A highly aware, physical centre, Jack Nesbitt enjoyed a productive season with the powerhouse Windsor Spitfires after a lacklustre offensive showing in 2023-24. He caught fire at the end of the season, scoring 15 points in his last 10 regular season games.
Date of Birth: January 12, 2007
Birthplace: Sarnia, Ontario
Height: 6’4”
Weight: 183 lbs.
Position: Centre
Shoots: Left
Team: Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
Jack Nesbitt is a smart, physical centreman who finds himself in the right place more often than not. Nesbitt played a key role for Team Canada in the World Uner-18 Championship, collecting three of his five points in the final two games of the tournament, including a goal and an assist in the final against Sweden.
Strengths
Nesbitt brings physicality and smarts, paired with a willingness to go into corners. He has multiple tools that should be attractive to an NHL team. His physical stature is certainly a strength; his impressive wingspan and willing mentality make him a fearsome player to meet at the end boards, and his non-stop motor makes him a constant threat along the half-wall.
His positioning stands out in all three zones of the ice. He’s an effective two-way player who leverages his size and reach to be effective in defending the breakout and defending his own blue line. His positioning and physicality make him an extremely effective puck-retriever, both in the offensive and defensive zones. He showed in the U18 tournament that when he’s stifled offensively he’s perfectly fine playing a physical role and waiting for opportunities to come to him.
He was successful on Windsor’s top power-play and penalty-killing units. He’s a big body in front of the net and leverages his body well to jam at rebounds and create havoc. He scores a lot of goals in front of the net by predicting the play better than the defender.
Weaknesses
His skating is definitely his most glaring weakness. He has a short, awkward stride that struggles to create separation, resulting in him rarely beating defenders in races, but he does have good mobility to make up for it. At 6’4”, you expect his skating to mature slower than the rest of his game, but currently it’s not ready for the NHL.
Mitch Brown & Lassi Alanen’s tracking project
His hands also stand out as a weakness against the rest of his game. He gives up the puck too often while attempting dekes, and his puck-protection is lacking. He often struggles to be an asset creating plays on the rush, especially considering his speed. He showcased some slick moves multiple times this season, but he lacks the precision to do it consistently.
Rankings
Elite Prospects: #48
FC Hockey: #24
Hockey Prospect: #44
McKeen’s: #27
Bob McKenzie (TSN): #23
Corey Pronman (The Athletic): #15
Scott Wheeler (The Athletic): #32
Projection
Players this size almost always have longer development paths than smaller ones. Nesbitt plays a physical game and needs time to put weight on his frame. I can see his skating improving with time, as well. His stride is short and stiff, most likely due to the speed at which he’s grown (he grew four inches when he was 15), and isn’t NHL quality yet.
He projects as an effective, physical, bottom-six forward with a higher ceiling due to his hockey sense and IQ. The size is attractive, as is his two-way ability.
The areas where Nesbitt lacks are in places that can be improved. Teams should look at his climb in point totals after his first season and feel a little more at ease, but he’ll never be a big point-producer in the NHL. He expressed a desire at the combine to insert more snarl into his game, and I think that’s the right direction for him to go: lean into the role of power forward. He mentioned Matthew Tkachuk as a player he’d like to emulate, and that seems fitting. If everything falls into place, Tkachuk is exactly the kind of player I see Nesbitt turning into.
He is polarizing to scouts, as you can see by the rankings. His size and smarts are both things you can’t teach, si with time to develop his skills and fundamentals, he could be a middle-six forward tailor-made for the playoffs. If he’s available in the second round, it could be a pick with great upside.
