Nation Network Prospect Profiles: #43 Boris Katchouk
7 years ago
Coming in at 43rd in our consensus rankings is Sault St Marie winger Boris Katchouk, who is a player that won’t wow you on the ice but will do the little things to generate offence.
He may not be a flashy player but for a second round pick, he is someone that teams will be attracted to.
Bio:
- Age: 17, 1998-06-18
- Birthplace: Vancouver, B.C., Canada
- Frame: 6’1″, 179 lbs.
- Position: LW
- Handedness: L
- Draft Year Team: Sault St. Marie Greyhounds
- Accomplishments/Awards: OHL Gold Cup Bronze Medal (13/14), OHL Second All-Rookie Team (15/16), 2015/16 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game
Stats:
| pGPS n | pGPS s | pGPS % | pGPS P/GP | pGPS R |
| 158 | 50 | 31.65% | 0.4629 | 0.1465 |
Scouts:
| NHL CSS | ISS | FutureConsiderations | HockeyProspect | Pronman | McKeen’s | McKenzie | Button |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 (NA) | 27 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 25 | 44 | 47 |
Katchouk is a well rounded forward with decent size and good offensive instincts. He does everything well, but not one thing great. He has a good speed and generates a good amount of offense, he is not overly physical, but will also not shy away. He had a coming out party on a young Greyhounds team and played consistently well all season long. He had a very good first round series against the Sarnia Sting, in what was a huge upset.
Greyhounds’ two-way star who along with Zach Senyshyn represent the bright spots on an otherwise disappoint season. Katchouk is a hard-charging wing who skates well and makes immediate plays off the forecheck. His real strength, however, is the ability to corral a loose puck regardless of where he’s located when he discovers it. In other words, he’s mastered the art of winning his 50/50 battles.
Our Take:
Due to an extremely deep Sault St Marie Greyhounds team, Boris Katchouk was limited to 12 games during the 2014-15 season. With players like Nick Ritchie and Jared McCann graduating, Katchouk was given a full time role this season and ran with it. The Vancouver born winger is a very good skater who hounds defenceman on the forecheck to create offensive opportunities. What is particularly noteworthy about Katchouk’s production was that 84% of his points were goals or primary assists, which puts him amongst the most prolifically in this draft class.
Ideally Katchouk would shoot more, as he was limited to 1.89 shots/PG during the regular season, and given his very high shooting rate of 20.1%, you would expect some regression, which would be counteracted with more shots. He saw a similar shot rate of 1.75 S/PG during the OHL playoffs, but his shooting percentage jumped to 28.6%. Based on the scouting reports, that don’t notably point out his shot as a strength, it may be a simply that he gets into the right areas to bury the chances or may struggle in the future to continue his goal rate. In the highlight video above, his goals seem to be generated off scrambles or shots that goaltenders at the next level will probably stop.
He was a late arrival to the U18 tournament as the Greyhounds upset the Sarnia Sting in the first round of the OHL playoffs before losing to the Erie Otters. He scored one goal and one assist in five games, with his only goal coming against Slovakia and was off a nice play by Tyson Jost. So he didn’t ultimately help his draft stock in Grand Forks but also didn’t hurt his rankings.
When looking at the pGPS for Katchouk, we see quite a few matches with 158 comparable players and respectable rate of 31.65%. So there is precedent of success for players of the same stature and statistical numbers.
Although you won’t be enamoured by Katchouk in any one way, he does seem to do all the little things well. He skates well, battles hard down low to create turnovers and seems to have a knack for finding the puck. If you can get him to refine his shooting skills and shoot more, there may be something here. But if that isn’t something he can improve, he may be able to carve out a career as a depth penalty killer who chips in offensively with his speed and tenacity.
In case you missed them, here are the earlier prospect profiles for the 2016 NHL Entry Draft:
