Justin Addamo, a 24-year-old forward in the Penguins' system, is an absolute tank.
"He looks like he should be a tight end," Wheeling Nailers head coach Derek Army said.
Checking in at 6-foot-6, 249 pounds, Addamo is currently the heftiest piece of Penguins property throughout the entire organization. Although he might not be much of a prospect anymore and has the odds stacked against him to ever make the NHL, his developing ability to score goals comes with some intrigue.
A native of Clermont-Ferrand, France, Addamo played junior hockey in the NAHL, where he racked up 25 goals, 31 assists and a whopping 229 penalty minutes in 95 games with the Lone Star Brahmas from 2016-2018. He then spent the following three seasons playing college hockey for Robert Morris University, recording 22 goals, 27 assists and a not-as-staggering 130 penalty minutes in 96 games.
For his fourth and final season of collegiate hockey, Addamo transferred to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, picking up 14 goals, five assists and 43 penalty minutes in 42 games. Months after his college career concluded, he received his first crack at professional hockey with a contract from the Nailers for the 2022-23 season.
His game came a long way throughout the course of the year, as he found the back of the net 21 times to go along with 12 assists in 42 games. He even managed to cut down the amount of time he spent in the sin bin, logging only 23 penalty minutes.
His 21 goals came in a variety of ways, including blistering wrist shots like this:
"His feet need to be improved, but his shot? I haven't seen a shot like that," Army said of Addamo. "It's heavy. Goalies see this shot from distance and he just beats them clean."
Addamo is able to beat goalies from distance for two reasons:
1. He creates a ton of power and velocity by driving all 249 pounds of his weight into the shaft of his stick while shooting.
2. His ridiculously long reach and stick allow him to manipulate the release point with subtle wrist movement, making it very difficult for goalies to take an optimal angle on his shots.
Heck, he can even score from distance on his backhand:
Of course, for a player his size, time and space to shoot is at a premium. His long reach and stick can also work against him in that regard. As his level of competition increases, his time and space to fire away will dwindle even further. That's not the end of the world, though, because the dude is an absolute menace at the net-front.
"He can't be moved around the net," Army said.
Here he is flawlessly tying up a defenseman on top of the crease, opening up an unimpeded lane for his teammate to score:
Army wasn't exaggerating.
Addamo's performance with Wheeling earned himself 14 games up in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this past season. He continued to score there, picking up five goals, all of which were at the net-front or in the heart of the slot. On one of his goals, he was somehow left all alone out front to do as he pleased. Grave mistake by the opposition:
Addamo does a very good job of deflecting and tipping shots from distance. He's just as good at corralling loose change and putting it back on target amid traffic. And, as you can see above, he'll try and make slippery passes when he's not in a good position to initially get a shot off in tight.
His ability to read the play progressed considerably throughout the season. Another goal he scored with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is a great example:
With both of his linemates headed into the corner in a battle for the puck, Addamo recognized the need to ease up and hang back a bit in the event of both linemates getting burned on a quick change of possession. As the defensive coverage collapsed to the play in the corner, this gave him some separation. The angle he took through the zone was brilliant. Once he knew his linemate had the puck, he was able to quickly cut into the open ice in the slot before receiving a pass and promptly wiring it to the upper corner of the net. If the pass had been off the mark, his angle would've allowed him to maintain all of his momentum as he pursued the puck.
The goal-scoring ability is real, even if his overall offensive game will always have its limitations. More importantly, at least as far as his NHL hopes are concerned, is that his defensive game is up to snuff.
"His game defensively was really good for us," Army said. "He was ranked our top forward on the season, and not just within the analytics side of things. He was very impressive."
France is not advancing beyond the preliminary round in this year's World Championship, but Addamo did have the opportunity to represent his country for seven games during the tournament, scoring two goals in the process. No need to ask, both were scored exactly where you think they were.
Looking forward, Addamo has already signed an AHL contract with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the 2023-24 season.
"To me, if he continues growing like this, he is very, very promising," Army said. "I think (Wilkes-Barre head coach J.D. Forrest) sinking his teeth into him with (Wilkes-Barre assistant coach Kevin Porter) and whatnot will be great."
