Fargo’s Yevenko Becoming a Force

Fargo Force defenseman Oleg Yevenko was a novelty at the 2009 USHL Fall Classic, grabbing some attention for being 6-foot-7, 230 pounds, but he did not look USHL-caliber or really up to the pace of the USHL. Fast forward less than two months from late September and Yevenko now looks like an NHL prospect. The Belarusian blueliner is now much more involved in the play, is keeping his feet moving, and is displaying impressive mobility, particularly for his size. This McKeen's correspondent has never seen such dramatic improvement from a player in such a short period of time. If Yevenko continues the steep development curve he's shown so far in the USHL, he'll be a dominant force by the end of the season. Even if he only improves a little bit, he'll still worthy of selection in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

McKeen's correspondent Kevin Wey was able to see the Fargo Force in action once in late October and once in the latter half of November and enters notes on the significantly improved Oleg Yevenko, the extremely mobile Eamonn McDermott, the underrated Garrett Allen, the playmaking Matt Leitner, and a number of other Forces to be reckoned with.

Oleg Yevenko (2010), D, Fargo Force

Significant improvement from October viewing to November viewing and especially from September viewing .. appears to have adapted to high-level North American hockey and is much more active in keeping his feet moving .. 6-foot-7, 230-pounder showed good quickness and lateral movement off faceoffs .. showed edge control at the Fall Classic and in October viewing, but now able to get out on his edges with the puck and is generating more power .. even demonstrated some good one-foot stops on his inside edge .. still a bit upright in his pivots from backward to forward and takes too many steps .. doing a better job keeping his gaps short and sporting a lower stance and wider base than earlier in the season, when he was quite upright .. looking more confident with the puck on his stick and using his reach to shield the puck .. most passes are crisp and accurate .. has a crisp one-timer .. does need to improve his ability to take the puck off the boards and get off a crisp shot .. has a decent slapshot .. overall, just so much more active on the ice than before, looks so much more confident, and starting to look like a big defenseman with real pro potential .. wild card for the 2010 Entry Draft, because if he continues this rate of improvement, he'll be very good by the end of the season and very enticing as a big man .. really hope the rest of my viewings of Yevenko live up to and/or surpass the extremely positive November viewing .. no college commitment of yet .. as of Nov. 24, he had 1 goal and 2 assists in 14 games, as well as 35 penalty minutes.

2010 Draft Grade: WC (Wild Card)

Eamonn McDermott (2010), D, Fargo Force

Highly mobile puck-moving defenseman with good hockey sense .. has very good speed with the puck and is able to make some sharp cuts with the puck to weave through traffic .. can also be very shifty with the puck, thanks to strong first-step quickness .. very quick laterally at the point and is adept walking the blueline with heads-up stickhandling and assessing his options .. very smooth receiving passes and taking the puck off the boards .. smooth circling backwards and can cover a lot of ground in his lateral crossovers .. mobility backwards makes him very rangy and allows him to let the gap close quickly .. gets down low backwards and is adept at making stick checks .. quarterback on the powerplay - sees all two minutes at times .. has excellent vision from the point and connects with crisp, accurate passes .. also dangerous from the half boards making plays .. able to catch hard passes well, too .. adept one-touch passer .. makes crisp, hard, accurate breakout passes .. has some dangle to his game to evade forecheckers or to make people look silly manning him at the point .. has excellent poise with the puck, as he can be tripped or checked and maintain his calm and still make the play .. has a crisp wristshot that he does a good job to keep low for deflections .. only real weakness is that he's 5-foot-9.5, 178 pounds, but have to believe some NHL team will consider the success of players like Tobias Enstrom in the NHL and pull the trigger on McDermott in the late rounds .. committed to Colorado College .. as of Nov. 24, he had 8 assists in 12 games .. played for Team USA at 2009 World Junior A Challenge and scored 1 goal and 3 assists in 5 games, fourth in WJAC defenseman scoring.

2010 Draft Grade: C (Seventh-rounder)

Garrett Allen (2010), RW, Fargo Force

Solid Fall Classic outing followed up with two solid regular season outings .. showing a little offensive prowess .. has nice cruising speed with the puck and is controlled and confident in his stickhandling .. heads-up stickhandler who is able to assess his options and can lay down some nice lateral stickhandling maneuvers .. uses his speed to drive the net from the alleys .. has a fairly hard wristshot .. speed is evident on the forecheck and the penalty kill .. good stride extension .. often F1 on the forecheck and consistently hustles .. will step up to make some hits or drop to block shots, no matter how hard the shot .. establishing himself as a top-six forward for Fargo and sees some time on both the penalty kill and the powerplay .. only real drawback is that he's a modest 5-foot-11, 170 pounds, but he doesn't play small and isn't prohibitively small .. offensive production has been encouraging and the two-way game is there .. Allen is worthy of late-round consideration .. no college commitment of yet .. as of Nov. 24, he had 6 goals and 5 assists in 16 games.

2010 Draft Grade: C (Seventh-rounder)

Matt Leitner (2010), C, Fargo Force

Playmaker now finding the net .. excellent patience and presence with the puck, as he stays calm under pressure .. doesn't panic receiving a bad pass .. able to disguise his intentions and make passes in the far periphery of his vision .. playmaker off the half boards who makes crisp, smooth passes .. an adept one-touch passer .. also a skilled saucer passer .. soft hands allow him to catch hard and/or difficult passes .. does have a tendency to watch his pass, though .. still able to undress opponents at half speed, as was the case last year .. has deceptive speed and is faster than he was, but does still need to further upgrade this area .. does show some quickness in short bursts for some separation, but his separation is more cerebral than explosiveness .. shows some hustle on the forecheck but uses positioning more than speed .. one of the few players in the USHL who consistently succeeds when slowing the game down .. scoring pace and improved goal totals, in addition to offensive presence, makes him deserving of some consideration for a late-round pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft .. in his second year of draft eligibility .. committed to Minnesota State University-Mankato .. as of Nov. 24, he had 9 goals and 11 assists in 12 games .. played for Team USA at 2009 World Junior A Challenge and scored 1 goal and 6 assists in 5 games, first in assists for the tournament and fourth in overall scoring.

2010 Draft Grade: C- (Possible pick)

Nate Schmidt (2010), D, Fargo Force

Somewhat reminiscent of 2008-09 Waterloo Black Hawk defenseman Lee Moffie, but a slight upgrade .. lets his gaps shrink, but needs to adjust his skating backwards some .. has decent backwards acceleration, but at times, he does continue to rely on crossovers too much .. needs to widen his base backwards to allow him to cover more ground laterally and give himself more stable, powerful base .. not afraid to block shots, either standing or sliding .. steps up with a great effort to make some big defensive plays in his own zone when needed .. plays with some physicality and steps up to make some hits .. has decent speed with and without the puck, but could use more .. displays some confidence with the puck .. makes crisp, accurate passes .. able to get off a hard, low pointshot with a quick wind-up and little motion .. has a decent wristshot and a nice off-foot wrister .. not big by NHL standards at 6-foot-0, although 197 pounds is reasonably solid .. not sold on Schmidt yet as a pick for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, but his production and icetime still nabs him a place as a possible pick .. committed to Minnesota .. as of Nov. 24, he had 5 goals and 8 assists in 16 games.

2010 Draft Grade: C- (Possible pick)

Alex Lippincott (2010), LW, Fargo Force

Potting some goals, but needs to improve skating .. still needs to lengthen stride, or at least consistently use longer strides .. stride is a bit choppy at times .. stride looked particularly bad in November viewing, where it needed lengthening but where the recovery phase was also insufficient .. does make some nice speed bursts at times both with and without the puck .. when he does lengthen his stride, which he does at times, he actually has decent speed .. puts in a good effort on the forecheck .. also a conscientious backchecker .. shows some hands now and again with some quick lateral stickhandling maneuvers or in calming jumpy pucks .. will stay back for pinching defensemen and works will with his defensemen on the backcheck .. has some talent, but a long shot for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft as things currently stand .. committed to Ohio State .. as of Nov. 24, he had 5 goals and 2 assists in 15 games.

2010 Draft Grade: D+ (Long shot)

Cody Campbell (2010), G, Fargo Force

Appears to have lost much of his confidence and isn't playing the same technical game he used to show .. is falling back toward the net on a lot on non-butterfly saves, such as kick saves or splits saves .. rebound control is now erratic .. struggling to control rebounds off his chest, which is bad news for butterfly goalies (read most any modern goalie) .. still doing okay directing pad saves into the corners .. still fairly quick laterally across the crease .. glove isn't as confident as before, as more pucks are bouncing off his glove and not going into the trapper and is also getting beat cleanly glove side .. showing his frustration some when opponents get close to him and laying the blocker on them, but not in a calm way like Lincoln's Jared Coreau does .. really hope to see Campbell regain his confidence and play his solid technical game again, because he's a solid goaltender when he does .. was a long shot to be drafted as a sub-six-foot goalie out of the USHL, but is now an extreme long shot for the 2010 Draft .. committed to New Hampshire .. as of Nov. 24, he had played 531:57 minutes in over 10 games and had a record of 6-3-0, a 2.82 G.AA., and a .862 save percentage.

2010 Draft Grade: D (Extreme long shot)

Blake Doerring (2010), D, Fargo Force

Doing what he should be a lot of the time, but appears to need more lower body strength .. is fairly upright backwards and could use a wider base .. when he employs a wider base, he seems to actually lose some lateral mobility, making me wonder if his hip structure will allow him to skate backwards the way he needs to .. conscientious in letting his gaps shrink and in engaging physically, although he's not in a power position with his upright stance backwards .. also gets a bit upright accelerating backwards .. makes hard, crisp accurate passes, be it on the breakout, transitioning the puck with his d-partner, or at the point .. has decent speed forward, but is a bit upright .. will drop to a knee to block shots .. an extreme long shot to be selected in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, his second year of eligibility, but has some potential if he improves his lower body strength, which should help his skating .. committed to Vermont .. as of Nov. 24, he had 2 assists in 11 games.

2010 Draft Grade: D (Extreme long shot)

Colten St.Clair (2011), C/RW, Fargo Force

Looks good, but not putting up the numbers in his second season in the USHL and hasn't made the jump as expected .. puts in a strong two-way effort .. puts in a good effort on the forecheck and can get very tenacious and make it difficult for the opponent to break the puck out .. will engage physically, but isn't a heavy hitter .. has nice quickness, employing speed bursts off the boards or in open ice to separate from opponents .. able to be quite shifty with his quickness, too, changing gears .. has good cruising speed and can get well out over his edges .. has quick hands .. decent snapshot .. heads-up stickhandler able to assess his options .. was expecting him to make the progress to become similar to Louis Leblanc in 2010-11, his draft year, and may still, but not certain he'll be a point-per-game-player next year .. production at the World Junior A Challenge was promising, though .. committed to North Dakota .. as of Nov. 24, he had 3 goals and 2 assists in 12 games .. played for Team USA at the 2009 World Junior A Challenge and scored 2 goals and 3 assists in 5 games, tying him for ninth in tournament scoring.

Brian Cooper (2012), D, Fargo Force

Not kept on the affiliate list for the entire season after all .. slightly smaller than Eamonn McDermott, but the mobility is there and is more physical than his teammate .. very quick and agile with the puck .. very quick laterally and can cover a lot of ground for a 5-foot-9 blueliner .. able to make powerful stops .. steps up to make some big hits at the both bluelines and in the neutral zone .. enthusiasm can sometimes cause him to end up all over the place .. appears very confident on the ice, particularly for having only turned 16 on Nov. 1 .. if he grows at least a couple more inches, he has a strong shot at selection in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft .. no college commitment of yet .. as of Nov. 24, he had 2 goals and 1 assist in 15 games.

Nick Oliver (Nsh), LW/RW, Fargo Force

Receiving about as limited of icetime as I've seen for an NHL draft pick in the USHL .. however, notes on him are quite positive .. able to make quick tight turns on the forecheck and able to get way down .. shows good quickness down low in the offensive zone and quick from assignment to assignment on the forecheck .. employs some nice speed bursts for loose pucks .. finishes his checks .. able to use his 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame and reach to shield the puck .. playing primarily in a fourth-line role for Fargo, but certainly could fill in on higher lines if called upon .. committed to St. Cloud State .. as of Nov. 24, he had 2 assists in 13 games.