Scout's Report - Fradin McGryer

[Fradin99 93]

The season 89 draft is going to be filled with several free agents who joined just before or during the beginning of the 88th season. This comes to the benefit of the team and the players, as they get a full display of how they react to learning new systems throughout a regular season and possibly playoffs. The player of focus in this report in San Diego Marlins defenseman Fradin McGryer. Who joined just days before the start of the season, and has made impact in each game he's played so far a quarter into the season. This report will be broken down into three parts, Offense, Defense, and Personality.

 

Offense

Fradin's offense throughout the beginning of this season has been a pass first mentality. Favoring the cycle and feeding his team's leading goal scorer, Sjin. It's apparent he thrives with talented scoring, McGryer leading the team in assists with twelve and Sjin leading in goals with you guessed it, twelve. A talented playmaker so far unfortunately fails to see the open shots he may have from the blue line, and teams have recently held the offensive duo to a bit of a pointless streak of three games by doubling down the coverage on the center.  Creativity in the offense becoming a possible concern as of late, and certainly something to watch.

 

Defense

A proficient shot blocker and excellent in the defensive zone. The two hundred and thirty five pound defenseman is not afraid to push even the larger power forwards in the league out of the way of his net. Throughout the quarter of the season he much prefers the body check over trying to poke the puck loose or cut off the passing lanes for a steal. Racking up 80 hits in 18 games, leading the league for most of the season so far with no signs of slowing down. As a top line defenseman however, this has lead to situations where he overcommits to a hit and with the wrong bounce of the puck, leaves his partner in a two on one scenario. The biggest killer to his defensive play as of late is finding himself out handled. The large defenseman is certainly not the hardest for the more skilled forwards of the league to leave hanging with their puck handling skills. 

 

Personality

The letter on his chest speaks for itself. Multiple reports, interviews, and on ice interactions have shown how much he cares about the players around him and the reputation of the organization he wears on his chest. A passionate player both on ice and in the locker room. Coaches will find him early to wherever they need him, active in his team's phones to keep them punctual. One of the loudest voices in the locker room the alternate captain often gives a speech after a game whether it's win or lose, he fights to keep the mood and confidence up of the players around him. Often the player to come up with nicknames for his teammates. While he's mostly smiles off this ice, his passion for his team can unfortunately be a detriment for the penalty kill. A physical and rough player, Fradin is known to take exception to many hits on his team legal or not so. Only stacking one fighting major this season, a plethora of roughing and slashing minors have accompanied in trying to goad the other team into answering for plays he may not find suitable. On ice temper will certainly be a challenge for him and his coaching staff to deal with over the coming season.

Overall a strong, physical defensemen with a lot of upside being shown as of recent. If he can keep this up he could very well lead defensemen in many categories at the end of the year. The only true buyers beware to drafting or trading for a player like this is to ensure you can take on his one ice temper, and perhaps teach him to shoot the puck a bit more to mix up his offense capabilities. 

 

675 words. 4/15/2023