For this Sunday’s Prospect Ramblings, I’ve decided to look at a couple of shifts for three prospects (one draft-eligible prospect and two drafted prospects). I asked my followers for who they wanted to see featured and I made selections based on their responses.

Quinton Byfield 

Let’s kick things off by taking a look at Quinton Byfield (Center, Sudbury Wolves, Draft Eligible). 

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In this shift, we see Byfield start in the neutral zone. He is in possession of the puck and makes a tight turn at center ice. Byfield is looking to evade two Sarnia Sting forwards and tries to complete a turn and pass. The pass makes contact with Wolves teammate David Levin, but Levin cannot do much with the puck given the amount of traffic that is on him.

Roughly twenty seconds into the shift, we see Byfield tracking the puck and he ends up along his defensive zone half wall. Byfield collects a pass from his defenseman and quickly creates an outlet pass to another teammate as he looks to get the puck out of the zone.

Towards the end of the shift, Byfield is in the defensive zone and manages to out-maneuver traffic. He swings the puck around the Sting forward in an attempt to create an offensive rush.

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In this shift, Byfield does not have possession of the puck for way too long even though he grabs an assist during the shift. Yet, he goes right to the net and puts pressure on Sarnia net-minder Ethan Langevin. He is looking for a centered pass or a rebound. 

When Byfield sees Levin stuck along the boards with the puck and traffic bearing down on him, Byfield jumps to the wall and collects the puck from Levin. Quickly, Byfield finds teammate Blake Murray and delivers an accurate pass to Murray. Murray is able to shoot a one-timer past the Sting net-minder for a Wolves goal. 

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In this shift, Byfield is manning the point on the power play. The draft-eligible prospect is constantly passing the puck to keep the cycle alive and takes a few shots from the point. With the Wolves putting quite a bit of pressure on Langevin and blocking his sightlines, Byfield keeps aiming for the netminder’s pads to try to create a rebound goal. Finally, one of Byfield shots gets past Langevin for a Sudbury goal.

Tyler Madden 

For the second prospect, I decided to look at Tyler Madden (Center, Northeastern Huskies, Vancouver Canucks prospect). 

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In this quick shift, Madden circles his zone and is constantly looking for an opportunity to snag the puck. At around the 15-second mark, Madden darts to his net to provide some protection for his goaltender as his goaltender was dealing with some traffic on the other side of the net. Madden quickly steals the puck away from a Providence forward and goes right to the boards. The Canucks prospect passes the puck off the boards in an attempt to get the puck out of the zone.

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In the beginning of this 35-second shift, Madden plays the boards quite well. At the five-second mark, Madden has a forecheck along the half wall as he attempts to get the puck out of the hands of his opposition. Madden grabs the puck, skates towards the Providence net and delivers a pass along the boards to his left-handed defenseman. Shortly after, Madden places himself on the right side of the offensive zone as he is looking for the perfect opportunity to pounce on the puck. 

Later on, in the shift, Northeastern is attempting to create a rush. Madden does his part by parking himself at the offensive zone blue line as he looks to create a zone entry. Madden collects the puck from his defenseman. Unfortunately, Providence is aware of Madden and neutralizes him. 

Moritz Seider

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In this 35 second shift, Moritz Seider (Defenseman, Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit Red Wings prospect) shows off his physicality along the boards. He lays out two big backchecks as he aims to steal the puck away from the Belleville Senators. In addition, Seider does not leave his opposition much room to skate towards the center of the zone. He plays them tight and leaves them to skate along the boards. This allows Seider to put even more pressure on them and paves the way for Seider to check them along the boards.

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To kick off shift number two, Seider collects the puck off a pass from Joe Hicketts and quickly passes the puck along the boards. His teammate in the neutral zone touches the puck which avoids a potential icing call. Seider is looking to begin a cycle. Unfortunately, the Griffins cannot cycle the puck for long, so Seider has to roll back to the neutral zone. 

In the neutral zone, Belleville is aiming to get the puck into the Griffins zone. In order to try to circumvent that from happening, Seider checks the Senators forward into the boards. 

Later on, in the shift, Seider strikes yet again and has two backchecks in the defensive zone. Given how physical Seider is, it is a challenge to get the puck past him. He seems to shut down every Senators’ opportunity. 

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Thanks for reading my prospect ramblings post. If you would like to follow me on Twitter, my handle is @JoshTessler