Bio
Stats
Scouting Report
Anytime you have the chance to take the reigning Mr. Hockey who is from the legendary town of Warroad, Minnesota, you have to right? The Tampa Bay Lightning traded back into the fourth round this summer in order to select Jayson Shaugabay, a high-school center from Minnesota that broke T.J. Oshie’s school record of 241 points in his senior year. After the season Shaugabay, who is a distant cousin of Oshie, won the prestigious Mr. Hockey award as the state’s top high school hockey player.
Shaugabay, who is of Ojibway heritage, is a pure playmaker who put up 96 points in 31 games as a high school senior. Following the season he played 27 games with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL were he put up 16 points (3 goals, 13 assists). He’ll spend this season with the Gamblers before heading off to the University of Minnesota-Duluth next fall.
The 18-year-old is a bit on the smallish side as he’s listed 5’9″ and 170 pounds. Ten to fifteen years ago that might have been a problem, but the success of smaller players in the league and a transition to more skill-based play has removed some of the stigma of the “undersized” draft pick. Shaugabay will have to show that his size doesn’t prevent him being able to hold onto the puck, or be able to emerge from the corners or sideboards with the puck.
Even if he does put on a little weight, he likely won’t be out-muscling 6’4″ defensemen along the boards for the puck, but he might not have to. Watch a player like Nikita Kucherov go into a scrum and wait for an opportunity to sneak his stick in and steal the puck. Shaugabay has that skillset.
Instead of snaking pucks along the boards, though he usually uses his quick hands and excellent vision to set up his teammates. He is an excellent distributor of the puck and unselfish almost to a fault. He has a wrist shot that will play at the college-level that he too often keeps in his back pocket in order to find a teammate in an open area. As he moves from the high-school to college and pro levels he’ll find that shooting a bit more will help open up more passing lanes and make him a more two-dimensional offensive threat.
Shaugabay is really a unique player for the Lightning to take. Pretty much for the entirety of the Yzerman/BriseBois Era we’ve seen them eschew potential high-end offense in favor of the two-way responsible forwards in the mold of Anthony Cirelli, Ross Colton, Mitchell Stephens, etc. With this pick, they’re gambling that either Shaugabay’s offense will overcome that, or he can find the balance needed to not end up in the coach’s doghouse on a nightly basis.
So why wasn’t a player with second-round talent still around in the fourth round? Well, if you have 16 minutes, this video will tell you.
If it’s too long, didn’t watch for you, the gist is basically that he is a little too easily bumped off the puck and the scout/reviewer wasn’t overly impressed with Shaugabay’s work in the defensive zone. Pulling highlights from one game can be a little misleading, especially for a 17-year-old, but some of the points made in the video are valid. However, they are not uncommon for young players, especially those coming out of high school.
His skating is solid right now and he does seem to accelerate well when the puck is on his stick, but will need a little improvement in order to keep advancing. Luckily, that’s an area that can be improved on through proper technique and hard work. He’ll also have to work on his decision making with the puck. Experience will teach him that some of the plays he was able to make as a youth won’t work against bigger, faster defenders. These are all issues that kids who were really, really talented as youth hockey players have to deal with when they start facing high-level competition.
Shaugabay isn’t likely to become a premier defensive forward anytime soon, but not all players can be Ondrej Palat, right? Can he get better? Definitely. Does he have time to improve on these things? Yes. Not only that, but he’ll likely need to if he wants to earn playing time in college next season. He is currently committed to the University of Minnesota-Duluth, the same school that Isaac Howard attended for one season. If you recall, one of the reasons Howard transferred out is because of UMD’s focus on defense and the fact that he didn’t feel it was a good fit for his skills.
The same could happen for Shaugabay, or, he could go there and embrace what UMD coach Scott Sandelin has to teach and get better in his own zone. That’s one of the nice things about watching prospects, especially mid-round picks, develop. The player that they are when they are drafted, isn’t necessarily the player they will be when they are ready to hit the pros. He has three-to-four years to learn how to be a more well-rounded hockey player. If he does that, then the chances the Lightning have found another diamond in the rough increase dramatically.
There was a pretty big spread among the writers as to where he ranked. There was a 13, 16 (that’s me), 18, 2 20s, and a 24. There does seem to be a cautious optimism about his future, and he does have one of the higher ceilings of the prospects in the countdown, but if he can put it all together I have a feeling that it won’t be long until he’s cracking the Top 10.
