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20 NHL Draft Prospects In 20 Days - Andreas Athanasiou

June 15, 2012, 8:09 AM ET [1 Comments]
Eric Smith
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Up until the draft I will be putting out 20 NHL Draft Prospects in 20 days. I will be certain to cover all the top guys but also some players that can be had in later rounds. I will end up with a mock draft the day before the draft. If you missed any of the prospects, click ARCHIVE above to find what you have missed.

True speed is something your born with and it is rare. Do to that, it's something that mesmerize the other 99 percent of the population that doesn't have it. That's why Usain Bolt demands attention when he runs even from none track fans. It's why when Aroldis Chapman climbs the mound for the Cincinnati Reds and fires fast balls over 100 mph, crowds both home and away buzz with excitement. That's the type of excitement people have when they see Andreas Athanasiou strap on his blades and rocket across the ice.

“You don’t see that often,” said London Knights assistant coach and General Manager Misha Donskov. “His zero-to-60 speed is incredible. Flat-footed he can go from a dead stop to 60 incredibly fast. He can really pull away from defenders and at this level it means so much.”

Athanasiou has a second gear that is even rare with elite skaters. When he sees an opening with a lane to the net he can explode through players like he just got a shot out of cannon.

Ryan Strome, Islanders first round pick in 2011 said, “Andreas Athanasiou is real fast. He can really fly out there, and he put up 22 goals while playing not a huge role in London. That’s pretty impressive. Speed is the thing that comes to mind. “

It's not only speed that the native of London has at his disposal, he also has a highly skilled set of hands that he displayed on youtube that when viral.



“Andreas Athanasiou is an extremely skilled forward playing for the London Knights of the OHL,” Justin Shermie from Dobber Prospects stated. “Scouts love his incredibly speedy and dynamic skating to go along with his great puck handling. He has an accurate shot which has earned him powerplay time on a very talented London team. His speed is essential to today’s neutral zone game and also allows him to create turnovers and tire out opponents.”

With a package of world class speed and a very good set of hands, you can see why Athanasiou was ranked as a mid-first round draft prospect coming into the season. The reason he is now slotted as a second round selection is the scouts questions about him using those skills night in and night out.

“He is a frustrating player for coaches,” Mark Edwards from HockeyProspect.com said. “So much talent but too many poor decisions made all over the ice. Andreas plays his own game far too often and despite an elite skills package, he often creates very little offensively. Being a late season healthy scratch will not help his cause. Lets hope he can turn the page and ‘buy in’ next season. He did show flashes of improved play in the playoffs.”

Athanasiou was fully aware of his stock slipping in the ratings.

“It's not a great feeling seeing yourself go up and down (draft rankings) but you know I just kind of put that aside,” Athanasiou told me on the 'Fire The Cannon' show. “I kind of bottle it up and kind of use it for my on ice performance. I like to turn heads. I think that was the one thing that I tried to do when I started dropping. If I'm going to drop, I going to do my best in the next game and the game after that to show them that dropping me was a bad decision. I know when I get drafted or if I get drafted hopefully, hopefully I get drafted, I know the team that picks me will be happy. I'll do my best and I won't let them down. I think I did my best this year”



The team that draft Athanasiou will be getting a Ferrari type player but how a team handles him mentally will do a long way on whether he flourishes or just fades away. Andreas, as you can tell by his statement, wants to please coaches, fans, and anyone else that he comes into contact with. Getting him to understand that sometimes the simple play that won't turn heads is the right play but, and this is a big but, you will have to praise him on a consistent basis when he does do the right thing and he will continue to do it. There is almost no questions about his skill set and physical abilities. That's why if a team knows how to handle him, they will get an elite talent a lot farther down the draft board.

There are teams interested. Even though he was late to the combine due to the London Knights playing in the finals of the Memorial cup, 10 teams sat down with Athanasiou.

“I lucked out there (not getting any weird questions,)” Athanasiou told me. “I didn't get any strange questions at all. All my interviews were about my play, how I was off ice, how I was as a person, my assets as a hockey player. I didn't get anything weird.”

It's no surprise that Athanasiou is being considered a boom or bust type pick in this draft. He has all the tools to be a big boom but if he can't consistently put those tools to work he will be a bust. My feeling is that it is all mental and how he and the team selects him handles that part of the game. If it's handled right, a team will get a steal in this draft.

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