Up until the NHL Draft on June 23rd, the team at Blackout Dallas will be rolling out previews of the potential Dallas Stars selections. Today, we look at Owen Tippett.
Name: Owen Tippett
Position: Right Wing
Shoots: Right-handed
Hometown: Peterborough, Ontario
Birthdate: February 2nd, 1999
Size: 6-foot-2, 202 lbs
Team: Mississauga Steelheads (Ontario Hockey League)
Stats: 44 goals, 33 assists, 75 points in 60 games
NHL Ceiling: Top-line scoring winger, power-play volume shooter
Mike Fisher, Corey Perry, former Dallas Stars coach Bob Gainey, and Owen Tippett all have two things in common: the four individuals were all born in Peterborough, Ontario, and they will all enjoy success at the National Hockey League level.
For Gainey, the former Dallas Stars head coach and general manager, that’s the Hockey Hall of Fame, in which he was inducted in 1992. Perry and Fisher each compete in the highest form of pro hockey today, with variable yet admirable levels of success.
For Owen Tippett, that journey is now just beginning. Tippett very well might be the best prospect from the Ontario Hockey League this season, rivaled by only Gabriel Vilardi of Memorial Cup champions, the Windsor Spitfires.
As a heavy, sniping right-hander, Tippett is undoubtedly the best pure winger in the 2017 Entry Draft. En route to helping the Mississauga Steelheads to the OHL Championship Series, Tippett scored 44 goals in just 60 games of work during the 2016-17 season.
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I see a lot of Taylor Hall and Phil Kessel in Tippett’s game; Tippett is a talented, purpose-built right-winger who can score a bounty of goals very quickly and potentially be a power play triggerman in the NHL.
As a pure goal scorer everywhere he’s taken the ice, Owen Tippett can make a scoring chance out of nothing. At times in the OHL during his Steelheads tenure, Tippett has generated shot after shot with little to no help, something that translates a lot to the NHL as the speed in pro hockey takes the game over.
Tippett boasts one of the quickest releases in Major Junior hockey, which coupled with his size gives him the ability to be a premier goal-scorer in the NHL ranks. From his days as a 10-year-old on to now, being an revered offensive talent in Canada, Tippett has dreamed of being a goal-scoring phenom in the pros.
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“Tippett says his favourite player is Alex Ovechkin because he’s the best goal scorer. Tippett is also a natural goal scorer and has 32 goals in 31 games this year with the atom AAA Petes,” a local Peterborough newspaper, My Kawartha, printed in 2009.
What worries scouts and NHL front offices is Tippett’s 200-foot game, something most pure goal scorers lack. For Tippett, who scored the fifth-most goals in the OHL in 2016-17 and can give any NHL team an instant offensive facelift, that’s the one thing he must work on improving.
Tippett made strides over the season with Mississauga, but still hasn’t found the key to defensive prowess. His ceiling surely isn’t penalty-killing winger, and the Dallas Stars would be silly to take him for that purpose, but a strong 200-foot game would be beneficial for matches where Tippett can’t buy a goal.
Despite Jeff Marek’s description for Sportsnet where he states that Tippett “consistently finds scoring chances and goals every game,” his game will take some fine-tuning in the Ontario Hockey League before making the jump to the NHL. But if the Dallas Stars needed a future goal-scoring right-winger to play alongside top forwards Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, they’re not getting a better opportunity than this one. “He’s a pure sniper,” Marek added.
Owen Tippett is one of the most elusive prospects in this season’s Draft – and by that I mean selecting him as high as he’s projected by Central Scouting and other sources is pretty risky. Tippett is estimated to go anywhere from third (Dallas Stars) to tenth (Florida Panthers) by several sources.
His shot, size, and skating are there; he’s a nearly-flawless offensive player with all kinds of skill and flare, but Tippett will need to further advance his defensive responsibility and his intangibles to succeed in the National Hockey League.
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There are undeniably more complete players to select in this Draft, but Tippett provides the best goal-scoring touch of them all. The Dallas Stars will surprise me if they pick Tippett, but as they lack depth scoring, it’s a possibility – and you can’t go wrong with this guy.