The

Vancouer Canucks currently have 4 defencemen in their prospect system who have

yet to be signed. Those four skaters are

Nikita Tryamkin, Patrick McNally, Mike Williamson, and Miles Liberati.

Tryamkin

will like be signed next summer as he cannot be signed to an NHL contract

while he is signed to a KHL contract.

Patrick McNally is rumoured to be attending Harvard for a fifth year,

and is applying to the NCAA for another year of eligibility on the basis that he sat out a full year. Mike Williamson was drafted as

part of the 2013 Draft Class, as he is an NCAA player having just completed his sophmore years, the Canucks still have 2 more years to sign him.

The last

remaining player is Miles Liberati. As a Canadian Hockey League player like Jordan Subban, the Canucks have to make a decision to sign him to an

Entry-Level Contract (ELC) by June 1st, this year, or else he is returned to the draft. Is Liberati worth signing? Let’s take a look at him.

The 2013

draft class continues to look like more and more of a gem for the Vancouver

Canucks, With five of their seven picks

signed (Bo Horvat, Hunter Shinkaruk, Cole Cassels, Jordan Subban and Anton

Cederholm) four of them are looking to have a good opportunity to become NHL

regulars. Miles Liberati is the 6th

member of this class that the Canucks need to make a decision on soon.

History

Liberati

was drafted in the 7th round out of the London Knights, the same

team Bo Horvat came from. Back in

2012-2013 the defence corps of the Knights was stacked with the likes of

players including Olli Maatta and Nikita Zadorov. The Canucks took a chance on a third pairing

guy who had scored just 3 goals and 6 assists in 42 games. As a below-average player in height for

defencemen at 6’0”, the pick wasn’t that exciting. In fact, most fans probably still have never

even heard of Miles Liberati.

In his draft+1 year, Liberati didn’t seem to improve much and was traded mid-season to the North

Bay Batallion. In that time he scored 4

points in 22 games with London and then 9 points in 43 games with North Bay.

This past

season, (draft+2) Liberati’s numbers exploded (relatively) as he scored over 0.56

points/game jumping to 11 goals and 27 points in 67 games. Keep in mind this past year he was a 19

year-old playing against teenagers who are younger than himself. While his point total had increased this year

he still was not a high offensive contributor for North Bay compared to his younger teammates Kyle Locke, Riley Bruce, Kyle Wood and Brendan Miller who had all

performed better than him in various categories.

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The one facet that shines positively on Liberati is in this past season he was

playing on the top pairing of the second best possession team, and most

successful defensive team, in the Ontario Hockey League.

Given his large ice time, he likely played a role in that success. Liberati also had the 2nd highest

Even-Strength +/- (+13), the highest ES-Goals For % and the highest relative

ES-Goals For% of all players on North Bay. These types of qualities suggest there is defensive value in this player.

Qualitative

Analysis

Of course

the numbers don’t tell the whole story so I had to go to the scouts to learn

some of the qualitative analysis on Liberati.

Corey Pronman summarized him as a great skater with some skill, but not much of a

prospect. His physical game and his

hockey senses are below average according to Pronman. That

does not bode well for him, but other scouts had a different perspective.

Todd Cordell is an OHL scout based out of Barrie and has seen a lot of Liberati over the past two

years. Cordell praised Liberati for making a good first pass, skating out of trouble when

needed, and being smart with the puck.

Cordell also noted Liberati as someone who doesn’t force anything that is not there; he has seen Liberati’s defensive play grow “leaps and bounds” and has played as a shutdown pair against Sam

Bennett and other top players.

Cordell

predicts it is unlikely Liberati will ever be a big point guy; but if Liberati makes it to the

NHL, but won’t be a pylon that can’t skate or pass. Cordell still thinks it is unlikely that Liberati will be an NHL regular, but believes Liberati’s had made some progress and seems worthy

of an ELC.

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Should He

Be Signed?

We now have

a good picture of what Miles Liberati is in a player. The numbers and the eyes seem to agree that

there might be something there, and whatever is there is likely going to be a

defensive defencemen and at best could play as a reasonable depth role. He doesn’t have a high chance of success but

then again few prospects do.

Should Liberati

be signed to an ELC? In a vacuum I think

that decision would be worth the price of a contract. He

has some tools, he has the chance to be a depth guy which is not much more than

you can hope from the 205th pick overall.

Will Liberati be

signed? I have my doubts. I don’t think the current regime thinks that

highly of Liberati which was evident in the fact that Liberati was one of

the first cuts out of camp last year. It

seems that his fate is to go back in the draft and hope another team picks him

up, or to sign an AHL contract in the off-season. Given the number of RFA’s Vancouver needs to sign too, it’s tough to see the Canucks spend one of their 50 contracts on Liberati.

This much

we can be sure: he is still better than Mackenze Stewart.





