NHL Draft Prospect Profile: Clayton Keller

Get to Know Clayton Keller

Date of Birth: 7/29/1998
Place of Birth: Swansea, IL, USA
Ht: 5’10” Wt: 163 lbs
Shoots: Left
Position: Center
Team (League): U.S. National Team Development Program (USHL)

Statistics

What Scouts See

Last Word on Sports:

Clayton Keller can be a pure sniper. His snapshot and wrist shot are lightning quick, heavy and deadly accurate. Keller has a nice arsenal of shots, as he also has a good one-timer, and a strong backhand. He uses his skating skills to make plays with the puck on his stick, creating passing lanes where he can set up a teammate with a tape-to-tape pass.

The Draft Analyst:

He’s a hard-nosed, fearless player with a lot of flash, but he’s been Team USA’s leader and go-to option for every critical situation – defensive zone draws, killing penalties, gaining entry into the offensive zone, etc.

What BSN Avalanche sees

I purposely selected two scouting quotes that analyze his performance on both ends of the ice because when you watch Keller enough the things that stand out the most are his elite skating ability and his uncanny defensive ability despite being undersized. He’s an unbelievable playmaker with an innate understanding of space and angles and how best to use them to maximum effect.

Elite skating and great playmaking are just the beginning with Keller, though, because his shooting ability ranks up there among the best in the draft. An easy comparison for Keller would be Mitch Marner, who was selected 4th overall last season and appears to be a star in the making, but Keller’s mature defensive game puts him ahead of Marner as an all-around player already and a more appropriate NHL comparable might be Doug Gilmour.

All that said, there’s still the question of size. Every single year there’s a collection of brilliant offensive talents who check in well below six feet in height. He’s absolutely going to have to get stronger, especially with the way he likes to play. While he excels given time and space, he’s going to have to learn to adapt to players who can match his natural physical gifts and size will always be the greatest limiting factor in how far he goes in the NHL.

Highlights

NHL Potential

It’s easy to look at Keller’s size and say he profiles as a Tyler Johnson-esque player but his faceoff ability, defensive zone work, and penalty killing acumen all separate him from the purely offensive Johnson. Keller has legitimate top-flight center potential but reality will likely see him fall somewhere as a Robin to someone else’s Batman. Unlike smaller centers of years past, Keller should stick at center for the long-term.

Expected Draft Position

Keller’s rankings by service don’t vary much as his high mark is 4th by ESPN’s Corey Pronman and his lowest appears to be 14th by McKeen’s Hockey. Given that, he’s realistically going somewhere between 6-14 depending on how the board falls. The lower Keller falls, the better value he becomes.

How Prospect Fits in Avalanche Organization

The Avalanche have a legitimate lack of high-caliber center talent in the prospect pipeline. While the pro teams have the likes of Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikhail Grigorenko, and J.T. Compher, the NHL moves far too quickly to lean on those guys as the long-term centers for the organization. Keller is headed to Boston University next season and his adjustment to the bigger, more physical pro game will get a jumpstart in Hockey East.

Keller would immediately slot in behind Mikko Rantanen as the organization’s second-best prospect and likely will need at least two years to build strength and continue to grow his game before making the jump to pro hockey but a dominant freshman season, a la Kyle Connor, could see Keller making the jump after next season. He’s a star in the making and would be the kind of electric draft-and-follow talent the Avalanche have very rarely had since moving to Denver.