In-depth breakdown: Rutger McGroarty (2022 draft profile)

In the 2022 draft, our analyst at TSLH Espoirs, Simon St-Laurent, ranked Rutger McGroarty 21st among the best prospects in this draft class. The captain of the American team had quite a match against Slovakia. Here is the profile that Simon drew up before the 2022 draft.

McGroarty is a player I was looking forward to see this season because, although he was in several preliminary top 10s, I hated what I had saw out of him the season before. This is explained by the fact that I found him to be a rather one-dimensional player offensively, not having a very vast repertoire of offensive weapons, among other things, by an almost total lack of talent as a playmaker. And moreover, his skating represented a major deficiency in an already limited game. The performances he offered this year were up and down and he made me change my mind more than once. Undeniable progress has been made but hiss success at the next level still arouses a lot of precariousness as far as I am concerned.

His biggest obstacle to overcome is still his skating, even if it is much better than last year. In the case of McGroarty, the limitations observed do not only stop at the technical aspects but also affect the player’s own perception of himself. It is well known that for a player to be successful he must have a good understanding of the game, but far too much is overlooked in the understanding that players must have of their own game. McGroarty proved to be very inconsistent in this respect during the season. He doesn’t always seem aware of the limits he has. On occasion he worked very well within the limits assigned to him but this was interspersed with sequences where he gained more confidence in his skating skills than he should have. He was then trying to be a player who he isn’t (nor within his reach) and he lost sight of what he had to do to maximize his strengths and be effective on the ice. An example of a player who did this well is Brandt Clarke. Although I wasn’t a huge fan of his last year, he had a very honest assessment of his game and he recognized the options to avoid, among other things, not advocating carrying pucks during his zone exits since his skating did not allow him to do so.

Since he started his season on a high note in this regard, I’ll start by laying out what he was doing well:

– One of the big differences with his skating compared to last year is the posture he adopts with his upper body. We see it more inclined than last year, taking advantage of the gravitational force.

– Also, in line with body leverage, McGroarty doesn’t have the speed to beat defenders but I saw him early in the season only needing a slight separation from the defender to then drop his shoulder and tuck in below them to then cut to the net. I saw him score a great goal like that.

– His agility on his skates has also improved a lot. He can now, to some degree, be able to pivot on himself and brake hard when changing direction to fool an opponent. An additional advantage which was mainly observed during the powerplay where it allowed him to benefit from a few additional seconds before making a play and/or in order not to commit turnovers.

– At the level of intelligence that I mentioned earlier, at the beginning of the year he recognized his limits and knew that he could not carry the puck deep into the opposing zone, so he braked when entering the O-zone and waited for the arrival of a teammate.

– This play selection was also observed in the neutral zone where he would quickly hand the puck to a teammate and immediately explode towards the center of the ice to head for the net. What I liked about plays like that was not only the awareness of his weaknesses, but also the fact that he already knew what to, planning his next plan in advance.

– Following a (prolonged) more difficult period for him, he returned to basics around January and we saw him become more efficient thanks to a simplified game. It is with this aspect, combined with a notable improvement in his speed, that we have seen him opt for puck rejections in enemy territory rather than attempting plays that do not work for him. I would even say that he uses those kinds of plays to his advantage when a defender played with an overly aggressive ‘Gap-Control’ in the neutral zone to pass the puck by the boards for himself and take advantage of a bad pivot from the defender to create a zone entry or an odd-man rush.

However, for most of the first half of the season, McGroarty believed he could create plays using his skating on a regular basis, which was not the case:

– The progress he has made in terms of agility mainly serves him in tighter spaces where he can use his size in puck protection as well as his hands but we have seen him try to mystify his opponents everywhere on the ice, without success.

– We saw him gain too much confidence (which is not always a good thing) in his ability to carry the puck and he started looking to beat defenders with speed instead of dumping the puck.

– He had also started opting for finesse plays rather than prioritizing simple plays. Instead of taking the corridors that were given to him, he changed direction and tried to play a little more East-West and he constantly found himself in dead zones, losing possession of the puck.

Technically, McGroarty has a lot to work on in terms of his skating. There are those players that skating seems to be ‘Effortless’ and there’s McGroarty.

Two other aspects that I find worrying about the projection of his skating in the years to come is that; First, I wonder if he has the genetic profile to gain enough power in his strides. His skating cadency is very high and yet he is not a fast skater. He doesn’t generate much power when pushing. Physiologically speaking, if we do not have a profile predisposed to power and explosiveness, we cannot expect too much improvement in this regard.

Finally, this concern is exacerbated by the fact that McGroarty is already quite mature physically (6’0, 205lbs). The margin of progress he could benefit from with training in the gym is more limited than that of other players. Samuel Poulin was a player that I adored and who came from the same mold (already high body mass index and average skating) and he did not make the progress that I would have liked to see him make at this level. However, since there is always another side to a coin, Aatu Raty was also already physically mature last year IN ADDITION to being even further behind McGroarty mechanically and he has made incredible progress to that effect this season. Like what, nothing is lost for the American winger.

*** End of season note: McGroarty’s skate is ‘okay’ for me and I don’t have too many worries anymore. That being said, he often falls back into the same patterns of thinking he’s better than he really is trying to be the puck-carrier on his line and trying to beat defensemen with the outside or with his agility. It loses a lot of its effectiveness as well. ***

Probably the best quality in McGroarty’s game is his shot. The American winger is a very good scorer. His shot is extremely heavy and his release is done excessively quickly, taking the goalkeepers by surprise on several occasions. We often see him take shots right after a face-off win and the opposing defenders do not even have time to put their stick to deflect the shot. A player can’t be a good goal scorer only by the quality of their shot, fortunately for McGroarty, he has a very good instinct and he anticipates in advance where the puck will end up and he easily spots the free areas.

The aspect of the NTDP captain’s game that won me over the most during the season, even more than the improvement in his skating, is the renewal he has made in terms of his passing skills. Not only is the contrast to last season striking, but there are multiple layers to his playmaking skills. One of the first things that attracts compliments is that he constantly recognizes the right passing option to favor, carefully evaluating the risks and success rates of the various choices presented to him. One of the main occasions when these plays are denoted is during the power plays where he is often found at the bottom of the goal line. He shows good patience, never forcing any passes. He excels at spotting a player leaving his position to come to the mouth of the net but I’ve seen him adjust in real time several times as a defender comes down to cut the pass line. He was instead delaying his play and making sure his team retained possession of the puck instead. Another aspect that really blew me away about his playmaking skills is his Spatial-Awareness which boils down to awareness of his surroundings and the position of his teammates and opponents. I’ve seen him join teammates near the net when they weren’t in his line of sight. Finally, he can occasionally complete passes with a high coefficient of difficulty, the most frequent being by joining a teammate who rushes to the net when there does not seem to be a passing line.

The sturdy winger also has good hands. They are mainly used in tight spaces; in front of the net and behind the goal line, where he is often found during power play. It is also a place where he scored several of his goals. He has the puck handling to allow him to get rid of a first player but he has the same annoying habit as with his skating which is: not knowing when to stop and recognizing the limits to his talent.

It would be so much more effective if after having deking a player, he would pass the puck to a teammate and went into position to shoot or go in front of the net. Instead, he will try to deke another player or pass between the 2 defenders when he does not have the speed or the hand dexterity to do so. He has all the profile of a good modern power forward (he can throw his body around quite well) but he seems to think he is a very talented finesse player. I would be very curious to know which player he compares himself to….

Despite the fact that he doesn’t always seem to know how to take advantage of his qualities and that he sometimes tries to do too much (depending on what he is capable of), I believe that it is possible to teach McGroarty how to play effective hockey within his own skill set and limitations, and that if done properly, he could become a useful player who can be used anywhere in a lineup.