November Notebook: Galloway

Every season, scouts from Future Considerations spend countless hours gathering information on the next wave of NHL talent coming down the pipe. Future Considerations’ Eastern head scout Dylan Galloway is no different.

Here is Galloway’s notebook from November.

Tag Bertuzzi, C, Guelph (OHL), 6-1, 198, 2-18-2001
Bertuzzi shows a tremendous amount of compete on nearly every shift. He shows a strong ability to get and maintain possession of the puck through awesome strength on his skates and incredible body positioning. He really shines below the goal line where he has an innate ability to hold defenders at bay with sharp turns and excellent balance, as well as smartly finding space for him to skate into. Once Bertuzzi has created space for himself he becomes a highly intelligent passer, distributing the puck all over the offensive zone like a QB from the pocket. His shot definitely needs some work but I like his toolset as a playmaking power forward

Billy Constantinou, D, Kingston (OHL), 6-0, 185, 3-25-2001
Constantinou is a smart puck-carrying, offensive defenseman. He’s excellent at reading the play and knowing when to race the puck up the ice, and with his skating acumen is quite often. He’s got quick feet and is good at utilizing his smarts to weave through the neutral zone. Once he gathers speed with the puck, Constantinou is incredibly hard to contain and exploits the open ice to gain entry to the offensive zone and get the puck deep. Constantinou is going to be extremely interesting to watch over the rest of the season after he was traded from Niagara to Kingston. As a defender who excels at creating offense through intelligent passing, even with the increased ice time Constantinou might be hard-pressed to find someone to finish for him in Kingston especially now that their top scorer, Jason Robertson, is in Niagara.

Phillip Tomasino, C, Niagara (OHL), 6-0, 180, 7-28-2001
Tomasino is a possession monster whose explosive speed and solid East-West skating makes him lethal at carrying the puck into the offensive zone with possession. Tomasino utilizes a really active stick in all areas of the ice, closing lanes and getting pucks loose on the defensive side, as well as being creative and dynamic with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone. This can also get him into trouble though, as he will occasionally over handle the puck and get lost in the one-on-one game. He’s got a real chance to rise up the draft board now that Niagara has made it very clear they are in go-for-it mode, so long as he gets the ice time.