Rookie Profile - Joe Nixon

[Bonzaijoe 74]

(Pictured Above, Nixon, While at a Junior's Tryout Expo during a summer in Red Deer)

 

Player Information

Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA

Height: 6'3

Weight: 150

Age: 19

Rookie Bio 

Nixon, an up and coming goalie prospect from Pittsburgh, PA, USA looks to take his game to the next level in the Victory Hockey League. He is amidst his second season playing for a D1 ACHA Club team out of Pittsburgh's division of colleges and is posting a memorable season for his Pitt Panthers team. Nixon will report as eligible for the VHLM Draft this upcoming season and has let his college know he'll be moving on to the next level with his professional career. Nixon's strengths and weaknesses are listed below.

Scouting Report: Pros

1. Glove Hand - Nixon's glove is fast as lightning, training with some of the best shooters of his hometown, making sure he doesn't get burned glove high like he had many times before. This amazing glove like ability has given him some of the flashiest saves his Panthers teammates have seen before, while making him one of the coolest goalies to watch in recent years.

2. Butterfly - While he was first starting goalie, Nixon once tried boasting his butterfly ability to a local passerby as they watched Nixon put his pads on in preparation for that afternoon's contest. That was a mistake that Nixon will never make again, as the passerby happened to be the opposing coach who immediately told his team to burn Nixon at the 5 hole, which they did successfully, again and again. Because of this traumatic experience, Joe has kept his butterfly on point and keeps his 5 hole closed as often as possible. This usually opens his high areas for the picking, but his improved glove hand keeps a dampening effect on that opportunity for the shooters.

3. Height - While standing tall at a large 6'3. Nixon stands above the rest, literally, matching the size of most professional players and hitting the top of the charts in the VHL and VHLM height category. His pads are bigger, his slim stature keeps him fast, and his height helps keep the top level blocked while in the butterfly position. This combination makes perfect sense for the stature of this goaltender, who has sometimes struggled with low hanging objects, but those aren't in the hockey rink, so he has no trouble there.

Scouting Report: Cons

1.Blocker Side - With a glove like lightning, you'd expect the blocker to be good too, huh? Not so much, Nixon's focus on his glove game and butterfly position have dampened his ability at blocker and stick, making his right side a little awkward when going for a save. This also sometimes forces him to favor leaving more room for mistakes on the glove side while trying to position himself to force the shooter to go to the glove. Nixon is attempting to work hard on this aspect of the game, and he's noted personally that this is his greatest weakness, making it known he's doing his best to try to make it better.

2.Skating - Nixon, while looking great in those goalie pads, has been playing goalie for years, but just because he's been putting the pillows on his legs for a long time doesn't mean it's been on ice. Most of Joe's training from a young age came from street hockey, dek hockey, and roller hockey, noting that his winter sports would run into ice hockey and he never got into that aspect until later in like, around age 15 when he was a sophomore in high school. He notes that he tries his best to stay on the blades but a lack of experience is easily noted for his sometimes lackluster performance in the ice blade balancing act.

3.Aggressiveness - Nixon trusts his defense, not matter who he's playing behind. This can turn him into a little bit of a crease monster sometimes. He can choose to be aggressive on shootout and penalty shots a lot, but sometimes his over-aggressiveness causes him to get beat, or his under-aggressiveness causes him to get cause in the crease easily. Nixon also has a hard time deciding when it's right to leave his crease to grab a puck from behind the net. Sometimes this causes confusion and forces his defense to come back and make a play behind their own net. This hockey-IQ trait is being worked on adamantly by Nixon and he watches game film whenever he can to prevent bad plays like that from ruining his great stats.

[Beaviss 4,949]

@Bonzaijoe great job! If you do all your tasks before this upcoming draft you could go high in the draft!