Phillip Rave Scouting Report

[tcookie 902]

 

 

Name: Phillip Rave
Position: C / RW
Height: 6’4”
Weight: 195 lbs.
Born: Vaduz, Lichtenstein

 

Background

22-year-old Phillip Rave has recently declared his interest in pursuing a professional hockey career through the VHL system. Rave is certainly a bit of a longshot as a hockey prospect, but he’s also a very intriguing one – a player with very minimal hockey experience at very low levels of competition, but an exceptionally gifted athlete who certainly won’t be lacking in any of the required physical attributes of a hockey player.

 

Born in Lichtenstein, Rave has been heavily involved in winter sports throughout his life. He’s 6-foot-4, 195 lbs. with exceptional lower body strength and has a background in speed skating, skiing, and athletics - including competing twice at the World Junior Speed Skating Championships where he has two bronze medals to his name. As far as a hockey career goes, though, Rave has played two partial seasons in the Austrian junior leagues as a 15- and 16-year-old, before ending a 5-year hiatus from the game playing the second half of last season in an Austrian semi-pro league.

There are not very many people who have carved out a pro hockey career out of such limited experience with the game at his age.

 

Scouting Report

Watching Rave over the course of a full game, there is no doubt his skating will impress you; there is also no doubt you will witness situations where he simply doesn’t seem to have a grasp on what to do next. Rave’s understanding of systems and the flow of a hockey game is understandably very underdeveloped, and it will need to come a long way if he is serious about one day playing in the VHL. He will further need to learn to use his teammates more effectively and how to handle the puck and incorporate deception into his game to beat defenders.

 

So – if you’re a VHL, VHLM, or VHLE scout, what is there to make you look at this player and think that it’s NOT just a waste of your time? Well, Rave may not be at home on a hockey rink but as a successful speed skater, he is absolutely at home on a skating rink. Rave’s skating immediately jumps off the page: for a 6-4 guy, he can flat out fly with quick, powerful strides and he uses his edges extremely well. He’s got tremendous lower body strength and, surprisingly enough, an innate understanding of how to use that strength to protect the puck. He understands how to create and use his leverage extremely well, and it’s reflected in both his ability to play a powerful game down low while shielding the puck from defenders and in his ability to generate devastating power on his shot. If he rounds out his decision making to compliment how naturally difficult he is to separate from the puck, Rave could be a nightmare to defend against.

 

Overview

Today, Rave’s decision making, creativity, and two-way play are nowhere near VHL-calibre and surely make him a liability on the ice, even at a low level like the VHLM, but the gifts are there. The ultimately upside with this player, if everything goes right, is a goal scoring power forward in the mold of a Timo Meier or Chris Kreider – a player who is somewhat physical but not excessively so, who can challenge defenders with his strength and speed in a way that makes it very difficult for the defender to win that battle, and who has the nasty shot to finish plays when he gets the opportunity.