Steven Lawrence: 2013 WHL Draft Prospect

Steven Lawrence (North West Calgary Athletics Association)

Lawrence is often the catalyst for Calgary’s offensive game. He is very skilled and creative with the puck. If he was much bigger than his 5’6 height, he would surely receive more hype by the scouts.

The first thing you notice about Lawrence in the warm ups is how quickly he moves with the puck, and how smooth he looks. He is able to take those abilities to game situations and really thrive in the offensive zone. He makes plays very quickly and is able to recognize great chances faster than opponents and catch them making a mistake in coverage. He has very good stickhandling skills, and will burn opponents in one on one situations off the rush and create a partial break for himself and his teammates. He is more of a playmaker than a shooter, but he does have a good release to his shots. He just needs to improve the velocity on it to be more dangerous in a shooting position.

The biggest flaw to Lawrence’s game is his play without the puck. It is not because he does not put in effort or cannot think the game well, but it is just the lack of size that hurts him ultimately. He cannot really push opponents off the puck or get positioning on bigger players. He has to rely on his hockey sense to try to read plays much more quickly than it is happening and create turnovers instead. Unless if he grows a few inches, this will have to be his strength in the defensive zone.

It is difficult to predict just how much impact Steven Lawrence could have at the junior level. He is great with the puck and is able to put up points now, but his size could be a big deterrence to his offensive potential. He will need to be quicker on his feet and read the play at an elite level to be successful as he gets older.