Ilia “Ilya” D. Morozov was the youngest college hockey player suiting up with the University of Miami of Ohio this pasrt season. This rookie’s high pace as a cente who wants to be on the correct defensive side of puck tracking pucks hustling.Morozov performance there solidified his place at the combine. He was tasked with pivoting the top line alongside the top power play and penalty kill units. This was setting a high bar for a rookie, who struggled with the faster and stronger forechecking, and really didn’t arrive at Miami with an explosive get off stride, or the processing speed to make faster plays with his arrival. He displays pace, range, physicality, agility and hockey smarts. He arrives with some physicality on wall work, in retrivals and will win net-front battles. Quick, not fast, but very confident in his puck skills, and can get pucks on his linemate’s sticks. Terrific in transition, using his jump to carry or lay one touch passes forward to create zone enties. He lets his linemates do the offensive creation, as he does not display a lot of in-motion play, and isn’t sinking the hips to pick up pace out of the turn. He is going to wow teams with his strong defensive abilities and applies plenty of speed on the forecheck. He revs at high speed on his pins, but there are issues holding pucks. He has the ability to thread transitions through with accurate passes. He defensively supports with solid defensive position, hard back checks and high-reving motor that relishes the challenge. Sure, he is good in the cycle, has a bit of small area puck handling skill, but his offensive growth is presently stifiled by his present skating where he lacks the strength he needs to improve in his hips and ankles, lowering abilty his to create offensive for his linemates other than being the flashy attacker, and his development is far from finished in that area. He certainly plays like an emegency plug n play NHL replacement centre already, and that is why he comes off the board in the top 40 prospects. Projects as a low end of the roster hopeful, but things might start clicking that raise the scout’s expectations. I think he has carved out a an NHL audition as a suitable place pivoting the right two wings.
–Bill Placzek–
