He is a (now) 17 year old center who was drafted #1 overall by the Seattle Thunderbirds and he has been a pivot (when he is healthy) for this team.
Before being drafted by the T-Birds he played for the Burnaby Winter Club where he managed to rack up 39 goals and 68 assists for a total of 107 points, and he did it all in just 35 games!
After looking at his numbers once he had been drafted and seeing how well he had done in Burnaby, I started to follow him a little closer much like I did Jake Virtanen.
There are players who excel through minor hockey and post some seriously crazy numbers, but for some reason some of them just can't turn that into a major junior or pro career but Barzal seemed different.
After his WHL draft year he moved to a different minor hockey club and played the 2012-13 season for the Vancouver NE Chiefs in the BC Minor Midget Hockey League. (BCMMHL) During his time with this club he posted similar numbers to the ones he posted in Burnaby, the only difference being this was a tier higher. He posted 29 goals and 74 assists for a total of 103 points in just 34 games. He also had a total of 34 penalty minutes during that campaign.
During the 2012-13 season Barzal also suited up for the Coquitlam Express of the BCHL and played 6 times. He only registered 2 points (assists) and 6 PIM's in that time.
This wasn't the only hockey he played during this season. He also played for Team British Columbia in the Western Canada Challenge Cup that was held in Calgary in November 2012. Here Barzal played in 4 games where he registered 2 goals and 2 assists.
After a busy 2012-13 season and playing for various teams, Barzal was brought up to the Thunderbirds camp and made the roster. He made his debut on Sept 21st 2013 when the Thunderbirds played the Portland Winterhawks where the T-Birds won the game 4-3 in OT and Barzal registered his first point during that game which was an assist. The first of many points he would gather during that season.
Barzal played 59 regular season games where he gathered 14 goals, 40 assists and 20 PIM's. He was also a +3 during the season.
For a 16 year old player in the WHL, this was an amazing season. Many players that age wouldn't see most of the games that Barzal did and would have been slowly worked into the roster.
Barzal did so well during 2013-14 that he became the 3rd most successful (points wise) 16 year old in Thunderbirds history. The only two who have done better were Lindsay Vallis (1) and Patrick Marleau (2). That is a pretty amazing feat for such a young player.
That season the T-Birds also made the post season where Barzal played in all 9 games and tallied a total of 6 points. 1 goal and 5 assists and he also had 4 PIM's.
Once the Thunderbirds were eliminated from the post season in the second round, Barzal was invited to attend the U-18 Hockey Championship in Finland and play for Team Canada.
He went over and played in 7 games where he notched 3 goals and 1 assist en route to a bronze medal.
Now we have entered the 2014-15 season and Barzal was ready to help carry the Thunderbirds as far as he could into the playoffs.
The season started off pretty good for Barzal when he registered 18 points in 16 games (7G,11A) but then the injury bug bit. Barzal fractured his patella (knee cap) which caused him to miss some serious time. This time off excluded him from possibly playing for Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Montreal/Toronto this year. Not to mention all of the time that the scouts would have seen him play especially during his draft year.
Fast forward now to 2015 and we find Mathew Barzal healthy and performing like he was expected. He has played 10 games since his return, including the CHL Top Prospects game, and has gathered 11 points and helped Seattle climb back up the standings where they currently sit 5th in the Western Conference.
He is currently on a 6 game point streak where he has gathered 3 goals and 8 assists over that time.
I don't know if most of his assists are first or second touch assists, but either way he seems to be a very good set up man for his teammates.
Having only seen him play once, I did notice that Barzal is very good at carrying the puck and drawing the attention of the opposition and then feeding an open teammate for a goal or at least a shot.
It seems the NHL's Central Scouting seems to think highly of him as well. He was moved up to the #9 slot on their mid term rankings that were recently released which bodes well for the young center. I feel he is still a few years away from making the NHL but if he is drafted by a team that helps develop him and he continues his hard work, you may possibly see him playing in the NHL as soon as two seasons from now.
For now though, fans should expect to see him continue to help the Thunderbirds in the quest to win a championship and rack up some points. He will continue to amaze when he is on the ice as long as he stays healthy.
Thank you for reading, and please feel free to comment, +1, follow and share this post or any others I have posted on my blog.
Remember to get out and support your local teams and players.
Until next time.
*All info and stats were gathered from the Seattle Thunderbirds website, www.hockeydb.com and www.whl.ca*
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