2012 NHL Draft Scouting Report: Devin Shore

Devin Shore / Whitby Fury /Centre / 6’0″ / 184 / Jul. 19th, 1994

Write Up

Devin Shore is a player who has taken a bit of a different path compared to his peers. Drafted by the Barrie Colts in the 2010 OHL Draft, Shore is a player who almost immediately made it known that the NCAA was his preferred destination. Right after the Draft, Shore committed to Maine right after the draft, and instead of playing midget, he chose to play at Hill Academy, a private school in Aurora Ontario. After a year at Hill, Shore moved to Whitby to play with the Fury. Initially, it was expected that Shore would be a top six forward and contribute offensively, however he quickly was promoted to the Fury’s top line, and was the Fury’s top offensive forward. He was a member of Canada’s silver medal winning entry at the World Jr A Challenge, and was named an MVP of the tournament. He was also named the OJHL rookie of the year this season. He is planning on heading to Maine next season, however his OHL rights are healed by the Barrie Colts, who are extremely interested in bringing him in next season. He projects out as a top 9 forward, with a high offensive ceiling.

Strengths

Shore is an offensively minded forward. He is at his best skating the puck into the offensive zone, reading the play and making an intelligent assessment. He shows strong puck skills and is effective at reading the play in the offensive zone. He displayer good offensive intelligence, and is strong at anticipating plays in the offensive zone. He is an extremely smart player, knows where to go be in the offensive zone and has the ability to anticipate the play two to three plays in the future. Another aspect of his game that I love is the year over year progression. In Ajax he was viewed as a depth player at the next level. In the past two season, he has developed leaps and bounds over what he was at 16. If he continues to develop at that same level, he could be a real steal in the fourth round.

 

Weakness

Shore has a few areas that ne needs to continue to work on. First and foremost, he struggles with his positional play. He always is the first player to leave his zone during the breakout, and often can be the last player to leave the offensive zone. That may be by design, but more attention to detail in his own zone is definitely needed. He has some room to with his footwork. He needs to work on maximizing his first few steps and adding an explosive element to his skating stride.

 

Individual skill Rankings (out of 10)

Skating: 6.5

Skill : 7.5

Complete: 7

Hockey Sense: 8

Positional Play: 6.5

Strength/Toughness: 7

 

Projection

Shore is projected as a top 9 forward with a high projectable ceiling. In the past two years he has significantly improved his overall skill set, and if he continues to progress at the same rate that he has in the past two years, he could be a steal in the fourth round.

 

Draft Ranking:

Shore is projected as a mid fourth round draft selection, and should be selected between 100th to 120th overall.