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Zack MacEwen | #71 | RW


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11 minutes ago, alfstonker said:

He got an invite to Anaheim and apparently impressed them, so we may have taken a gem from under the nose of the Ducks with this late developer.

Kudos to the Ducks org. for identifying Zack's potential early. My guess is he signed with us because he sees more opportunity here.

Edited by Alexandre
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This kid checks off all the boxes,if he could do those things in the NHL we will have a star. He plays in all situations and plays centre he has size speed and smarts, not many big guys have the smarts. He is just a dream at this point but,damn, no harm in dreaming big.

Edited by CanuckleHorse
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On 8/1/2017 at 11:08 PM, Bandwagon38 said:

Watching film on this guy makes him look just ridiculous!  Either the Q defense all suck or we may have plucked a gem because half of his goals look to be skilled goals at speed.  Zack is the guy who I hope is the suprise at camp!  

I agree. Watching at prospect camp he was a guy who impressed me that wasn't a big name. I think we could see him on the roster sooner rather than later

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Will be interesting to see what MacEwen becomes of himself in his first pro season.

 

I noticed in the prospects game he was trying to play a skilled game with Boeser (obviously can't run your own teammates)

 

But I don't see him being a point producer going forward.  Not that he doesn't have enough skill, but he really is going to have to learn how to hone that physical body and use it in every such way.  Being ferocious on the forecheck, physical in board battles, net front presence, etc.  Saw a classic case in Alex Grenier who clearly had the physical built to be a physical force, yet chose and tried to become a skilled player.  I just see more players ahead of him on the depth chart that will bring that skill and creativity that are far ahead in that department than MAC has.  Hope he comes as advertised in junior though

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Your 'classic case' of Grenier is something you see from late developing players. Either they're already big enough they hardly have to use their size and can dominate, or they had to rely on skill before they developed physically. Grenier as a late bloomer playing against lower levels could overpower players and score, and then found his skill was still good enough to compete as he moved up. That only took him so far of course, and after he didn't learn to use his size against more comparable opponents he failed to upgrade his game with the aggressiveness needed to be more of a difference.

 

Now, I have no idea with MacEwen what his development path has been, but he seems to use a bit of both. He's not super aggressive but who knows how he'll pan out as he moves to play against pros.

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In our top nine, we have a couple of places where there are two centers playing on a line (Sedin-Granlund, or Granlund-Sutter, with Gagner likely to add to this). Not this coming year, but maybe next...what would you think of a 4th line that has McEwen and Cassels on it (of course, provided they both earn their way on to the team). This gives you two guys with grit, so that if one is in the box, the other is still around; also gives you a second center for those faceoffs where the first two get tossed, any maybe now you get a center going against a winger which should provide a much higher percentage of winning said faceoff.

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13 hours ago, theo5789 said:

Not a clear indicator, but here is something to consider, Grenier had 48 PIMs in 95 games in juniors and MacEwen had 146 PIMs in 132 games (9 fights). Simply looking at those stats, Grenier didn't really ever seem to play with a physical edge even with his size, whereas MacEwen looks to be willing to be more willing to play with some grit. This tells me that at worse MacEwen will play with some physicality that could potentially get him into at least the bottom 6 on an NHL team if he can't translate his offense.

I was just looking at MacEwen's PMs as I pondered what Nazzy was saying above ^. I have to think that to make it in the NHL, he will have to bring that aggressive mentality of his, consistently. He has the size, aggressiveness and raw skill. If he is to be successful, he will have to play more like a Patrick Maroon than say a Shawn Mathias.

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I didn't know that much about Zack before the Development Camp but I thought he looked pretty good.  He and Brock seemed to have a good time playing together in the Game they played.  Considering his whole game I think he may make a good 3rd or 4th line center.  How is he at face-offs?

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's going to be a really interesting training camp this year with guys like Zack ....who nobody really expects to do anything this year...but...

Zack has all the boxes ticked to move up to the next level....are they ticked enough to move up 2 levels?    They just may be, he is faster then anyone on the team right now, maybe faster than Jake and Molino, he is bigger and stronger than any forward on the team except maybe Bo,  he has as good a shot as anyone currently on the team, he hits harder then any forward on the team, he fights when needed, he has good vision and can make a pass.

 

The only thing he is missing is being one year younger, he would have been drafted top 2 rounds if he had this all together a year or 2 ago.

Big guys need a bit more time it seems, but he may be closer to being ready then we think.

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