Callum Sinclair Rookie Profile [Final: 8/8]

[solas 1,951]

Callum Sinclair - Rookie Profile

Position - Goalie
Number - 37
Height - 6’5”
Weight - 195 lbs.
Hometown - Burlington, Vermont, United States
Age - 21
Team - Brampton Blades (VHLM)

Many VHL teams are without a goalie. These teams’ problems could be solved easily in the Season 42 VHL Draft, with goalies like Jax Barnstormer, Callum Sinclair, and Blake Campbell all making strong cases to be a team’s new franchise goalie. The focus of this article is Callum Sinclair, a Vermont-born goalie with playing experience from the United States National Team Development Program as well as the University of Vermont. Sinclair declared for the draft at the beginning of the season after the VHLM dispersal draft occurred, and was claimed by the Brampton Blades off of waivers.

Sinclair has suffered multiple setbacks for example, including a leg injury that cut short his career in the USNTDP, and much more seriously, the death of his parents midway through his sophomore year in college. However, when he is focused and on his game, he is an incredible talent that shows signs of becoming an absolute superstar. Notably, he was awarded the Hobey Baker Award for the best player in NCAA Division I hockey. This made Sinclair only the third goaltender and first ever Vermont player in the award’s 33-year history to win it. However, while this is a sign of his talent, the main issue that scouts have had with Sinclair is his work ethic - how he only seems to work hard when he wants to, rather than when he should. Can his raw talent earn him a place as a VHL starting goaltender?
 

+ STRENGTHS +


Reflexes

Sinclair’s greatest strength is his incredible reaction time, and he uses it as the centerpiece of his playing style. He has a larger focus on simply stopping shots when they come to him rather than positioning or controlling rebounds - although he’s not terrible at that either - and you can see why whenever you watch him play. Sinclair is incredible at getting to shots, regardless of whether it’s point-blank or from a deflection.
 

Size

Another strength of Sinclair’s is his size. At 6 feet and 5 inches tall, his size is beneficial in covering more of the net, and when combined with his reaction time, it makes him much harder to beat. While his movement isn’t exactly the best, Sinclair makes up for it with not only his size, but also his ability to utilize his size correctly. He knows how to make himself look big in the net to add on to his already tall frame, and he doesn’t have to work as hard to make a save as another, smaller goalie might.
 

Raw Talent

Sinclair has the pure ability that not many others have. If things were based on talent alone, he’d easily be in the NHL at this point in time. Ever since he took up goaltending, Sinclair has been a natural. He seems to have always know what to do, and it’s certainly helped by the fact that his incredible reflexes and size have seemed to come on their own rather than with practice.


 

- WEAKNESSES -


Work Ethic

With all this talent, why couldn’t Sinclair have made it further in the pros by now? A main reason for this is his work ethic. Often times, when faced with setbacks, Sinclair has simply given up. For example, after getting a leg injury in his second season with the USNTDP, instead of working to return with the team he simply waited for the season to end. With better work ethic, Sinclair would likely have not only gotten further in his career by now, but also would be a better player.
 

Skating

While work ethic is a big problem with Sinclair, he does have particular weaknesses on the ice as well. One of these weaknesses is his skating ability. Sinclair has seemingly ignored working on his skating, as he uses his strengths in reaction time and size to make up for his less-than stellar positioning and movement. He isn’t as good at moving before shots are taken, and doesn’t work with angles as much as many other goaltenders would.
 

Rebound Control

Another weakness of Sinclair’s is his rebound control. He focuses more on simply stopping shots rather than preventing or even redirecting possible rebounds. As a result, this regularly leaves him vulnerable to goals from rebounds. Combined with his weak skating, it often means that not only does he give up many rebounds, but also that he’s not as good at reacting to them.

[pxzero 65]

Overview: 2/2

To the point, well outlined

 

Pros & Cons: 3/3

Good pros and cons.  They do repeat themselves a little bit, but many of the skills overlap and work toward a similar end goal. 

 

Grammar: 2/2  Nothing earth shattering, but I found a few things. 

• multiple setbacks for example, including a leg injury - in the context of this sentence, you only need one or the other. Both are redundant and sort of confused. 
•  when they come to him, rather than positioning - comma
• have always known what to - missing a letter/spelling
• , Sinclair would likely have... ...now, but would also - not so much an error as a style preference, but the way you've set up the sentence makes the lack of parallel structure sound weird and comes across as awkward wording
• less-than-stellar - if you're going to hyphenate, you have to hyphenate it all.  less than stellar or less-than-stellar

 

Presentation: 1/1

Looks good. I really like the colours/formatting.