Tyson Foersters Shot is a Weapon the Anaheim Ducks Desperately Need
What are His Strengths?
Straight up, if you hear anything at all about this guy, it will be about his absolute cannon of a shot. Compared in some circles to Ovechkin or Stamkos on the power play (direct quotes later in the piece), you simply know that this young fella can unleash from the circles when with the man advantage. In fact, a great deal of his scoring came from the top of the left circle. It’s possibly the best shot from there in junior hockey and seems like it should translate to the NHL with relative ease.
It’s interesting to note the difference between Foerster and fellow draft hopeful Jacob Perreault about here. Perreault is able to get his (primarily) wrist shot off from bad angles and can do so from misplaced passes that do not necessarily hit him on the tape. It’s a wonderful skill to have and should serve him well.
Foerster, however, has a one-timer threat that is no joke and which he unleashes with regularity. Preference between players could come down to what offensive threat each drafting team feels they are more in need of. However, the likelihood of Perreault still being available at 27th overall is slim.
Though for the Anaheim Ducks, it’s worth noting that Foerster has better size and is strong on the forecheck. These aren’t necessarily skills that should dictate a draft spot, but they are variables that Murray may consider. Particularly in light of him trading away the bigger-bodied Nick Ritchie this past season.
Speaking of the Ducks illustrious GM, I mentioned earlier that Murray enquiring about Patrick Laine may foreshadow a changing of the guard, well Mr. Foerster here could be a homemade replacement when the Ducks inevitably do not pay the price to acquire Laine. More than anything, when was the last time the Ducks had a genuine one-timer threat on the power play? When was the last time they had a genuine shooter that teams had to lock down onto?
A Big-Time Shooter
There is a financial consideration to be made with developing these players as opposed to trading for them. If Murray is considering the idea of actually spending assets to acquire a goal scorer of Laine’s ilk, he must surely be considering drafting and developing a big-time shooter of his own.
A shooter, Foerster certainly is. He pumped out 3.62 shots per game this past season. A figure that was good for 17th overall in the league and 196 more than the player with the next greatest shot volume on his team.
Given the Anaheim Ducks, as a team ranked 28th, 31st, and 28th in shot generation over the past three seasons respectively, there is scope to improve that aspect of their game moving forward. A big-time volume shooter with some snarl to their shot would be a welcome addition.
The thing that can run some players into trouble is everything that leads up to the shot. Is their positioning right? Can they read the defensive coverage? Are they able to find space? Luckily, the answer for Foerster is that yes, he can do all of these things. This leads me to imagine that even should his flaws hold him back from a genuine top-6 role in the NHL, his nous and ability to shoot and get into position, in order to shoot, will allow him to carve a niche as a power-play specialist.
The league doesn’t necessarily run dedicated power-play specialist forwards, expecting their big-time goal scorers to play top-6 roles and score at even strength as well, however, there is scope for the role to be explored in the future. With that aside, if your player is punching in 40 goals per season of the power play alone, you take that and run with it.
While Foerster will definitely be making his money scoring off with the man advantage, it’s worth mentioning that he’s no slouch as a playmaker. He did, in fact, end up with more assists than goals this season which adds to his threat as a multifaceted scorer. For the most part, Tyson is very good at anticipating the play. This show’s itself in his ability to find shooting lanes, yet he also uses that ability to read the play to find open teammates on the offensive end.
What Bob Murray will like to see is that his positional play also rears its head on the defensive end of the spectrum. Foerster is able to contribute significantly to his team’s structure defensively due to his good anticipation and work effort. This is a stark contrast to his draft competitor Jacob Perreault who, we’ll say is a work in progress on this end of the ice to be kind. I don’t necessarily think that he’ll ever be considered a penalty killer, or be placed in prime defensive forward roster spots, but it’s notable for a team that seemingly thrives on finding “two-way” players.