Barnaby, Marek gush over Maple Leafs prospect Jeremy Bracco (Fan 590)
Kitchener Rangers assistant coach Matthew Barnaby:
We had to make that decision to trade Jeremy and give him that opportunity to help a team win. There were a lot of teams that were looking for his services, trust me. He’s the best passer in the CHL in junior hockey, bar none, and no one is even close. When he opens up into his 10-2, his skill level is off the charts.
He’s a rink rat. He loves to be at the rink hours a day talking hockey, thinking hockey. He can be an NHLer. Like all junior guys, he has to work on some facets of his game. Certainly, under Mike Babcock he’ll learn the defensive side of the game, the compete level on the defensive side. But pure skill, and the way he passes the puck, he has the skill to be a National Hockey League player.
We saw last night that the way he moves pucks around — even early on when he didn’t have points and it was scoreless — he could’ve had three or four points earlier in that game. Setting up the winning goal is really typical Jeremy Bracco; provide your own time and space by opening up. Guys are really scared to go at him because he can make you look silly by going around you. If you give him enough time and space, he’s going to find the open man like he did.
He’s got the skill to be an NHLer. Time will tell. But they’ve got a great prospect in Jeremy.
Jeff Marek:
Such a highly-skilled player. You look at that goal that ended up being the game winner. He starts off that mohawk style skating around the blue line, and no one does it better in the CHL than Jeremy Bracco. He may be the most creatively gifted playmaker in the entire CHL, with all due respect to Mathew Barzal. When you look at that 10-2 skating style — the Jeff Skinner, Ulf Dahlen style of skating — there is no one better than Jeremy Bracco right now. It confuses the defencemen because you don’t know which way he’s going to go. You don’t know what he’s going to do; you don’t know if he’s going to accelerate or decelerate, or if he’s going to shoot or pass.
I always stop short of saying he needs to get stronger because you look at what happens with Mitch Marner this year, bu then I say to myself, “How many Mitch Marners can you have on the team?” He’s got great vision. He’s got great skill. You’d still like to say to yourself, “let him season with the Marlies before you bring him up to the big club.” But this guy has sort of jumped over every hurdle that’s been placed in front of him — U18 champion, U20 champion, and now MasterCard Memorial Cup champion. And, for my money — with all due respect to Dylan Strome, who was excellent in the tournament and was the MVP — he may have been the best forward in the entire tournament.