Prospect Watch is our new weekly feature covering the Penguins’ prospects in college, juniors\, and Europe. This feature is an expansion of the “Beyond the AHL” and “Top Pick Tracker” sections from our original Wilkes-Barre Watch format.
Wilkes-Barre Watch will focus exclusively on Wilkes-Barre and run every Monday. Wheeling Watch will focus exclusively on Wheeling and run every Tuesday. Prospect Watch will focus on prospects in the system who are not playing in Wilkes-Barre or Wheeling, and will run every Wednesday.
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The QMJHL is notorious for its high-powered offense. There isn't a ton of defense played in that league.
The Penguins' 2017 fifth-round draft pick, Jan Drozg, has seven goals and 14 assists in 17 games. Even though he's producing at a rate of 1.24 points per game, that's still not too outstanding by QMJHL standards -- he ranks 23rd in the league in scoring.
When you go deeper into the numbers, though, you see how well Drozg is performing.
Like Alex D'Orio, Drozg plays for a pretty bad team. His Shawinigan Cataractes currently rank 16th in the 18-team league, with a record of 5-12. The team is in a rebuilding phase, and Drozg is the only member of his team with any ties to an NHL club.
Drozg is carrying his team -- his 21 points lead the team by a margin of nine points. Shawinigan has only scored 46 goals all season, which means that Drozg has factored into nearly half. Of his 14 assists, 11 have been primary assists.
He's doing a lot.
Drozg averages just over 2.5 shots per game. Again, not too exciting of a number by QMJHL standards, but you'll have to forgive him when his team is in its own zone most of the game. Drozg is capable of playing both wings, but he's been a right winger this season, and he has a right-handed shot. However, most of his shots on net have come from the left side:
Drozg is dangerous when he gets in close. He has six high-danger shots and has converted half, including this finish in a loss to the Rimouski Oceanic this week:
Even though he's a winger, Drozg isn't bad at faceoffs either. He's taken 16 draws this season when his center gets kicked out of the faceoff circle, and he's won eight of them. 50 percent is average for faceoffs, but it's good to see from Drozg who doesn't get to practice them often.
An area of the game in which Drozg is weak? His defense. Drozg is Slovenian, and Slovenian hockey just isn't strong defensively. Following in the footsteps of countryman Anze Kopitar, Drozg moved to Sweden as a teenager to hone the defensive side of his game, since the Swedes are strong in that regard.
After two years in Sweden, Drozg joined Shawinigan for the 2017-18 season. Given that the QMJHL is so offense-first, it might seem like a setback for Drozg's game, given the area in which he needs to improve. He doesn't see it that way, though. Quite the opposite.
"I think our team's not the best team," Drozg told me at this summer's development camp. "All of the season we play most of the game in our zone," he laughed. "So I learned good defense there, too."
Drozg also needs to get stronger before he makes the jump to professional hockey. At 6 feet 2, he definitely has height. But he's a lanky kid, at 174 pounds. Everything happens so much faster in the AHL, and the opposing players are bigger and stronger. Drozg will need to put on some weight himself to make his transition easier.
Playing 20 minutes a night while carrying the weight of 23 men on your back has to build some muscle though, right?
Drozg is 19, which means this is going to be his final season in juniors. Typically, when a poor junior team has a good player who is about to age out of junior hockey, it is common to see them traded around the deadline so they have a chance to play on a competitive team. Drozg, however, is a European import player. Teams are only allowed to have two import players on their roster, and most of the competitive teams already have their import slots filled.
So, Drozg will likely finish the year out in Shawinigan. The bright side? Since it would take a miracle for the Cataractes to make the playoffs, their season will end early -- which means Drozg will be one of the first players to join Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an amateur tryout agreement in the spring.
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FORWARDS
Justin Almeida
Position: Center/Wing
Size: 5-9/158
Drafted: 2018, fifth round
Team: Moose Jaw Warriors (WHL)
Season totals: 15 games, 3 goals, 20 assists
Almeida played two games with Moose Jaw this week centering the second line, and recorded two assists. Almeida also represented the WHL in the CIBC Canada-Russia series, a series of games between the Russian national junior team and each of the three CHL leagues. He was scoreless in Game 1, and left the game early with an injury. He did not play in Game 2 of the series.
Jordy Bellerive
Position: Center
Size: 5-10/195
Drafted: Undrafted
Team: Lethbridge Hurricanes (WHL)
Season totals: 16 games, 8 goals, 11 assists
Bellerive only played one scoreless game with Lethbridge this week, before also joining Team WHL in the CIBC Canada-Russia series. He scored the game-winning goal for the WHL in Game 1:
“It’s a different style of play. It was good,” Bellerive said of playing the Russians. “They were a little bit more laid back in some ways and a little more intense in other ways. It’s was a learning curve for all of us. We got our legs under us there later on and it worked out for us.”
Bellerive was held pointless in Game 2 against Russia.
Kasper Bjorkqvist
Position: Wing
Size: 6-1/198
Drafted: 2016, second round
Team: Providence College (NCAA)
Season totals: 7 games, 2 goals, 2 assists
Bjorkqvist played one scoreless game this week. He did have a great shorthanded breakaway chance, though.
Jan Drozg
Position: Wing
Size: 6-0/174
Drafted: 2017, fifth round
Team: Shawinigan Cataractes (QMJHL)
Season totals: 17 games, 7 goals, 14 assists
Drozg recorded one goal and one assist in two games this week.
Liam Gorman
Position: Center
Size: 6-2/188
Drafted: 2018, sixth round
Team: St. Sebastian’s School (USHS-Prep)
Season totals: None
Gorman remains in high school after previously repeating a grade, this is his fourth year at St. Sebastian's School. His season begins on Nov. 17. He is committed to play at Boston University in 2019-20.
Filip Hallander
Position: Center/Wing
Size: 6-1/190
Drafted: 2018, second round
Team: Timrå IK (SHL)
Season totals: 12 games, 2 goals, 5 assists
Hallander only played in two games this week, as he was out of Timra's lineup with an illness. He was held scoreless in those two games. The SHL season is taking a break until Nov. 13 as players join their national teams. Hallander will join Sweden in the Four Nations tournament from Nov. 9 through Nov. 11 in the Czech Republic.
Nikita Pavlychev
Position: Center
Size: 6-7/200
Drafted: 2015, seventh round
Team: Penn State (NCAA)
Season totals: 7 games, 3 goals, 6 assists
Pavlychev has picked up the pace as of late, recording two assists in two games this week, as well as this goal over Arizona State:
DEFENSEMEN
Calen Addison
Size: 5-10/180
Drafted: 2018, second round
Team: Lethbridge Hurricanes (WHL)
Season totals: 16 games, 3 goals, 15 assists
Addison played one game with Lethbridge this week, recording a goal and an assist, before also joining Team WHL in the CIBC Canada-Russia series. He was scoreless in both games of the series.
Here's a look at Addison's goal this week:
Niclas Almari
Size: 6-1/167
Drafted: 2016, fifth round
Team: HPK (Liiga), HPK U20 (Jr. A SM-liiga)
Season totals: 5 games, 1 assist with HPK; 2 games, 1 assist with HPK U20
Almari hasn't played since Oct. 5 due to an undisclosed injury.
Ryan Jones
Size: 6-2/186
Drafted: 2016, fourth round
Team: Nebraska-Omaha (NCAA)
Season totals: 8 games, 3 assists
Jones is playing on the left side of Omaha’s first defense pairing. In two games this week, he's recorded one assist.
Zachary Lauzon
Size: 6-1/187
Drafted: 2017, second round
Team: Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL)
Season totals: None
Lauzon is still rehabbing from the neck injury he sustained last season. He has resumed training on his own, and is expected to return to practice late November and return to game action in December.
Antti Palojarvi
Size: 6-1/176
Drafted: 2017, sixth round
Team: Lukko (Liiga), Lukko U20 (Jr. A SM-liiga)
Season totals: 4 games, 1 assist with Lukko; 14 games, 3 goals, 5 assists with Lukko U20
Palojarvi spent time with both the big club and the U20 club this week. He was scoreless in one game with Lukko, and scoreless in one game with the U20 club. He's a plus-5 in U20, and even in the big club.
Clayton Phillips
Size: 5-11/182
Drafted: 2017, third round
Team: Minnesota (NCAA)
Season totals: 5 games, 5 assists
Phillips played two games this week, and recorded one assist, the primary assist on a power play tally. Phillips leads the Gophers in points. Four of his assists have been primary assists.
William Reilly
Size: 6-2/197
Drafted: 2017, seventh round
Team: Rensselaer Polytech. Inst. (NCAA)
Season totals: 6 games, 1 goal, 2 assists
Reilly played one scoreless game this week.
GOALTENDERS
Alex D’Orio
Size: 6-2/209
Drafted: Undrafted
Team: Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL)
Season totals: 15 games, 4.77 goals against average, .881 save percentage
D'Orio played in one game this week, a loss to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens on Nov. 4. He made 39 saves on 45 shots. He was dealing with an injury earlier in the week that prevented him from dressing in the game, but it was a minor injury that didn't keep him out of the lineup long.
