Sitting in the stands overlooking the place where he most frequently terrorizes opposing defences, Andrei Svechnikov is out of his element. He’s still mastering English and in conversation he restricts himself to short answers — no more than a couple of sentences — bursts of laboured expression that are nothing like the long, effortless strides that make him so dangerous when he’s on skates.

It’s just weeks before both the end of the OHL regular season and Svechnikov’s 18th birthday, and the Barrie Colts right-winger is about to wrap up a campaign that will see him win the league’s rookie of the year award on the strength of the 40 goals he scored in just 44 games. He may struggle to tell the story of how he got to this point — setting the scoresheet on fire in his draft year — but ask for the secret to his success and the answer comes easily: “I drive for the net every time with the puck. I can score from everywhere. I play a physical game. I play well in the defensive zone,” he says.

Yup, that about sums it up.