Trevor Connelly : In-Depth Scouting Report
Trevor Connelly has attracted a lot of attention this season, mainly for off-ice reasons, but his play on the ice is just as polarizing. Apart from the controversies, Connelly has produced at each level of play in which he has played this season: best scorer at the Hlinka tied with Berkly Catton, 2nd best at the WJAC tournament, 9 pts in 7 games at the U-18 but above all, the best PPG in the USHL.
Connelly is an electrifying player, there are no better words to describe him. Very few players can carry the puck from one end of the ice to the other like he can. When you combine high puck control with such speed, it’s no wonder defenders struggle to contain him. Despite all the criticism I throw at him, I have to give him nothing but praise for his propensity to attack the net while he is at full speed. You don’t take such risks on the ice if you don’t have a high level of dedication to helping your team win.
In addition to being very fast, Connelly has the unique ability to quickly change direction while already at full speed. The defenders do not have the footwork necessary to adjust their approach and counter him. I have a particular affection for how he uses this technicality to get between two opponents, once again demonstrating his temerity.
Another unique thing about his skating is that not only can he use skillful pivots in tight spaces, but he is able to accelerate out of those pivots and create space for himself.
The Tri-City Storm representative is one of the most exciting puck handlers in this draft. Most impressive is how he manages to maneuver inside the Defenders Triangle.
Offensively, Connelly’s production will always be closely tied to his playmaking skills. I will admit to not having the most favorable bias towards Connelly but he is capable of orchestrating highlights reel plays. He stands out from other passers because of his great generosity when he finds himself near the net. This constitutes a strange paradox given his predisposition to keep the puck too long. Despite a certain selfishness, he will deprive himself of golden opportunities to shoot to instead feed his teammates.
Often, players who stretch their possession of the puck until they lose it are players who don’t have very good vision. This is not the case for Connelly. The American forward is also one of the best in this class at making cross-ice passes. What makes his puck distribution skills so sharp is that he is an adept at making the defensive coverage move before making his play. We could even talk about a certain element of unpredictability because you never know when he will think about passing the puck, him who generally extends his puck possessions.
As a shooter, despite his 31 goals in the USHL this season, I don’t see a ton of Upside as a scorer for Connelly. His shot is not the most powerful and it is also because, apart from his rushes to the net, we don’t see him much in the dangerous areas. Many of his shots come from the outside. And without the puck, he is not the one who lures in heavy traffic.
So far everything seems to indicate that Connelly is a prospect worthy of a high draft selection, so why am I taking such a strong stance on the player? This may seem overly harsh, but for pretty much the entire season, I was describing Connelly as a very talented athlete who doesn’t know how to play hockey, at least not team-oriented, structured hockey.
Right off the bat, Connelly is possibly the player who commits the most turnovers that I have ever seen. I am ready to live with a certain number since, as I explained in my profile on Ivan Demidov, there is a strong correlation between the level of skill of players and the number of turnovers committed by them. You don’t want to prevent your best offensive elements of exploiting their talent, but it’s all a question of Ratio. In Connelly’s case, the number of turnovers is just too hard for me to ignore.
The majority of his possession losses come as a result of individualistic plays but behind that we also observe two other rather alarming details in his game.
First of all, his level of effort to try to repair his mistake is almost non-existent. This is inexcusable.
And secondly, we can observe that Connelly is easily neutralized when defenders engage the body in front of him. He has no way out if his first deke doesn’t work, he will never have the physique or the strength to win a battle for the puck afterwards.
Beyond losing pucks following selfish plays, Connelly commits just as many turnovers throughout his passing.
Generally, when a player has a level of talent clearly above the competition, it would be expected to be easy for his teammates to play with that player; he can create passing openings with a good deke, he can spot difficult passing options, push defenders back with his speed, he won’t miss his chances to put the puck in the net, etc. Unfortunately, it’s HARDER for Connelly’s teammates to play with him. They are used to seeing him hold the puck for far too long the majority of the time he touches it. However, it often happens that when he gives them the puck, they don’t even expect it because it is too unusual in his tendencies.
He often treats his teammates as an option of last resort, an escape route of sorts. Mainly in transition, when the play is closing in on him and he doesn’t see how he could get out of this situation.
Furthermore, even if these passes reach the target, they still place the recipient in a precarious situation.
In the offensive zone, he is the victim of a lot of turnovers because he attempts very low percentage plays.
One sequence in particular just made me fuming. The play takes place at 3-on-3 in overtime. Connelly holds the puck and after performing a few tricks he momentarily lose the puck as it heads along the boards.
Instead of taking pressure on himself, accepting his rival’s hit and handing it to the defender at his blue line, Connelly was quick to throw the puck behind the net (surprise, a defender from the opposing team gets hold of it) and then returns limply to his team’s bench. The strategies of teams in overtime are now to imperatively keep the puck at all cost, there were still 4 minutes left in the OT period and he sacrificed a possession because he didn’t want to get hit. This is unacceptable, in my opinion.
His game without the puck is very erratic. He can get his feet caught in the cement during opposing counter-attacks if the puck carrier is facing him. Following this, he found himself hypnotized by the puck and forgot to cover his player.
It can also be confusing trying to understand some of his decisions on the ice. Twice, when he was the last player on his team on the ice, his stick broke. An opponent grabbed the puck and only had Connelly, without a stick, able to prevent him from getting to the net on a breakaway. Rather than trying to block his opponent’s path with his body, he went back carelessly to his bench to retrieve another stick, thus giving his opponent a clear route to the net.
When playing on the PK, we could see his immaturity when he only seemed to want to try to create offense, even in a situation short of a man.
Additionally, his positioning in such situations is simply atrocious. He concedes too much space to the players at the point when they have the puck and it is one of his teammates who have to tell him to go put pressure on him. As said previously, he is often hypnotized by the puck so rather than focusing on his assigned zone, he moves to cover the same passing lane that his partner up front is already monitoring.
Regarding this, there are two ways of looking at things. The first would be to say, Connelly won’t play on the penalty kill in the NHL anyway, so why would it matter if he doesn’t excel in that facet in the USHL? To which I respond that this exposes significant deficiencies in his defensive reads and that similar scenarios can also occur at 5-on-5.
In short, following this reading, you now have all the arguments which explain why I place this player so low in my list. As for off-ice stories, I don’t put weight on that in my evaluations. I respect everyone’s opinions on this subject.
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