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Aidan McDonough | #25 | LW


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45 minutes ago, Kootenay Gold said:

That would be my guess too Sid.

 

I suspect it’ll come down to how successful his junior year is. If McDonough has a huge year in 2021-22, individually, and the team maybe wins a tournament, he might be ready to sign. Ride that momentum right into the pros.

 

If he competes next year feeling like he still has unfinished business, both in terms of his development, and the team aspirations, then I could easily see him playing out the full four years.

 

I still think he’ll sign with Vancouver, even if he’s in his free agency year. From everything I’ve heard, the relationship is solid between McDonough and the Canucks, much like it has been with out other college prospects.

 

Of course, if he does stay in college for 2022-23, we’ll spend the whole season talking about August 15th, 2023 (his free agency date) in this thread, until he signs. ;) 

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On 6/14/2021 at 9:00 PM, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

I still think he’ll sign with Vancouver, even if he’s in his free agency year. From everything I’ve heard, the relationship is solid between McDonough and the Canucks, much like it has been with out other college prospects.

I hope he's not best buddies with Brogan Rafferty 

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3 hours ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

Mixed bag and work in progress. He’s really smart and sees the ice well, has good positioning, good instincts, and battles hard. It’s mostly just the skating that holds him back, IMO, but on the positive side, that aspect is improving, and he’s very focused on putting in the work. But he’s not going to give you a blistering back check, or be the guy with the four way mobility to quickly close gaps, or outmaneuver opponents, to create 50/50s or outright steal pucks away. He’s good around the boards, where he can use his size and strength, and win puck battles. And he’s a good forechecker and good at recovering pucks. But he’s just not really mobile enough to be a great 1v1 defender. He’s good enough positionally and smart enough to execute systems pretty well and defend the zone as part of a unit. But he’s not the type of guy who’s individually going to win too many pucks away from opponents on open ice.

 

EDIT: I’d add that McDonough had a late growth spurt and didn’t really get comfortable in his body until he was about 19 years old. So even though he’s 21 now, he’s still got time, and he’s really working at his skating. From what he’s said, nearly all his off-season training is focused on building up his explosiveness and stamina, and he’s very aware that he needs to be a better skater to succeed in the pros. I think he has a good mind for the game, both offensively and defensively, so if he can get his skating where it needs to be, I could easily see him becoming an effective two-way player.

Awesome analysis, thanks for being so thorough!

 

Hopefully he can become at least a solid bottom 6 forward.

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16 hours ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

 

So he’s improving his skating and just took a course on passing. Looks like we’ll have our Ryan Getzlaf soon! 

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6 hours ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

Just read the article in Vintage’s link.

 

Liked the part where McDonough says he’s never worked with a power skating coach before. I knew that he hasn’t had much skating focused instruction, but didn’t realize he was a complete newbie in that area. This is positive, because he can probably get a lot of improvement, if he’s starting basically from scratch and never actually had someone break down his technique, and give him the tools to improve. If he commits to the work (and from everything I’ve heard, his work ethic is solid), he could really be a different player on the ice next season. Especially since he’s also putting in a lot of dry land work this year on building up his strength and conditioning in the specific areas that will support his skating.

 

It’s going to be very interesting to see what he looks like next season.

 

He already has a pro level shot, and his off puck movement is a high level, so he knows how to get to the areas to make the most of his shot, especially his one-timer. If he can get his skating to NHL average level (and admittedly, he has a ways to go on this), I think he’s a good bet to be a really solid middle-six forward for the Canucks one day (and soon, assuming he’s signed in the next year or two).

This is the key imo. Even if it's a small improvement, there will be some sort of expected positive progress that will help him become an everyday NHLer.

 

And for the best case scenario, he has a Horvat like improvement and increases his chances for being an impact player.

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2 hours ago, MrCanuck94 said:

This is the key imo. Even if it's a small improvement, there will be some sort of expected positive progress that will help him become an everyday NHLer.

 

And for the best case scenario, he has a Horvat like improvement and increases his chances for being an impact player.

Yup. In my mind, his potential (and limits) really comes down to how far he can take his skating. With some moderate improvements, he’s probably a bottom-six guy with some 2nd unit PP. But if he gets that “Horvat level” boost, then look out, because McDonough with legitimate NHL wheels could be a monster of a player. I’m really hoping for the latter of the two, but he has a fair ways to go (and a lot of hard work to be done), before he’d be considered a really good skater at the pro level. Right now he’s nowhere near that. Hopefully he gets there, because if you take all his tools and put them into a package that can really skate, you’ve got potential for a guy who could be a top-six level talent in the NHL and a true impact player for Vancouver. 

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