Canucks’ top 5 at 5: We profile centre Casey Mittelstadt
Mittelstadt is taking college route, but has skills Canucks looking for
As we approach the 2017 NHL draft on June 23-24 in Chicago, The Vancouver Sun and The Province are profiling the top five candidates we believe could be chosen fifth overall by the Vancouver Canucks. We started with No. 5 Cale Makar on Monday followed by No. 4 Elias Pettersson on Tuesday. Today we profile Casey Mittelstadt.
Their Minnesota hockey paths are similar, but Casey Mittelstadt is no Patrick White. And that’s a good thing. Ten years after the Canucks missed by making White the 25th overall selection in the 2007 NHL draft — the centre was traded two years later to San Jose and never logged an NHL game with either club — they could be poised to take another high school standout who also played in the United States Hockey League.
If the Canucks don’t move up or down the draft order and select fifth on June 23 in Chicago, Mittelstadt may get a major look. Which, of course, will only bring up the sting of the past. Back in 2007, the St. Louis Blues selected David Perron one pick after Vancouver took the high-schooler White.
To his credit, former Canucks general manager Dave Nonis offered a package of multiple draft picks in 2007 in an attempt to move up to third overall to select New Westminster native Kyle Turris. The centre was picked by Phoenix after Patrick Kane went first to Chicago and James van Riemsdyk second to Philadelphia.
At the time, the Canucks tried to hit a draft home run — wouldn’t Turris look good here today in a first-line succession plan? — and believed they still made solid contact in White. They whiffed.
Fast-forward to today and scouts will tell you Mittelstadt’s path may be somewhat similar to White because Mittelstadt will also attend the University of Minnesota.
That’s where the comparisons end. This kid has game. Mittelstadt was ranked third among North American skaters in the final Central Scouting Bureau assessments and mock drafts have him going between fourth and ninth.
“It’s his flair for the offensive game and he’s one of those big-play players who can make a difference,” Canucks GM Jim Benning said. “He’s really good on the power play and carrying the puck through the neutral zone. He sees all the players on the ice and has a good release on his shot, too.
“And after two or three years of school (U of M) he’ll be like a lot of college players who seem mentally and physically prepared by that time to take that jump to pro.”
Aside from 13 goals and 17 assists in 24 USHL games with the Green Bay Gamblers, after spurning a move to major junior, the 6-foot1, 201-pound Mittelstadt returned for his senior high school season in Eden Prairie, Minn., because the state tournament is a big deal to any homegrown talent.
He had 64 points (21-43) in 25 regular-season games to earn the Mr. Hockey title, but his decision to stay in high school raised eyebrows. It came up in 15 interviews at the NHL Draft Combine in Buffalo.
Yet his USHL showing only confirmed what many already thought.
“He has an elite-level hockey sense and puck skills, and can make plays at speed,” said Shane Malloy, who has scouted NHL prospects for a dozen years, is author of The Art of Scouting and a co-host of Hockey Prospects Radio on Sirius XM, NHL Network Radio and TSN Radio. “In the limited time he played in the USHL, he had the most points per game on average.
“I saw him at the Under-18s worlds and he was on a line with Logan Brown and Kailer Yamamoto. He did not look out of place. He can play with high-level talent and he played wing, so he can also play out of position. I’m not going to dispute the talent and he has the potential to get bigger, stronger and faster.
“He could be 6-foot-2 and over 200 pounds, and be a highly productive, top-two centre.”
At the combine, Mittelstadt made another impression and it wasn’t good — or at least it wasn’t understood. In rigorous physical testing, something that’s often disputed in measuring skilled players, he managed but one bench press and didn’t do a single pull-up.
“It’s irrelevant,” Malloy said.
That’s because the standing long jump, vertical jump, agility course and V02 maximum-oxygen output are better measurements of leg power, elusiveness and durability for a player like Mittelstadt.
“I try to work on being a hockey player — I don’t try to work on my bench press or pull-ups,” Mittelstadt told reporters at the combine. “I want to be a hockey player and that’s all I train to do.
“I think it’s good to be strong — and I think there are things I can get stronger at and work on — but I don’t think being able to do a pullup is going to make me be able to handle the puck better or be a better shooter.”
Another calculation that resonates with NHL scouts is how many games of elite competition will Mittelstadt amass before turning pro? Or does that really matter?
“It does,” Malloy stressed. “If you look at international play, the USHL, potentially two years of college but missing some games with Team USA at the Under-20s, it’s maybe 120 games at an elite level. That’s it. And before he turns pro? That concerns me.
“You look historically, guys who don’t play a lot have the biggest challenges of developing. That doesn’t mean he can’t do it or that it will be a big issue. You have to understand that and mitigate it.”
And two years of college can work wonders.
Centre Adam Gaudette was a fifthround pick by the Canucks in 2015 and exploded in his NCAA sophomore season with 26 goals and 26 assists in 37 games for Northeastern. He’s up to 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds and the USHL grad will return for another season to bulk-up before turning pro.