Login

***Whitecap*** · 09-17-2021, 04:10 PM

Background
From Ostrava, Czechia, Yannick Svoboda was a very unknown quantity heading into the S61 SMJHL draft, having only put his name forward a few days prior to the event. Teams picked up on his potential rather quickly, however, and it was the Regina Elk who took a chance on him with the team’s second ever draft choice at 23rd overall. As an expansion team, Svoboda has been provided an opportunity to grow and develop with an emerging young core, most of which consists of fellow draftees from that S61 draft.

Weaknesses
Svoboda is a player who does not have too many glaring weaknesses as he has a very well rounded build. The one area that he seems to be lacking in so far is his physicality. This is made evident by his low hit totals, as he currently has made only 26 hits through 42 games, putting him fourth lowest on the team. The one upside to this is that it has saved him from making many trips to the penalty box, as he sits at only 8 PIMS so far.

Strengths
The downside to having such a well rounded game is that Yannick Svoboda does not currently have any part of his game that he truly excels at. He is known to be a good passer when given the opportunity, and this is a part of his game that has taken great strides since the beginning of the season. As he continues to work on his passing and puckhandling, look for Svoboda to become more of an offensive threat in the future.

Another area that Svoboda has been putting work into is his defensive skills. Despite not being an overly physical player, he knows how to use his stick well, and is not afraid to put his body in front of his opponents’ shots.

The Season so far
After a very slow start to his season, Svoboda has finally been picking up a few points in his last few games. Still, currently sitting at only 4 goals and 6 assists, his 10 points is lower than he would have hoped in his rookie season. This is probably not a huge cause for concern though, as his point totals do not tell the whole story to his season so far. It must be taken into account that he only averages about 14 minutes of ice time per game so far, and only 4 players on the Elk average less than him. A good amount of this time is also spent killing penalties, where he does not have a chance to make an offensive impact. He also has 69 blocks, good for third on the team, and has only given the puck away 11 times this year.

His advanced stats also paint a pretty good picture. His relative Corsi For is +5.6%, and his team does not tend to give up a lot of shots while he is out on the ice. Curiously, despite his low point totals, the Elk average the most shots on goal while Svoboda is out there, at 32.6 per 60 minutes.

Conclusion
This data goes to show that on the surface it looks as if Yannick Svoboda is having a poor rookie season. If you look deeper at the underlying statistics, we can see that he has played a very defensively responsible season so far, and is likely due for some more luck offensively as well. As the Elk head into their final stretch of games before the playoffs, it will be interesting to see how Svoboda continues to develop his game.

(599 words)

Opera_Phantom · 09-19-2021, 04:03 AM

Approved!

+5 TPE @Whitecap

Navigation

Extra Menu

About us