Anaheim Ducks Prospect Profiles: Kevin Roy
picture from Hockey’s Future
Each Tuesday Pucks of A Feather will take a look at a prospect playing in the team’s organization and how their 2013-2014 season is going. This week we will take a look at Northeastern Sophomore Kevin Roy (2012 4th Round).
If the name doesn’t sound familiar, this video of him putting on a shootout clinic might. Mind you, he was only 13 at the time. Fast forward to now, Kevin Roy hasn’t lost much of his touch.
When you watch Roy play you tend to notice one thing – he makes things happen with the puck on his stick.
The 2011-2012 United States Hockey League player of the year after leading the league in goals (54) and assists (50), Roy picked up a lot of steam heading into the draft.
Ranked as the 78th best skater in North America, Roy was drafted in the fourth round, 97th overall.
Attending Northeastern University, it didn’t take long for him to figure out the college level, as he led the Huskies in points (17 G, 17 A – 34 Pts). In the annual Beanpot Tournament, Roy was named the MVP after scoring five goals in two games.
This season has seen a scoring increase from the current sophomore, seeing him score at better than a point per game pace (15 Pts in 11 games). He has excelled on the power play (that has to be music to Ducks’ fans ears) as four of his nine goals have come with the man advantage.
After a strong start to the season, the Huskies have hit the brick wall that is their conference schedule – only winning one out of their first five Hockey East contest. Roy has two goals in the last five games, one a power play goal, but has been a minus player in that span as well, sitting at a minus-four.
Roy will always be an offensive player first, but his size and the fact he is one dimensional has some wondering his real upside. He looks well upon his way to mastering the college level, and his next step would be in the American Hockey League. Whether or not he can become a NHL regular from there depends on the progression of his game. It’s hard to believe that he can make the NHL his home if he can’t expand his game somewhat (Nail Yakupov was much more an elite scorer at the junior level and his lack of defensive play has him on his last wheel already in Edmonton).
Roy is an intriguing player to keep an eye on, as he presents as an ultimate ‘wild card’ player. He could be a steady contributor for the Ducks, or nothing more than depth (remember Danny Sexton?). What we do know, is that the Ducks will give the young player as much time as needed to find out which he is, and it will be fun to see how his career progresses from on out.
Anthony Murphy is the Editor at Pucks Of A Feather. You can reach him by email anthony.murphy@thefarmclub.net or follow him on Twitter @AMurphyTFC.