Young Defensemen Wow in Waterloo

Fifteen-year-old Nick Ebert established himself at the Battle of Iowa, early in the 2009 USHL preseason, as one of the top prospects for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft and he didn't disappoint during the regular season.

At the midway point of the regular season, additional youth in the form of Cody Von Rueden and Jacob MacDonald was injected into Waterloo's d-corps, and they too quickly made their mark. Von Rueden is a budding defensive defenseman that could become a potential late-round pick for the 2011 Draft with improvement in a couple areas and another inch or two. MacDonald joined the team as a free agent after the Christmas break out of the midget major ranks and immediately impressed with his puck-moving prowess.

McKeen's correspondent Kevin Wey was able to catch the Waterloo Black Hawks in action a few times during the second half of the regular season and once in the playoffs and enters notes on Nick Ebert, Cody Von Rueden, and Jacob MacDonald, as well as some of the Black Hawks' defensemen and goaltenders eligible for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

Nick Ebert (2012), D, Waterloo

Still on track to be something special .. still uses his wide skating track, and is still a great skater .. able to get well out on his edges when skating the puck .. powers out of tight turns and wide turns alike .. has long, powerful strides and can go end-to-end now and again .. smooth circling backwards with the puck .. sheer mobility allows him to quickly transition the puck .. gets a lot of knee bend in his turns and can make smooth one-legged cuts .. had decent shot power to begin the season, but this increased .. now has a legitimately hard slapper and keeps it low .. plays with some physicality in his defensive zone and can engage at the blueline, thanks to his mobility backwards .. does still need to work on subtleties of defensive game, such as continuing to face the opponent when he stops .. saw less powerplay time after MacDonald arrived and established himself .. did still see a little time in all situations, though .. attended the USNTDP's Selection Camp and was offered a spot but declined, keeping his word that he'd play in Waterloo at least two years .. likely to play on Waterloo's second d-pairing next year, possibly with MacDonald, as a first pairing of Zach Palmquist and Blake Thompson would make some sense .. no college commitment of yet .. scored 6 goals and 12 assists in 53 games .. scored 1 goal in 3 playoff games.

Cody VonRueden (2011), D, Waterloo

Budding defensive defenseman already improving in some vital areas .. criticized Von Rueden for lacking speed at midseason, but he started to show a little speed and quickness by the end of the season .. drops his chest a fair amount when he skates forward, though.. gets very low backwards .. conscientious in letting his gaps shrink .. still backs in a little bit, but was a little less susceptible to speed as he was earlier in the season .. 6-foot-0, 192-pounder plays with some physicality in the defensive zone and steps up for hits in the neutral zone from time to time .. needs to work on his puck moving .. can make crisp passes, but they're sometimes in the skates or to nobody at all .. currently projects as only a potential pick for the 2011 Draft, but if he grows an inch or two, continues to improve his speed, and hones his puck-moving, he could project as a late-round pick in 2011 .. no college commitment of yet .. scored 1 goal and 8 assists in 32 games for Waterloo .. scored 4 goals and 5 assists in 36 Tier 1 Elite League games for the Chicago Young American's midget major team .. played in two of Waterloo's three playoff games and went without a point.

Jacob MacDonald (2011), D, Waterloo

Joined the Black Hawks after the Christmas break and wowed with his puck-moving prowess .. makes hard, crisp, accurate passes .. able to connect on long-distance passes .. reads the play well and knows what he's going to do with the puck before he gets it, which allows him to move the puck quickly .. makes quick decisions with the puck, and they're often good decisions .. has good presence with the puck and will calmly regroup if he needs to and can draw opponent to him and then thread a pass through .. is already incorporating fakes at the point into his game, putting him ahead of the curve of such impressive former USHL defensemen as Matt Donovan and Nick Jensen .. has a crisp wristshot and gets it in on net .. has some finishing ability when he pinches in .. a decent stickhandler who can toe drag the puck out of traffic and break it out .. quickly inserted himself on the Waterloo powerplay .. decent defensively, too .. maintains a short gap and can step up and play the body .. also an adept stick checker .. not big at 6-foot-0, 190 pounds, but could easily be a bit taller by June 2011 .. strong chance of being a third-round caliber prospect for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft and could easily bump up to the second-round if he grows an inch or two .. no college commitment of yet .. scored 4 goals and 6 assists in 29 games for Waterloo .. scored 4 goals and 11 assists in 28 Tier 1 Elite League games for Compuware's midget major team .. played in two of Waterloo's three playoff games and went without a point.

Daniel Sova (2010), D, Waterloo

Waterloo's leader on defense had a solid second season in the USHL .. basically the same Sova as earlier in the season .. skating continues to need a lot of work .. has adequate speed .. lumbering in his skating and brings his skates up too much in his recovery phase at times .. gets upright in his pivots and is clunky in his first few steps .. is also upright in his crossovers, and his edge control can be a little suspect .. shot from the point is a strength .. has a crisp wristshot from the point and an extremely heavy slapshot .. as during the first half of the season, he played a more disciplined game than last season and wasn't as mean out in front of his net as in 2009-10 .. one of the better players in the USHL in terms of verbally communicating with his d-partner and forwards .. after losing in Game Three to Green Bay, he was very classy during the handshake .. now listed at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds .. as I've said before, Sova is like AHLer Dan Jancevski .. his game isn't pretty, but he generally gets the job done and adds a lot of quality character to the team .. likely to go undrafted in his third and final year of eligibility, but it's not impossible that Sova comes out of college with a two-way NHL contract .. committed to Michigan Tech (2010) .. scored 6 goals and 31 assists in 60 games .. finished sixth in USHL defenseman scoring .. finished second in USHL defenseman assists .. finished sixth in USHL defenseman powerplay assists .. scored 9 points (1-8-9) in 8 games March 6 through March 26 .. had a seven-game pointless streak Jan. 22 through Feb. 8 .. started the season with 1 assist in his first 12 games.

Blake Thompson (2010), D, Waterloo

Has continued to hone his game and is on a positive development track .. skating is looking more and more like a professional .. has good speed and has continued to become even smoother when skating the puck .. able to build good speed behind his net and can skate it out and through the neutral zone .. turns are smooth and powers out of his crossovers .. executes powerful pivots .. occasionally drops his chest a lot when skating without the puck and almost resembles an inverted "L" .. makes smooth, hard, crisp breakout passes .. still needs to hone his passing game, though, as some passes are off target and sometimes are to nobody .. fires smooth, hard wristshots from the point and keeps them low .. wristshots from the point are prime for deflection .. has a heavy slapper from the point .. maintains a wide base backwards .. lets his gaps close and can angle his man to rub him out along the boards .. typically engages in the neutral zone or near the blueline, but still backs in more than he needs to from time to time .. has good size at 6-foot-3, 218 pounds .. an extreme long shot for selection in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, which is his second year of eligibility .. won't be surprised if Thompson is on Waterloo's first d-pair in 2010-11 with Zach Palmquist as his partner .. continued honing of his passing game and increased production in 2010-11 could push Thompson to consideration for late-round draft consideration in 2011 .. no college commitment of yet .. scored 2 goals and 6 assists in 59 games .. played all three playoff games and went without a point.

C.J. Motte (2010), G, Waterloo

Established himself as Waterloo's number one goaltender and fended off numerous challengers during the season .. has effective crease movements .. able to load up and get to the opposite post with some quickness, but is no Matt Skoff .. maintains a compact butterfly .. can be drawn down early by moves (this was especially bad in Game Three of the playoffs against Green Bay) .. doesn't have the quickness of most athletic goaltenders, but does have an athletic base to make big splits save or big saves coming across the crease when he has to .. typically plays a very calm, composed game in net .. consistently comes out of his crease to stop dumped pucks and can move them up the boards with authority when not leaving them for defensemen or center .. confident in sweeping pucks away with his stick .. also has a good stick for poking rebounds away .. gives up rebounds in front of himself, but is pretty quick in covering them .. makes calm, confident glove saves .. does a good job of directing blocker saves into the corner .. starts giving up prime rebounds if he lets his technical game break down under scrambles .. not as pretty as some goalies technically (again, say, Matt Skoff), but is pretty effective .. has sufficient size at 6-foot-0, 190 pounds .. probably an extreme long shot for selection in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, but Motte is an effective goalie who definitely has an NCAA D1 future ahead of him .. no college commitment of yet .. played 2214:33 MIN in over 43 games and compiled a record of 21-15-0, 2 shutouts, a 3.28 goals-against average, and a .897 save percentage .. won 13 of 14 starts Jan. 8 through Feb. 26 .. played 179:50 over Waterloo's three playoff games and went 0-3-0 with a 4.00 goals-against average and a .867 save percentage.

Other Notes

Did not catch Will Yanakeff in action with Waterloo. Yanakeff, who was acquired by Waterloo at the USHL roster freeze for Nick Sorkin, was the USHL Goalie of the Week March 29 after two consecutive shutouts the prior weekend, but he still finished with a 3.41 goals-against average and a .872 save percentage in 10 games (528:30), as well as a 5-5-0 record, numbers below those of Motte, and Motte was the only goaltender who tended net for Waterloo in the playoffs. Adding in Yanakeff's statistics with Sioux City, he finished with a total of 1141:54 over 22 games, a 10-9-0 record, 2 shutouts, a 3.31 goals-against average, and a .880 save percentage. Yanakeff is a potential pick for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, but the odds aren't good after he had to miss nearly six weeks rehabbing a hip he had surgery on last summer and putting up numbers generally insufficient to be drafted out of the USHL. He does have a good resume, though, having played for the USNTDP (before being dismissed in March 2009 for a team rules violation) and he looks to be heading to a good situation at Michigan State.