We’re getting into a bit of a trend here, and after spending some time digging into a project winger last time out, we’re diving straight into our next one.
After some dramatics delayed his move from Finland to North America, Oscar Hemming got in for a key second half of this season with Boston College of the NCAA. A winger with some real size and speed, Hemming presents as a prototypical power forward, and while this season didn’t leave him with a ton of runway to show the completeness of his skillset, he showed just enough to leave viewers and pundits with a lot of optimism about how well and quickly his game can build itself up into something productive and pro-ready.
Pre-draft rankings
Ranked #13 by NHL Central Scouting (NA Skaters)
Ranked #18 by Elite Prospects
Ranked #17 by The Athletic (Scott Wheeler)
Ranked #15 by Sportsnet (Jason Bukala)
Ranked #17 by Daily Faceoff
Statistics
What’s there to like?
This year was a weird one for Hemming — initially he was supposed to move from the Finnish leagues to the CHL, but after a dispute with his contract and a resistance to releasing him, that didn’t pan out, and after quite a bit of waiting and back and forth, Hemming was finally cleared to join the NCAA with Boston College for the second half of their season. For Hemming, this meant a bit of jumping on a moving train type of situation unfolding for him, sliding into a season in progress with one of the top teams in the NCAA, but he was able to find his bearings quite quickly.
Some of this will have almost certainly come down to the fact that his frame is already quite ready for that jump up in leagues — he clocks in at 6’4 and 204 pounds as still one of the younger players in this class — but his style of play as well made this transition a pretty seamless one. Hemming is, in a lot of ways, the prototypical power forward. His frame allows him to break through coverage and win a high volume of physical battles, but the strength of his skating is what really allows him to break things open. His straight line speed is solid, but he’s also quite strong on his edges, and able to use his crossovers well to go around defenders, adding an extra level of slipperiness to his game, on top of the immediate apparent power.
His offensive toolkit, on the whole, is a good one. We didn’t see his scoring game popping in a major way in that second half stint with the Eagles, but there remains a sense that the scoring will come for him before too long — the strength of his shot is such that he should be able to beat goalies well enough at that level, and his focus on getting to the netfront for tips is one that will all but certainly lead to longer term success, once the bounces start going for him. His catch-and-release shooting could still use some work, could use a bit more pace, but the fundamentals are pretty well in place for him, and with a good offseason into a normal college season, he’s well positioned to continue to build up that game nicely. The same goes for his playmaking game — adding a bit more pace in his decision making would serve him well, but the door is open for quite a bit more effectiveness as he gets really comfortable with the pace around him at the college level.
He has the potential to drive quite a bit of individual offense, but what also stands out about his game is how hard he is the play against away from the puck. He’s relentless as a forechecker, really engaged physically, but the patience in that is what makes him so effective — he can hound a player when the moment calls for it, but he’s constantly scanning and reading the situation, and his ability to pressure and release to put the puck in a more advantageous position marks something of an advanced awareness in him. It’s somewhat rare to see such an immediately fine-tuned defensive game for an underage player in the NCAA, so to see him so effective in this area was really impressive.
Hemming remains, if nothing else, something of a toolsy prospect, and even if this wasn’t the season that he likely imagined heading into it, the combination of those tools and his age there’s a good foundation that he’s already set and a lot of reason for optimism about the developmental runway he has ahead of him.
What’s not to like?
However, the toolsiness of that game is also the thing that might give some viewers and pundits pause about him. That is, we can look at some of those pace and decision making concerns, and while it’s easy to point to them as something that should smooth out as he gets more reps in at the NCAA level, it’s the same as what’s going on when we talked about Wyatt Cullen yesterday, there is a risk there that the rapid development curve slows down or plateaus entirely. There are certainly parts of his game that do remain quite projectable, but there are others where betting that rapid ascent will continue invites in a certain amount of risk.
Pulling back even more, it’s worth acknowledging that there’s a degree of risk that comes along with Hemming purely because he was so hard to scout this year. There were a lot of eyes on him when he eventually got rolling with BC, to be sure, but a 19 game sample at the college level and then just six at the U18s on top of that does not make for a particularly robust sample to pull observations from. There’s a lot of potential there, to be sure, but a team that wants to get more datapoints before feeling confident making their pick might waver on him a bit.
How would he fit in the Flyers’ system?
We’ve made this point time and again throughout this series already, but the Flyers really aren’y starving for wingers in their pipeline at the moment, and even though they’ve made it quite clear over the last year that they’re looking to add some more size to that pipeline and Hemming would certainly fit that bill, the positional situation would make for something of an awkward pick.
That said,
Could the Flyers actually get him?
The range of where Hemming is projected to be picked isn’t quite so all over the place as some of these other players that we’ve been highlighting, of late, but the flip side to that is that most of these major projections would have him coming off of the board a few picks ahead of the Flyers’. Now, with the capital that they have in the back pocket, they’re well positioned to move up a few picks to grab him, if they’ve completely fallen in love with him, but the safer bet if they stand pat is that they’ll just miss out on him. Alas.
What scouts are saying
“Hemming has finally played some games, and he has not disappointed at all. Ruthless defensive impact at the college level ain’t easy, and he brings a somewhat limited, but interesting overall package of talents to the game that could easily do nothing but trend upwards. It’s important to remember that Oscar didn’t turn 17 until the middle of August last year, leaving an enormous amount of developmental runway, especially for a big guy. Hemming is physical, anticipatory off the puck, a dependable if a bit simplistic offensive transition weapon, and his shot is a nice stamp on top of it all. The big ticket area I’d be developing is his touch on the puck and the skill level he brings. He could be a bit too clunky on receptions and carries through the neutral zone, losing control too often and leading to unnecessary turnovers. Even on passes, Hemming seemed to have issues making quick reads, moving the puck and hitting targets with clear, crisp pass attempts, but again, this guy is barely eligible for this year and he’s a college hockey player. The story is a bit of a wild card, but the potential that could be percolating will be an intriguing one to NHL teams. He will likely be a player I watch quite a bit down the stretch and at the U18s considering his shortened season, but I can pretty easily see a player that at worst is a late first rounder with big development potential.”
–Will Scouch, scouching.ca
“He’s a big, strong, powerful player who stays around the puck, goes to the net and has some clear pro attributes. He has a pro release and strong skating that really builds into a head of steam and can make him a lot to handle when he drives down ice or to the net. He generated shots at a good clip in the NCAA (one goal on 34 of them for a 2.9 shooting percentage that he was probably owed more on) and finished with eight points in 19 games across a very respectable 16:25 per game for a 17-year-old. He had a few very impressive games in the NCAA and some others where he looked like he was still figuring out the surface and how to play with his linemates. He has clear appeal, and some observers felt he belonged in the top-10 conversation at different points for his sheer presence. I haven’t quite been able to get there and wonder a little about the IQ/playmaking, but his size and strength are very real and will translate.”
–Scott Wheeler, The Athletic
We’re getting on a bit of a run here, and after adding a skilled but somewhat divisive winger to the poll last time out, we’re doubling down and adding another today. Welcome to the poll, Marcus Nordmark!
“Nordmark has a lot of NHL traits. He’s 6-foot-2, skates well, is a highly gifted puck handler and can both pass and shoot the puck like an NHLer. He’s a flashy forward who can break open a shift. His effort level is just OK, though. He’s not soft, but he’s certainly not a hard-to-play-against type and fades into the background for stretches and has a lot of bad habits. He has top six winger tools but there’s a lot of holes in his games he will need to work on.”
-Corey Pronman The Athletic
