Owen Beck’s highly intelligent game, his defensive acumen, and his play in transition make him a prospect with a high floor as an NHL centre in some capacity, and room to grow his game and become a second-line pivot.
In this video scouting report, I look at the Montreal Canadiens’ 33rd overall pick’s production and provide data and footage collected from three of his regular-season games (January 6 vs. North Bay, February 8 vs. Hamilton, and March 15 vs. Barrie).
Beck has a truly complete skill set with multiple ways in which he can influence play, all of which are sourced in his tremendous awareness and quick play-reading. He has a profile that resembles Shane Wright’s quite closely, but with a less impactful offensive skill set.
If the Habs are able to work on his puck management when shooting and stickhandling, and if his skating stride is improved even further, the Habs might just have acquired a bona fide play-killing pivot with value on both special-teams units, which is a tremendous add in the second round.
Timestamps:
0:00 — Introduction + production comparisons
2:30 — Data collected from all three games tracked
5:01 — Transition offence
7:28 — In-zone offence
8:55 — Defensive play
11:02 — Skating
11:28 — Faceoffs
11:53 — Physical game, board play
12:32 — Shot selection deficiencies and turnovers
13:10 — Recap of strengths, weaknesses, and NHL projection
A similar video on Lane Hutson will be out in the next few days, so make sure to follow me on Twitter @HadiK_Scouting and on YouTube here to keep up with these video reports, as I’ll be going through each of the Habs’ 11 2022 NHL Draft picks and breaking down their strengths, weaknesses, and NHL projection.
