James Scantlebury

Scouting Notes

The stat line immediately jumps out here, as Scantlebury had a hat-trick on 6 shots on goal (on 6 attempts). The first goal he does a nice job of finding some soft ice on the PP and burying a quick one-timer on a nice tic-tac-toe play. The second goal he shows off his silky mitts with a nice fake on the goalie after a fortunate break at the blueline. The third goal is a hard net drive, with a sneaky good finish on the backhand to get it up over the sprawled out goalie. He displayed some intriguing tools in this game, aside from the goals, as well. The skating looked to be a bit of a mixed bag, with him winning foot races at times and slashing through the NZ as the puck carrier, while other times he looked a bit flat footed and would lose a race to a guy he had a step on. I think the more he gets his crossovers going and working in a bit of lateral motion, the better he is. I don't think this is necessarily a straight line burner, but he knows how to mix in subtle changes of direction to gain separation, and he's especially good at this as the puck carrier. The hands are very good, and I would argue (at least in this viewing) that they appeared to be his best asset. He is very smooth with it, has make-miss ability, and has no problem working toe drags and misdirections into his repertoire regularly. While he was very good with the puck on his stick, he could be guilty of trying to start a play too early when going after a loose puck. Much like a receiver in football who tries to run for extra yards before securing the catch, there were a couple of occasions here where Scantlebury missed a play on the puck because he was already plotting his next move. He showed some good playmaking instincts, but this was definitely a night where he leaned more towards shooting. That said, he was credited as going 9 for 9 in terms of accurate passes vs pass attempts. Unfortunately, his work in the faceoff circle was less exciting, as he was credited for going 4/12 (33%) on the evening (he is 47% average on the season after 4GP). It's hard not to come away impressed with a hat-trick performance, and it was certainly a quality viewing for Scantlebury.