Bubnick, Jimmy - RW - Kamloops WHL

Jimmy Bubnick / Kamloops Blazers WHL

RW-R / 6-2.0, 194 / 19-Jan-91

Skating: 35 / Skill: 60 / Sense: 45 / Compete: 45 / Tough: 55

Strengths: Shoots the puck very well. Decent size and has the ability to be a force down low and along the boards. Good straight line speed

Weaknesses: A bit heavy footed and has no lateral quickness. Very streaky. Grinding style of last season almost completely disappeared this season.

Even with the increase in offensive output this season (25 goals in 07-08 vs. 9 in 06-07), I think I prefer the Bubnick of last season more. Seemed to do a lot more hanging out in the high slot waiting to be fed the puck this year. Did not go into the corners or battle in the crease nearly as much as he did in his rookie season. And that's going to be his ticket to the next level, if anything.

Skating is what really knocks him down my list, however. Improved his stride a lot this year and has some okay speed now, but still no shiftyness or acceleration. Struggles in transition and up-tempo games, so he needs to keep up the work ethic in the dirty areas.

On the plus side, shoots the puck very well from the high slot on in. And when he's winning puck battles behind the net, he can make some nifty passes out front in tight quarters. Other than that, I'm not sure there's real good hockey sense here. Incredibly streaky - most of the offensive output came in two hot stretches (beginning of season and January) - and was close to invisible for the rest of the time.

Summary: I have a hard time figuring out what he might be at the next level. Even if he returns to doing the heavy board work, I'm not sure he's going to be strong enough to be a corner-mucker. And I don't see how he can be a finesse/dynamic guy either with the skating issues. I probably wouldn't consider until the 3rd round.

Draft Day: I expect him to go higher than I have him, but if NHL staffs agree with me, he could slide a bit on draft day. I can only guess at a very wide range of anywhere from the early 2nd to mid-4th.