Name: Lucas Villa
Position: Left Wing Number: 91 Height: 5'11 Weight: 175 Birthplace: Madrid, Spain Age: 18
Lucas Villa is a very rare hockey player. This is because he is a Spanish hockey player, who is playing at an elite level. We haven't seen Spain in the VHL since Vasteras temporarily moved to Madrid. Lucas Villa loved hockey as a boy, but the issue with this is he lived in Spain. As a big soccer country, Villa knew that he would have to move eventually if he ever wanted to be taken seriously as a hockey player. His parents were always trying to get him to play soccer. No matter how hard they tried, Villa would always be in the garage shooting a puck around. This led them to signing him up for Madrid's peewee hockey team, where they were shocked by just how good Lucas was. When he hit his teen years, Villa played in the Spanish Hockey League for the Barcelona Hockey Club. There, he played for 3 years breaking every scoring record. He eclipsed the 50 goal mark all three years, and dominated that league. He finished with over 150 goals in his three years there. When Villa hit 17, his dad let him move to Sweden to play in the SHL (Swedish Hockey League). Villa was placed on the Stockholm AIK in the Under 20 league. Villa struggled to score at first, as the higher pace was overwhelming. He only found the back of the net 10 times just over the halfway mark of the season. It seemed the pressure to succeed was getting in the way of Villa being as good as he could be. However, quickly picked it up after that going on a 20 game goal streak. Villa finished the season with 45 goals in 42 games played, as well as 48 assists. This caught the eye of many scouts in various leagues. Ultimately Villa committed to the VHL, and is in the S46 draft class. This also led former VHL Hall of Famer Zach Arce to offer to mentor Villa, and be his agent. Villa gladly accepted this offer knowing Arce's success with the league. Villa currently finds himself on the Bratislava Watchmen, who are currently on a playoff run.
PROS + Shooting: Villa is a shoot first player. He has an excellent wrist shot, and he isn't afraid to take the shot from a difficult place to score. It is not only powerful, it is also very accurate. This makes him a scoring threat from any angle. He was known as a big headache in every league he played in. Balance: Villa can make very nice, dead on passes. This is rare for a sniper to be able to pass as well, but Villa refused to be known as a one dimensional player. Villa racked more assists than goals during his time in Stockholm. Hockey IQ: Villa is a very intelligent player. He knows when to take the big shot, or when to wait for his teammates to join the rush. They found in the pee wee hockey league he was in, that Villa just had a natural hockey IQ, which helped develop his skills faster. This is what made such a big difference when Villa made the big jump from Spanish hockey to Swedish hockey. CONS - Discipline: Villa is known for getting over emotional at times. As said, his physical side can sometimes take over. When Villa gets frustrated, he does take that stupid penalty at times. Although he has worked on it, it is still a big con for him to overcome. It is the downside of the physical player. It can make or break the clutch moment for a team, but when the game is on the line he keeps his cool the best he can. Defensive Gambles: Although he is a very good penalty killer, Villa tends to take that defensive gamble. Where the defense goes to pass it and he goes for the poke check to go the other way. When he misses, he is caught out of position and that leads to bad things. The gamble has led to opposition goals, the aggression is great but Villa needs to try to stay calm at times at even strength and stick his man. Recovery: What Villa really needs to work on is not giving up on a play. When he is getting back on defense, or gets taken out of a play Villa tends to give up. He wasn't always like this, but it seemed his first year in college a bad habit started. It is one he will need to break, if he ever hopes to make the upgrade from the VHLM to the VHL, Villa needs to always keep up with the play no matter what.
Comparison: Vladimir Tarasenko
When compared to a professional NHL player, people compare Villa to Vladimir Tarasenko of the St. Louis Blues. Villa has excellent hands, and loved to make moves to generate scoring opportunities. On top of that, Villa has a wicked release and is deadly anywhere in the offensive zone. Impressive enough like Tarasenko, Villa can also generate nice, crisp passes. Tarasenko was very balanced on goals and assists in the 2014-2015 season much like Villa was this past year in Stockholm. If Villa continues to develop, we could see a VHL version of Tarasenko very much on the rise.
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