Much has been made, rightfully, of the season Adam Fantilli had at the University of Michigan, but he wasn’t the only draft eligible freshman putting in some very good work on that team. We’re back today with a special Saturday edition of the Community Draft Board, and we’re here to talk about Fantilli’s often overlooked but still very exciting teammate Gavin Brindley.
Pre-Draft Rankings
No. 15 by FC Hockey
No. 24 by The Athletic (Scott Wheeler)
No. 30 by Sportsnet
No. 43 by TSN (Bob McKenzie)
No. 21 by Elite Prospects
Statistics
What’s to like?
If there’s one word that first comes to mind in describing Brindley’s game, it would be active. He’s an easy player to have catch your attention on viewings because he simply never seems to stop moving. With the puck, he’s comfortable buzzing around in the offensive zone looking for chances, and he’s strong enough in his puck protection and patient enough in his approach to not always settle for the first — and perhaps suboptimal — lane that opens up. Away from the puck, in the offensive zone he’s making cuts and finding –or creating — space for himself to get into a soft spot to receive a pass, while in the defensive zone, he’s shown a tenacity in checking, in defending, in working to get the puck away from opponents.
Brindley doesn’t have the absolute most dynamic puck game, but there’s still a lot to like in his skillset. His overall hockey sense is strong — which helps him on both sides of the puck — and he has good enough hands to finish on a good bulk of the chances he creates, with a quick wrist shot and a willingness to drive the net for more high danger shots. He isn’t an absolute burner, but he’s a plus skater overall, with good top end speed and a real strength in smaller areas — he’s excellent on his edges and cuts well, making himself very elusive.
Brindley, despite his somewhat diminutive size, is still quite solid defensively. He’s responsible with the puck, isn’t hugely turnover prone, and he’s strong on the walls in puck battles.
He also brings a good bit of positional versatility — he’s a natural center and did start the season playing center, but he was switched over to the wing for the second half of the season. And while he looks like he’ll most likely stick on the wing at the NHL level, having the ability to slot in down the middle in a pinch is still valuable.
And, while Brindley of course thrives while playing with more highly skilled players up in the lineup (a bit more on that later), his type of high-motor, still defensively responsible game is one that we could easily see translating well to a depth role on an NHL team. In this way, too, there’s a lot of versatility to him as a player.
Finally, it’s worth again noting that all that Brindley has done this year, he’s done it as an underage freshman in one of the most difficult conferences in college hockey, which should make it all the more impressive. It also puts him a bit ahead of the curve developmentally – he’s not on the level of the players who spent the whole season playing in a professional league against men, but it is a step above those playing in juniors, and those who won’t hit college until the fall.
What’s not to like?
Of course, there have still been some concerns raised about Brindley’s game (though you can decide how fussed you are by them). The first, of course, is the size issue. Brindley is listed somewhere around 5’8 or 5’9 (depending on where you look) and 157 pounds, and there are questions about how much this size will be a detriment to him at the professional level. The positive side to this is that Brindley doesn’t exactly play a small game, but the pure size concerns remain for some.
There are also questions about how much Brindley’s uptick in production in the second half of his season was due to his figuring out and settling in at the college level versus just a product of him being moved from center to the wing and getting to play with Adam Fantilli. For my (sentient blog) money, as much as I like Fantilli and can acknowledge how much he can elevate those he plays with, I still want to give Brindley more credit for his success than just being a product of hia circumstance. This isn’t a universally agreed upon stance, but for the sake of transparency, that’s where I’m at.
How would he fit in the Flyers system?
It’s easy to see Brindley being a good fit for the Flyers. While he doesn’t offer them the sort of game breaking, top of the lineup skill that they’re looking for (and will likely address with the seventh overall pick), that type of skill game isn’t just needed on their first two forward lines. Brindley would fill in as a player who adds a bit of raw speed, but also plays with the pace that they’re working to establish. He’s a hard worker with a good motor, but he would still bring a good bit of skill and finesse to the middle of the lineup, which is something else that they’re pretty sorely in need of.
Could the Flyers actually get him?
There isn’t a whole lot in the way of consensus among scouts and pundits on where Brindley will or should be picked in this draft, but even taking the full range of projections into account, it feels pretty likely that Brindley will be on the board still when the Flyers pick at 22. Does this sound wishy-washy? It is, but that’s the best we can do at this point, folks.
What scouts are saying
Brindley is a high-motor player who excels on the defensive side of the puck. He’s a tenacious forechecker and reliable in defensive zone coverage. He’s always in motion, always attacking lanes, bouncing around defenders to find them, especially on the power play. He anticipates plays ahead of time and moves to support them. – EliteProspects 2023 NHL Draft Guide
Brindley’s a plus-level skater who gets through his extensions quickly (including from a standstill), excels on his edges, rounds corners sharply, and darts around the ice, hunting pucks and pushing through holes.
He’s also got some of the quicker hands and better touch on this list. He thrives in the small-area game, using light passes and rapid movements to play in and out of coverage. He has now impressed me wherever I’ve watched him (NCAA, USHL, Five Nations, U18 worlds, world juniors, etc.) as a small but highly involved forward who plays the game with energy and pace, making little skill plays between coverage. He buzzes around the ice and does such a good job releasing from one battle or chance to hunting or getting open for the next one. He’s always moving. He’ll make the soft play to the middle of the ice from the perimeter, or go there to get to rebounds or position himself on screens/tips. He’s excellent in puck protection twisting away from coverage to make things happen along the boards. And he just always seems to play well, no matter the role/usage/stage. – Scott Wheeler, The Athletic
After a bit of a break, we’ve got another defenseman breaking into the draft board mix, in Dimitriy Simashev.
Simashev is a toolsy defenseman as a 6-foot-4 blueliner who skates quite well for his size. He’s not dynamic offensively, but he has good puck skills, can beat checkers one-on-one with his hands, makes a solid outlet pass and makes some plays from the offensive blue line. He’s smooth and solid defensively, being good on his gaps and retrievals. Simashev competes hard, has some physicality in his game, and showed in the first half he could play against men at a young age. There is some debate on how much offense he has, but I think he has offense, and on a lesser junior team he would have scored more. – Corey Pronman, The Athletic
Who should be No. 24 on the Community Draft Board?