What came before :
30. New Jersey Devils : Kasperi Kapanen 29. Los Angeles Kings : Brendan Lemieux 28. Tampa Bay Lightning : Julius Honka 27. Chicago Blackhawks : Conner Bleackley 26. Montreal Canadiens : Nick Schmaltz
Now :
25. The Boston Bruins select Right Wing Alex Tuch of the USNTDP in the USHL
6’3, 216lbs, 1996-05-10 : 18 years old
26 – 13g – 19a – 32p
Arguably the second highest ranked “Pure power forward… in this draft, Tuch has been blessed to play with two highly skilled players in Eichel and Milano, but in a way they were happy to have him along too. Tuch showed that he can be a very competitive complementary player on a line with two highly, highly skilled players. He can do the hard work, he can make the big hits and he can get close to the net and push people around. He’s bigger than just about 80% of the USHL and it certainly helped him thrive in that league, he’s obviously physically more mature than the majority of the players and it shows. This was even more noticeable when he dominated the living hell out of the U18 league where he was about 30lbs heavier than the next gent. His physical play is excellent, his willingness to throw his body at everything that moves is admirable, but the major issue going into this draft is…will the offense come through at the next level? He’s playing with the player with the best hands in the draft in Milano plus wunderkind Jack Eichel who is potentially the only guy who can dethrone Connor McDavid next year, without them he hasn’t shown a ton of offensive potential. This rang true at the U18’s, I wrote a big article about it and was fairly harsh, but that was the reality, he played fine…hell he was great and noticeable on many nights, but when he’s off the Eichel-Milano line his offense dries up. He doesn’t have as many chances at rebounds, he doesn’t have the crease passes, he doesn’t have players that will put the puck into the net almost assuredly and suddenly questions come up as to whether he can be a top-6 complementary power winger at the next level, or are we looking at a tough to play against third liner? Given ample PP time and large amounts of ice-time with stars he can easily carve a niche as the tough guy on a line theoretically down the road.
It’s easy to see Tuch as an NHL player in some capacity, his speed is solid for his size and his style is very reminiscent of what we love from the classic bottom-6 players. I think it’s quite fair to think a team might pick him earlier than 25 in their hope to get the next “Lucic,… let’s be honest, every team is still looking for and will continue to look for the next one. I see a really solid fit for the Bruins in this pick, though I will readily admit, there are several teams who need toughness in their prospect pool who might gamble on him earlier.
Comparison : Troy Brouwer (Though I think closer to Nick Foligno)
Thanks for reading.