Canucks Fanz - The Patrick White Report

The Patrick White Report - Final Stretch

As the NCAA playoffs are in full force, our Minnesota Gophers Expert, Anthony Lang, provides us with an overview on Canucks prospect Patrick White's first season in college, and shares readers with a projection for White's totals as a sophmore next season.

By: Anthony Lang

White has passed the majority of the freshmen benchmarks. He started out good as freshmen in the NCAA, scoring in just his second game. His play has gradually has gotten better. By the end of the year, you want to be able to count on your freshmen in all situations. In all of Minnesota's OT games vs MSU, even on the 4th line, White received a regular shift. He even saw brief stints with Blake Wheeler to try and get a scoring chance late in those games, Reliability passed. You do not want your freshmen, especially those from high school, to have mental fatigue. White’s play, while not always stellar, never had continued mental lapses. Also, you do not want your freshmen to fatigue physically.

The Minnesota High School season is not as long, grueling or physical as the NCAA season; White is still battling. He has played all 41games for the Gophers so far this season. Mental and physical strength passed. Having played MNHS and living in a small town, White played with some of those kids since they were all old enough to skate. I have a cousin in Grand Rapids that played on the team so I know this first hand. However, one thing that I've noticed about White this year is that he has not really learned how to play with new linemates. One of his biggest weaknesses was looking like a guy on the ice with some other guys in the same uniform. His timing was just off. He would look right and the pass would go to his left. He would drop a pass and the D man was already by him. On breakouts, the Gophers looked like they were running a flying V, with White and another guy about 3 feet apart. While he was not always out of position, this is an obvious area for improvement. To White’s defense, he rarely played with the same people or the same position. He played wing on the first line and centered the fourth, along with any combos in between.

Here are a few things I would like to see him work on. His style of play is slow, controlled and fairly simple. If he wants to play like that at a higher level, the NHL, he will need to add some muscle. He does not look bad in the corners and in front of the net. But the NCAA is not the NHL. He will need to add some strength if he wants to continue to play like that. He is about 6 feet + and right under 200 pounds. If he can fill out to a solid 6’1 or 6’2 and around 205 he should be just fine. His biggest weakness right now is his first step. It is just bad. He got his pocket picked a few times; he carried the puck up the ice a few strides to long and the lanes closed on him. His top speed is not bad, although he has a funny little hitch in his stride. This is something he will need to work on. White also does not have a lot of offensive creativity. At the center position, I would like to see him try a few new things; he plays an effective but predictable game. Not what you want in a top center, but perfect for second of third line duties. However, he did show a few flashes over the course of thes eason. I think once he gets a little more comfortable he will open up his game a little more. Timing, skating and strength are all very coachable things. All in all, White should be fine next year, making several improvements along the way.

Here are some of his strengths. First and foremost, he does the little things right. While he was off on his timing with his linemates, he was always in the right place at the right time to score goals. All of his goals this year were either off rebounds or scrums in front of the net. If plan A was not working (the pretty tic tac toe play), the hope is to simply crash the net and look for some lucky bounces; White did that very well, drawing a few penalties along the way. He has the hands to bury a lot of those pucks, to get it high in the corner, and a willingness to stick his nose in the crease. In addition, he hit a fair amount of posts, some on the back hand as well. The kid can shelf it any way you want.

Another trend that continued throughout the Gophers season was that White was double shifted often. When the team had guys leave for the world juniors, he took an extra even strength shift as the 4th line center. If there was a match penalty of injury, he was again double shifted. This was without doubt a testament to his durability. Along with driving to the net and lurking for rebounds, White made a lot of other simple plays. When he realized his step was not so good, he began to pass the puck quicker. After he passed it, you could see him going straight for the net or into a corner if the puck was dumped and not carried in. When he got the puck around center ice, he would almost 100% of the time dump it in. He is about the only Gopher player I do not yell at for not just getting it in deep. A direct reflection of this is his +/- rating. A +11 and tops on the team. With second place being a + 9 and two players tied at a +5 for third. He is also at .504 on face offs for the season. This past weekend, in the first round of playoffs, he was a +2 and 24-19 on faceoffs, adding in a goal of his own. For the weekend, Minnesota scored a total of 5 goals.

This was a good year for White. It was the lowest scoring Gopher team in the history of the program. A few early and unexpected departures to go along with several injuries and the team never really got on track. Despite his low point total, White is still a solid contributor the program. While I feel that he has played his best hockey the last few weeks, the Gophers' announcers Doug Woog (former coach), Frank Mazzaco (color man) and Don Lucia (current head coach) have stated that he is coming on strong as well. They have all at one point or another singled him out as one of the Gophers' top performers; the best sign for any player.

White had a three game point streak against WI and his strong play carried over to the UMD series. Take into account that these are two of Minnesota's biggest rivals. To put a three game point streak into comparison; TJ Oshie, who many feel should be in the NHL, is just a tad over a point per game and Kyle Turris is under a point per game in the WCHA. It was not a streak over the entire season, yet a three point streak in the WCHA for anyone is still hard to come by.

Next year, I predict that Patrick White at least doubles his goal production to 12 and will finish with around 30 points, while still playing a very solid two-way game.

Discuss it here.