Rieger Lorenz

On the radar since his midget days, when he was clearly one of the undersized talented kids on the ice, and Lorentz was a hard working, strong-wristed speedster centre who has sprouted much longer legs and at least four inches in height. He displayed high end scoring ability back then and all-around commitment and smarts. His new size had him needing time to add the co-ordination to play with a bigger trunk. In is an usual route for this type of athlete goes the Tier 2 route, but isn’t that where we saw Cole Makar before college? Even by the end of 2021, you saw he was still learning to play a bigger man’s game. By the end of this season, he clearly showed he had control of his longer legs, and was adjusting  to again play at pace, and still make himself small in traffic areas. This kid was a wizard in his traffic, and that is going to re-emerge has a big man. He comes back hard on trailing forwards. Has an ability to anticipate and cut off passes.  A better prospect than Dylan Holloway was when he played at the same age for Okottoks. He has always crashed the net, had good timing, know when to slow it down and also when to ramp it up. Flicks firm passes of his strong wrists. He will force defenders in compromising positions and then quickly takes the puck from them. We he is completely comfortable with his feet, watch his take off when he adds the crash he should when he was smaller. There is a very good chance that when we all look back at the redraft of this class and wonder why he wasn’t the top half of the first round or close. Very under-rated Alberta Junior league.  He is committed to the University of Denver. 

--Bill Płaczek--