he’s great in transition with the puck, but that’s because he’s likely finding a seam to open up the defense. He himself does not have the speed to break out consistently, and when he does it’s never one where he’s leaving the defenders in his wake. The big area of improvement for him, more than speed, is his shot. Desnoyers is an extremely pass-first kind of player, and as a result his ability to use that creativity himself is actually somewhat limited by a somewhat middling release. He can definitely wire it to the net; his accuracy isn’t the concern, rather it’s the power he gets underneath it that can be a bit disappointing.
He’s got the ability to put a dangerous shot through, but it’s clear this is an area of his game that needs development focus. Another point of improvement is his play recognition. While Desnoyers can see the ice very well, he’s sometimes getting caught trying to force passes into the middle of the ice without thinking of who’s actually there, meaning he can give the puck up in trying to force offense out of his teammates.
Further; there is a lot of consternation about just how good at defense he actually is; plenty of scouts have praised his efforts, Smaht Scouting specifically pointed them out as a weakness; citing his effort being lower in his own end than they’d prefer, and FC Hockey referred to it as something he struggled with early on and then showed a lot of growth over the course of the season. I think that FC Hockey’s version of events jives more with what I’ve seen of him. His hustle is unquestionable, but it’s clear as the year went on he was both trusted with more and more was asked of him, and he rose to that occasion beautifully. But, like a lot of prospects at this level, he struggled a bit at showing where his strengths were consistently.
If drafted, Desnoyers will need to try and unlock the full power of his shot through further playing time in Moncton or in the AHL, and show that early concerns about his defense were just the result of small samples sizes.
As for whether or not I’d draft him; I do like how his game has progressed; especially when it comes to his playmaking, but he’s going to have to be a much more assertive player as he jumps from junior to the professional game. If he can do that one thing, he can go from a really solid playmaker to a game changing play driver. He’s too talented to stay at merely “force multiplier”; it’s all a matter of if he can figure out the next gear that keeps a player like him as a major force in the NHL.
The Rankings
Ranked 7th by NHL Central Scouting among North American Skaters
Ranked 9th by EliteProspects.net
Ranked 6th by TSN’s Bob McKenzie
Ranked 7th by TSN’s Craig Button
Ranked 22nd by The Hockey News’ Tony Ferrari
Ranked 6th by McKeen’s Hockey
Ranked 5th by FC Hockey
Ranked 5th by DailyFaceoff.com
Ranked 8th by DobberProspects
Ranked 14th by Smaht Scouting