Warwick Windsor: What to Expect
SHL.com Editorials

The SMJHL has been left buzzing curious as a new prospect, Warwick Windsor, has declared his intentions to enter the upcoming draft. Bearing the name of former Challenge Cup Champion and occasional All-Star Winston Windsor, and the less reputable name of shot-blocking aficionado Will Windsor, there are a few questions as to the style of player Warwick projects to be. The answer is, unfortunately, not much of one. There's been virtually no hype for Warwick from the outset, and it's easy to see why: while he stands at 6'6" with a right shot, he has virtually no offensive instincts to speak of. Scouts suggest this should be one of the first things he attempts to improve upon through the season, but there is little indication he has the right kind of vision or hockey sense to ever become much of a threat on the offensive end.

It stands to reason, then, that he must be a shutdown player -- and he is. But, he's not the type of responsible shutdown type you can throw out there for twenty-two minutes a game to enable a flashier partner to jump up into the play. Rather, he's an aggressive and sometimes even reckless defender, relying on blocked shots, hits, and occasionally outright fights to stave off threats in front of the net. He lacks the finesse on offense of Winston Windsor, or the defensive awareness of Will Windsor, and makes up for it with ... a willingness to drop the gloves?

It's far from ideal.

While Windsor should be able to, with the right coaching, be a useful player on the penalty kill and on a bottom pairing so long as he's tutored to fit into a system that takes some of the needed creativity out of the game for him, right now it appears that he will be largely a 'project' player: someone to be picked later in the draft by a team willing to take a chance. Though he may have certain preferences in terms of where he ends up, he has kept those preferences private.

"There are three teams that I'd really like to go to," he said, after an early morning practice in Edmonton. "But I don't want to be one of those players. I'll play for anyone, whether they take me in the second round or the seventh round. Just as long as I get picked up and I get to play, I'm happy."

The question is, now -- what team needs a defender who's a black hole on offense, and is only mediocre on the defensive end to make up for it? Given that we're not in the 1960s anymore, the answer might be fewer teams than you would expect. Or maybe exactly as many teams as you would expect. One way or another, his future coaches will probably get on him about learning how to take a slap shot once in a while.