The Green Bay Gamblers have a few draft eligible players and one not selected last year who may hear their names called at the 2010 draft.

Aaron Harstad            D              6’2″         183

Harstad has all the physical attributes that would interest an NHL team.  He has good size and is an excellent skater.  Harstad can handle the puck well, makes good decisions with the puck and has a hard shot.  Harstad’s trust in his skating allows him to play well in one on one situations by keeping tight gap control.  On several occasions, attacking forwards were forced to dump the puck in or were rushed into bad decisions as a result of Harstad’s presence.  He was also strong on the boards and was happy to throw a few big hits, the most notable one on Youngstown’s 6’5″ 215lb Nick Czinder.   On these skills alone, Harstad could be selected in the top 120.  However, on two occasions he was on the ice for breakaways that resulted from passes made deep in Youngstown’s zone to an awaiting forward at or near the middle of Green Bay’s blue line.  On both instances, Harstad was near the boards in no man’s land by himself.  It was hard to determine the breakdown between Harstad and his partner, but Harstad’s ice time went down after those instances.   Some seasoning and coaching at Colorado College should help.  His raw athleticism alone should entice a team to take a chance on him in June.

Chris Crane       F          6’1″     193

Crane is the the prototypical energy forward.  He’s a quick skater who will fly to the puck and create havoc.  He thrived as the game became more physical and attempted to rally the Gamblers when they got down in the game by challenging some of the bigger Phantom players.  However, he had no takers.  Crane was on the ice in critical PK situations and acquitted himself well.  My opinion is that he would need to hone his puck skills and smooth out his skating at Ohio State before a team would draft him next year or take a shot as a free agent.

Ludwig Karlsson      F          6’2″     200

Karlsson was not drafted in 2009 and his name has been mentioned as someone who could possibly be selected in 2010.  It’s easy to see that Karlsson wishes to play a skilled player’s game by relying on his puck handling.  However, Karlsson was routinely stripped of the puck by backchecking forwards.  He would be more suited to play a power forward’s game  by dishing to his linemates and getting his big frame in the dirty areas in front but did not show a willingness to do so.  He was consistently out-muscled on the puck.

A few other notes on the game:

Youngstown goalie, Matthew Mahalak, a 2011 eligible played particularly well in goal.  The Phantom’s were outshot 35-9 and were still able to win 3-2 because of Mahalak’s strong play.  The 6’2″ 185 netminder displayed good positioning and rebound control.  He was also impressive in that he was never visibly rattled as Green Bay scored 2 third period goals to draw the game close and was never bothered by traffic in front of the net.   Mahalak will certainly draw interest next year.

Two players previously mentioned in my reports, 2010 eligible Nick Czinder and 2011 eligible Scott Mayfield continue to improve.  The skating and footwook of both players have gotten noticeably better.  Mayfield has the look of a top 60 player and will probably merit first round consideration if he continues this path.   I will update both as the season progresses.