Thomas Rousseau:
Projection: Bottom 9 Forward
Strengths: Hockey IQ, Puck control, Versatility
Weaknesses: Strength, Size, Patience
Analysis:
Thomas Rousseau is an incredibly versatile undersized forward. In
every situation of the game, his immense amount of hockey IQ allows
him to be an effective player on the ice. At five on five, he is
excellent at supporting his teammates along the wall, being an option
for an easy breakout pass, and controls his opponents’ options with an
active stick and continuous head on a swivel, dissecting their options
and the best way he can eliminate the most dangerous one. Offensively, he
is very good at making quick one-touch passes in transition, being a
hard-checking F1 or supportive F2, and finding the open ice to be an
option for a pass, deflection, or rebound. On the power play, he is
good at gaining the opponent’s blueline while being effective with his
hockey IQ and vision, playing either the bumper or flank. On the
penalty kill, he again leverages his defensive attributes along with
his strong faceoff prowess to be a reliable PKer.
His flaws are unfortunately out of his control for the most part. The
main thing is his size, being able to remain a super versatile forward
in the next level won’t be the easiest thing to do because of his
height. He also lacks a significant amount of muscle, but it will just
take a few seasons and summers of developing to overcome that. The
easiest thing he can develop in his game is a little more patience
with the puck. There are times that he touches the puck as soon as he
gets it, whereas if he waited just a second or two longer there would
have been a better, more dangerous option available to him. In all
honesty, he is very capable of becoming a very good NHL player, he
just requires time to develop his body to the level needed to become
that player.