Tynan Lawrence

[Old_Goat]

This could be a really underrated pick and I hope it is. Trying to transition 1/2 through the season and being one of the youngest players in the draft alone could be why the points weren't there. BU also struggled to score and I'm sure he was focusing on the D side of his game staring out. Next year will he will have a full season and be much more prepared.

In addition to your points above, wasn’t he injured as well? Ankle? Or am I thinking of a different prospect from the draft?

Yes, he got injured in training camp and missed the beginning of the season.

Reasons to be excited:

He was very good as a 16 yr old for Muskegon in 2024-25. Was probably their best player as they went on to win the Clark Cup. Opposing players simply couldn’t handle his speed and pace most of the time.

He missed the first part of the season and then put up 17 pts in 13 games. That’s high production for the USHL (a league that’s pretty defensively oriented and known to be a little stingy on secondary assists). He struggled at first in college but it can be argued that it makes sense for him to struggle a bit moving to college hockey mid-season.

He’s very fast, shifty, skilled, works his butt off and is good defensively for a teenager. He’s also very young - was barely eligible for this year’s draft. There’s a lot to like with him and reason to think he’s likely to really take a big step at BU this season.

Reasons to maybe tamper the expectations a bit:

He largely dominated the USHL but it was because of his speed. He’s also very didn’t often outthink opponents. He outskated and outworked them.

He then struggled quite a bit in the transition to college hockey. To me, it was largely because he had issues adjusting to bigger and faster players. The speed advantage was less overall there. He seemed to not see many passing lanes and skated himself into nothing.

He was then solid at the U18s but not amazing. Largely disappeared against the tougher opponents and again, his hockey sense looked lacking. The speed and skills were obvious but the playmaking was lacking.

Overall thoughts:

He’s a good C prospect. He has a lot going for him. But I do question his hockey sense some. I left many of his viewings questioning his hockey sense. That said, he started the year off injured, made a very tough transition mid-season and is very young. The question I have is, are those explanations or excuses? He was one of the harder prospects for me to judge this season as he has just about every other skill you’d want in a player. Going into the season, I had him pretty much in line with McKenna after what I saw from him the season before in the USHL playoffs. But I started to question his game more and more as the season went along.

That said, if the hockey sense issues turn out to be overblown and he can really develop his playmaking game, then he has a real chance to pop. But I do caution people that the hockey sense critiques aren’t just made up. He showed some real concerns in that area. It’s possible they can be explained away by him having lots of transitions but it’d also plenty possible the critique is legit.

How much can Hockey Sense be improved?
My sense is that can be developed quite a bit with experience, particularly at higher levels of competition. Obviously that is enhanced by a good level of innate intelligence and coachability. Does he possess those traits hopefully?

[DawgDad]

Competitive [advanced level] sports are replete with players who leveraged talent to get ahead of the pack. DUH! If they didn't have talent they wouldn't be there. The player development processes exist for a reason. We are going to SEE what the Blues have in Tynan Lawrence very soon, as he progresses through his college season. We are all in some way connected to Missouri, let the young man show us what he brings to the table.

Many things can derail a talented player, teenager in TL's case. At 17 I thought I knew everything but knew next to nothing. Take Bedard, talent at the highest level, won't be playing for a few months and may have to deal with chronic shoulder issues. Take Bolduc, great junior player with gaudy stats who last seen was struggling to be more than a fourth liner on a good NHL team. Take Logan Mailloux, highly touted player with some baggage who completely face-planted in his first spin in the Blues lineup, last seen on a top pairing displaying pretty good "rediscovered" hockey sense. All things, in their time. I'd say Tynan Lawrence remains a good bet. We'll soon see.

[Frank Barone]

This could be a really underrated pick and I hope it is. Trying to transition 1/2 through the season and being one of the youngest players in the draft alone could be why the points weren't there. BU also struggled to score and I'm sure he was focusing on the D side of his game staring out. Next year will he will have a full season and be much more prepared.

In addition to your points above, wasn’t he injured as well? Ankle? Or am I thinking of a different prospect from the draft?

Yes, he got injured in training camp and missed the beginning of the season.

Reasons to be excited:

He was very good as a 16 yr old for Muskegon in 2024-25. Was probably their best player as they went on to win the Clark Cup. Opposing players simply couldn’t handle his speed and pace most of the time.

He missed the first part of the season and then put up 17 pts in 13 games. That’s high production for the USHL (a league that’s pretty defensively oriented and known to be a little stingy on secondary assists). He struggled at first in college but it can be argued that it makes sense for him to struggle a bit moving to college hockey mid-season.

He’s very fast, shifty, skilled, works his butt off and is good defensively for a teenager. He’s also very young - was barely eligible for this year’s draft. There’s a lot to like with him and reason to think he’s likely to really take a big step at BU this season.

Reasons to maybe tamper the expectations a bit:

He largely dominated the USHL but it was because of his speed. He’s also very didn’t often outthink opponents. He outskated and outworked them.

He then struggled quite a bit in the transition to college hockey. To me, it was largely because he had issues adjusting to bigger and faster players. The speed advantage was less overall there. He seemed to not see many passing lanes and skated himself into nothing.

He was then solid at the U18s but not amazing. Largely disappeared against the tougher opponents and again, his hockey sense looked lacking. The speed and skills were obvious but the playmaking was lacking.

Overall thoughts:

He’s a good C prospect. He has a lot going for him. But I do question his hockey sense some. I left many of his viewings questioning his hockey sense. That said, he started the year off injured, made a very tough transition mid-season and is very young. The question I have is, are those explanations or excuses? He was one of the harder prospects for me to judge this season as he has just about every other skill you’d want in a player. Going into the season, I had him pretty much in line with McKenna after what I saw from him the season before in the USHL playoffs. But I started to question his game more and more as the season went along.

That said, if the hockey sense issues turn out to be overblown and he can really develop his playmaking game, then he has a real chance to pop. But I do caution people that the hockey sense critiques aren’t just made up. He showed some real concerns in that area. It’s possible they can be explained away by him having lots of transitions but it’d also plenty possible the critique is legit.

How much can Hockey Sense be improved?
My sense is that can be developed quite a bit with experience, particularly at higher levels of competition. Obviously that is enhanced by a good level of innate intelligence and coachability. Does he possess those traits hopefully?

I appreciate MN's thorough write up and analysis. Thanks.

I was going to ask a similar question to Old Goat. Could Lawrence be a case where he was so physically dominant in his early years that he did not need to develop the hockey sense that he would need later in his career? In any case, hopefully his college coaches and the Blues development staff can help him in this regard, and hopefully he is a willing student.

[Harry S Deals]

Rest assured the Blues amateur dept excels at developing kids. Having the tools is the first step and it sounds like this kid has aplenty. I was leery because he fell so far in the draft rankings, Top 5 to out of the top 10 could be another huge score for the franchise

[stlblue06]

I didn’t realize TL was projected in the 4-6 range before making a midseason jump to college hockey to go along with an injury. Got to like this pick in the potential “steal” category.

Besides being a 17 year old (2nd youngest in CH this season) playing against much older competition, he also jumped into college life mid season. Taking classes, parties, and all of those distractions. He came around at the end on a struggling team as well

[Old_Goat]

This could be a really underrated pick and I hope it is. Trying to transition 1/2 through the season and being one of the youngest players in the draft alone could be why the points weren't there. BU also struggled to score and I'm sure he was focusing on the D side of his game staring out. Next year will he will have a full season and be much more prepared.

In addition to your points above, wasn’t he injured as well? Ankle? Or am I thinking of a different prospect from the draft?

Yes, he got injured in training camp and missed the beginning of the season.

Reasons to be excited:

He was very good as a 16 yr old for Muskegon in 2024-25. Was probably their best player as they went on to win the Clark Cup. Opposing players simply couldn’t handle his speed and pace most of the time.

He missed the first part of the season and then put up 17 pts in 13 games. That’s high production for the USHL (a league that’s pretty defensively oriented and known to be a little stingy on secondary assists). He struggled at first in college but it can be argued that it makes sense for him to struggle a bit moving to college hockey mid-season.

He’s very fast, shifty, skilled, works his butt off and is good defensively for a teenager. He’s also very young - was barely eligible for this year’s draft. There’s a lot to like with him and reason to think he’s likely to really take a big step at BU this season.

Reasons to maybe tamper the expectations a bit:

He largely dominated the USHL but it was because of his speed. He’s also very didn’t often outthink opponents. He outskated and outworked them.

He then struggled quite a bit in the transition to college hockey. To me, it was largely because he had issues adjusting to bigger and faster players. The speed advantage was less overall there. He seemed to not see many passing lanes and skated himself into nothing.

He was then solid at the U18s but not amazing. Largely disappeared against the tougher opponents and again, his hockey sense looked lacking. The speed and skills were obvious but the playmaking was lacking.

Overall thoughts:

He’s a good C prospect. He has a lot going for him. But I do question his hockey sense some. I left many of his viewings questioning his hockey sense. That said, he started the year off injured, made a very tough transition mid-season and is very young. The question I have is, are those explanations or excuses? He was one of the harder prospects for me to judge this season as he has just about every other skill you’d want in a player. Going into the season, I had him pretty much in line with McKenna after what I saw from him the season before in the USHL playoffs. But I started to question his game more and more as the season went along.

That said, if the hockey sense issues turn out to be overblown and he can really develop his playmaking game, then he has a real chance to pop. But I do caution people that the hockey sense critiques aren’t just made up. He showed some real concerns in that area. It’s possible they can be explained away by him having lots of transitions but it’d also plenty possible the critique is legit.

How much can Hockey Sense be improved?
My sense is that can be developed quite a bit with experience, particularly at higher levels of competition. Obviously that is enhanced by a good level of innate intelligence and coachability. Does he possess those traits hopefully?

I appreciate MN's thorough write up and analysis. Thanks.

I was going to ask a similar question to Old Goat. Could Lawrence be a case where he was so physically dominant in his early years that he did not need to develop the hockey sense that he would need later in his career? In any case, hopefully his college coaches and the Blues development staff can help him in this regard, and hopefully he is a willing student.

I do not know much if anything about the kid. Regardless of the skill, I'll be optimistic that his intelligence and coachability are just fine to keep learning at higher levels.

[IsDurbanodoingtime]

https://www.nhl.com/news/tynan-lawrence ... ary-6-2026

I watch a lot of ecac and hockey east games throughout the year and was originally really underwhelmed with Lawrence especially after his being hyped out of muskegon. Even with his younger age he was a nonfactor for most of the season including the beanpot where he was invisible. This article and lawrence's own admissions about the speed and size differential between ushl and ncaa is heartening especially as he continues to fill out. He is slated number one c on their depth chart and needs to come out strong. Their number 2 is kamil Bednarek who at this point is a more complete two way player with a much stronger 200 ft game. Let's hope.

[Quas]

I read an article where they interviewed Tynan's coach at BU and he mentioned that it was a tough transition to come in over winter break and trying to get up and running with the team and classes etc... He also discussed how Tynan's game is advanced for his age in the way he was able to make plays of the boards to teammates and himself, and his ability to move the puck into space so his teammates could pick it up with speed. I have also seen some highlights where he has made some great passes leading to goals showing his vision. I'm sure there is plenty of video showing plays where he didn't make the correct read or play, but hopefully he improves on this with more experience. It seems like McKenna experienced some of the same issues with adjusting to NCAA hockey, but he played more games and was able show that he could be dominant at that level. If Tynan comes out this year and plays well and produces he may fast track to the NHL. With him being so young I would think he would play this year and next year at BU so he could fully develop physically before making the jump to the NHL.

[dp88]

I'm not a draft expert, but curious question for those that are. Is it something the Blues look for in their picks for them being one of the youngest players in their draft class? It seems like every year we get a prospect who was one of the youngest in the draft that has high potential and maybe even would have been drafted higher if they had been in the following years draft class. I seem to recall this about Pekarcik and Carbonneau in previous years and seems like could apply to Lawrence as well? Is this why they tend to hit fairly well on the late teen early twenties picks?

[kimzey59]

I'm not a draft expert, but curious question for those that are. Is it something the Blues look for in their picks for them being one of the youngest players in their draft class? It seems like every year we get a prospect who was one of the youngest in the draft that has high potential and maybe even would have been drafted higher if they had been in the following years draft class. I seem to recall this about Pekarcik and Carbonneau in previous years and seems like could apply to Lawrence as well? Is this why they tend to hit fairly well on the late teen early twenties picks?

Carb’s was actually on the older side for his class. Which is why he’s jumping to the AHL so quickly after his draft date. It’s normally 2 years after being drafted before Jrs players are eligible for the AHL.


Relative age is certainly a factor when the scouts are projecting upside but I don’t think we put a ton of weight into it as any kind of policy. We seem to draft our share of over-age players just as frequently as we get the relatively young ones.
Having said that, we have gotten a few high profile “young draftee’s” lately which has brought a bit more attention to it(Fischer being the biggest name).

[STL fan in MN]

Overall thoughts:

He’s a good C prospect. He has a lot going for him. But I do question his hockey sense some. I left many of his viewings questioning his hockey sense. That said, he started the year off injured, made a very tough transition mid-season and is very young. The question I have is, are those explanations or excuses? He was one of the harder prospects for me to judge this season as he has just about every other skill you’d want in a player. Going into the season, I had him pretty much in line with McKenna after what I saw from him the season before in the USHL playoffs. But I started to question his game more and more as the season went along.

That said, if the hockey sense issues turn out to be overblown and he can really develop his playmaking game, then he has a real chance to pop. But I do caution people that the hockey sense critiques aren’t just made up. He showed some real concerns in that area. It’s possible they can be explained away by him having lots of transitions but it’d also plenty possible the critique is legit.

At that point in the draft, with the players you knew were there, who would you have drafted? The dman or Command or someone else?

I had Klepov and Lawrence as the next 2.

[STL fan in MN]

This could be a really underrated pick and I hope it is. Trying to transition 1/2 through the season and being one of the youngest players in the draft alone could be why the points weren't there. BU also struggled to score and I'm sure he was focusing on the D side of his game staring out. Next year will he will have a full season and be much more prepared.

In addition to your points above, wasn’t he injured as well? Ankle? Or am I thinking of a different prospect from the draft?

Yes, he got injured in training camp and missed the beginning of the season.

Reasons to be excited:

He was very good as a 16 yr old for Muskegon in 2024-25. Was probably their best player as they went on to win the Clark Cup. Opposing players simply couldn’t handle his speed and pace most of the time.

He missed the first part of the season and then put up 17 pts in 13 games. That’s high production for the USHL (a league that’s pretty defensively oriented and known to be a little stingy on secondary assists). He struggled at first in college but it can be argued that it makes sense for him to struggle a bit moving to college hockey mid-season.

He’s very fast, shifty, skilled, works his butt off and is good defensively for a teenager. He’s also very young - was barely eligible for this year’s draft. There’s a lot to like with him and reason to think he’s likely to really take a big step at BU this season.

Reasons to maybe tamper the expectations a bit:

He largely dominated the USHL but it was because of his speed. He’s also very didn’t often outthink opponents. He outskated and outworked them.

He then struggled quite a bit in the transition to college hockey. To me, it was largely because he had issues adjusting to bigger and faster players. The speed advantage was less overall there. He seemed to not see many passing lanes and skated himself into nothing.

He was then solid at the U18s but not amazing. Largely disappeared against the tougher opponents and again, his hockey sense looked lacking. The speed and skills were obvious but the playmaking was lacking.

Overall thoughts:

He’s a good C prospect. He has a lot going for him. But I do question his hockey sense some. I left many of his viewings questioning his hockey sense. That said, he started the year off injured, made a very tough transition mid-season and is very young. The question I have is, are those explanations or excuses? He was one of the harder prospects for me to judge this season as he has just about every other skill you’d want in a player. Going into the season, I had him pretty much in line with McKenna after what I saw from him the season before in the USHL playoffs. But I started to question his game more and more as the season went along.

That said, if the hockey sense issues turn out to be overblown and he can really develop his playmaking game, then he has a real chance to pop. But I do caution people that the hockey sense critiques aren’t just made up. He showed some real concerns in that area. It’s possible they can be explained away by him having lots of transitions but it’d also plenty possible the critique is legit.

How much can Hockey Sense be improved?
My sense is that can be developed quite a bit with experience, particularly at higher levels of competition. Obviously that is enhanced by a good level of innate intelligence and coachability. Does he possess those traits hopefully?

It can be improved. Some think you either have it or you don’t but I don’t fully believe that. There are absolutely things you can work on in regards to pattern recognition, timing, play development, lanes, skill blending etc. A lot of that is coaching. Not all coaching is equal. Not all good coaches are good at coaching all aspects of the game, especially in terms of skill development and blending that with decision making.

That said, some people are simply a lot better at processing things at high speeds, seeing those patterns and open passing lanes better and faster than most others etc. Those are the guys where their hockey sense really stands out usually.

I don’t know a ton about Lawrence but he certainly seems naturally intelligent. Certainly smart enough to advance his academics to be able to enroll and begin classes at BC in what should’ve been halfway through his Sr year of HS (and actually, most kids with an August b-day would probably be held back a year and a kid his age would oftentimes still be a Jr in HS. At least here in the States anyway. I think the kids in Canada tend to have a later age cutoff). And he seems coachable too. So yeah, I expect him to make some good strides.

I’m cautiously optimistic with him. It’s absolutely possible the Blues hit a home run with this kid. But there’s also reason for caution as he dropped for a reason and unlike other times I’ve seen kids drop, I see the reason why he dropped a bit as being pretty valid. But that’s what makes scouting hard. You have to evaluate 100s of kids based on whatever data you can get. Sometimes the data tells you a clear story and other times it’s inconsistent, murky and there’s less of it when a kid gets injured and misses games. A year from now, he might be viewed differently.

[STL fan in MN]

I'm not a draft expert, but curious question for those that are. Is it something the Blues look for in their picks for them being one of the youngest players in their draft class? It seems like every year we get a prospect who was one of the youngest in the draft that has high potential and maybe even would have been drafted higher if they had been in the following years draft class. I seem to recall this about Pekarcik and Carbonneau in previous years and seems like could apply to Lawrence as well? Is this why they tend to hit fairly well on the late teen early twenties picks?

The Blues haven’t ever said they specifically target younger players but it’s been a known thing for a long time now. It’s called relative age effect. Here’s a couple articles about it.

https://www.admkids.com/news_article/show/823923


https://www.espn.com/blog/nhl-draft/ins ... /_/id/212

Historically, the age cutoff for most leagues has been Dec 31. So kids born in the first part of the year tend to be the oldest in their cohorts and on average are bigger, stronger, faster etc. So they’re deemed as “better” year after year growing up. The bias feeds itself.

Over time, it’s been shown that kids born in the summer months tend to outperform their draft positions while those born in the first few months of the year underperform a bit. All on average of course. So yeah, teams now look for the younger kids as they’re thought to have a longer runway. They’re the ones that have overcome the odds being among the youngest each year growing up.

Pekarcik was also very young for his class but Carbonneau was on the older side of his. But Carbo is a December b-day so he was pretty much always on the youngest side growing up. But the NHL draft has an age cutoff of Sept 15 so that resulted in him having to wait another year compared to the other kids born in ‘06 to be draft eligible. So he was drafted after his 3rd year of Jrs while the kids born Jan-Sept 15 2007 had completed only 2 years. All that stuff makes a difference.

[Old_Goat]

This could be a really underrated pick and I hope it is. Trying to transition 1/2 through the season and being one of the youngest players in the draft alone could be why the points weren't there. BU also struggled to score and I'm sure he was focusing on the D side of his game staring out. Next year will he will have a full season and be much more prepared.

In addition to your points above, wasn’t he injured as well? Ankle? Or am I thinking of a different prospect from the draft?

Yes, he got injured in training camp and missed the beginning of the season.

Reasons to be excited:

He was very good as a 16 yr old for Muskegon in 2024-25. Was probably their best player as they went on to win the Clark Cup. Opposing players simply couldn’t handle his speed and pace most of the time.

He missed the first part of the season and then put up 17 pts in 13 games. That’s high production for the USHL (a league that’s pretty defensively oriented and known to be a little stingy on secondary assists). He struggled at first in college but it can be argued that it makes sense for him to struggle a bit moving to college hockey mid-season.

He’s very fast, shifty, skilled, works his butt off and is good defensively for a teenager. He’s also very young - was barely eligible for this year’s draft. There’s a lot to like with him and reason to think he’s likely to really take a big step at BU this season.

Reasons to maybe tamper the expectations a bit:

He largely dominated the USHL but it was because of his speed. He’s also very didn’t often outthink opponents. He outskated and outworked them.

He then struggled quite a bit in the transition to college hockey. To me, it was largely because he had issues adjusting to bigger and faster players. The speed advantage was less overall there. He seemed to not see many passing lanes and skated himself into nothing.

He was then solid at the U18s but not amazing. Largely disappeared against the tougher opponents and again, his hockey sense looked lacking. The speed and skills were obvious but the playmaking was lacking.

Overall thoughts:

He’s a good C prospect. He has a lot going for him. But I do question his hockey sense some. I left many of his viewings questioning his hockey sense. That said, he started the year off injured, made a very tough transition mid-season and is very young. The question I have is, are those explanations or excuses? He was one of the harder prospects for me to judge this season as he has just about every other skill you’d want in a player. Going into the season, I had him pretty much in line with McKenna after what I saw from him the season before in the USHL playoffs. But I started to question his game more and more as the season went along.

That said, if the hockey sense issues turn out to be overblown and he can really develop his playmaking game, then he has a real chance to pop. But I do caution people that the hockey sense critiques aren’t just made up. He showed some real concerns in that area. It’s possible they can be explained away by him having lots of transitions but it’d also plenty possible the critique is legit.

How much can Hockey Sense be improved?
My sense is that can be developed quite a bit with experience, particularly at higher levels of competition. Obviously that is enhanced by a good level of innate intelligence and coachability. Does he possess those traits hopefully?

It can be improved. Some think you either have it or you don’t but I don’t fully believe that. There are absolutely things you can work on in regards to pattern recognition, timing, play development, lanes, skill blending etc. A lot of that is coaching. Not all coaching is equal. Not all good coaches are good at coaching all aspects of the game, especially in terms of skill development and blending that with decision making.

That said, some people are simply a lot better at processing things at high speeds, seeing those patterns and open passing lanes better and faster than most others etc. Those are the guys where their hockey sense really stands out usually.

I don’t know a ton about Lawrence but he certainly seems naturally intelligent. Certainly smart enough to advance his academics to be able to enroll and begin classes at BC in what should’ve been halfway through his Sr year of HS (and actually, most kids with an August b-day would probably be held back a year and a kid his age would oftentimes still be a Jr in HS. At least here in the States anyway. I think the kids in Canada tend to have a later age cutoff). And he seems coachable too. So yeah, I expect him to make some good strides.

I’m cautiously optimistic with him. It’s absolutely possible the Blues hit a home run with this kid. But there’s also reason for caution as he dropped for a reason and unlike other times I’ve seen kids drop, I see the reason why he dropped a bit as being pretty valid. But that’s what makes scouting hard. You have to evaluate 100s of kids based on whatever data you can get. Sometimes the data tells you a clear story and other times it’s inconsistent, murky and there’s less of it when a kid gets injured and misses games. A year from now, he might be viewed differently.

Thanks.

[Old_Goat]

I'm not a draft expert, but curious question for those that are. Is it something the Blues look for in their picks for them being one of the youngest players in their draft class? It seems like every year we get a prospect who was one of the youngest in the draft that has high potential and maybe even would have been drafted higher if they had been in the following years draft class. I seem to recall this about Pekarcik and Carbonneau in previous years and seems like could apply to Lawrence as well? Is this why they tend to hit fairly well on the late teen early twenties picks?

I am not informed enough to have good answers to your questions, but what pops in my mind after reading your post is that "DP57" was not drafted in his first year of eligibility for the NHL!

[Hockey Pete]

This could be a really underrated pick and I hope it is. Trying to transition 1/2 through the season and being one of the youngest players in the draft alone could be why the points weren't there. BU also struggled to score and I'm sure he was focusing on the D side of his game staring out. Next year will he will have a full season and be much more prepared.

In addition to your points above, wasn’t he injured as well? Ankle? Or am I thinking of a different prospect from the draft?

Yes, he got injured in training camp and missed the beginning of the season.

Reasons to be excited:

He was very good as a 16 yr old for Muskegon in 2024-25. Was probably their best player as they went on to win the Clark Cup. Opposing players simply couldn’t handle his speed and pace most of the time.

He missed the first part of the season and then put up 17 pts in 13 games. That’s high production for the USHL (a league that’s pretty defensively oriented and known to be a little stingy on secondary assists). He struggled at first in college but it can be argued that it makes sense for him to struggle a bit moving to college hockey mid-season.

He’s very fast, shifty, skilled, works his butt off and is good defensively for a teenager. He’s also very young - was barely eligible for this year’s draft. There’s a lot to like with him and reason to think he’s likely to really take a big step at BU this season.

Reasons to maybe tamper the expectations a bit:

He largely dominated the USHL but it was because of his speed. He’s also very didn’t often outthink opponents. He outskated and outworked them.

He then struggled quite a bit in the transition to college hockey. To me, it was largely because he had issues adjusting to bigger and faster players. The speed advantage was less overall there. He seemed to not see many passing lanes and skated himself into nothing.

He was then solid at the U18s but not amazing. Largely disappeared against the tougher opponents and again, his hockey sense looked lacking. The speed and skills were obvious but the playmaking was lacking.

Overall thoughts:

He’s a good C prospect. He has a lot going for him. But I do question his hockey sense some. I left many of his viewings questioning his hockey sense. That said, he started the year off injured, made a very tough transition mid-season and is very young. The question I have is, are those explanations or excuses? He was one of the harder prospects for me to judge this season as he has just about every other skill you’d want in a player. Going into the season, I had him pretty much in line with McKenna after what I saw from him the season before in the USHL playoffs. But I started to question his game more and more as the season went along.

That said, if the hockey sense issues turn out to be overblown and he can really develop his playmaking game, then he has a real chance to pop. But I do caution people that the hockey sense critiques aren’t just made up. He showed some real concerns in that area. It’s possible they can be explained away by him having lots of transitions but it’d also plenty possible the critique is legit.

How much can Hockey Sense be improved?
My sense is that can be developed quite a bit with experience, particularly at higher levels of competition. Obviously that is enhanced by a good level of innate intelligence and coachability. Does he possess those traits hopefully?

It can be improved. Some think you either have it or you don’t but I don’t fully believe that. There are absolutely things you can work on in regards to pattern recognition, timing, play development, lanes, skill blending etc. A lot of that is coaching. Not all coaching is equal. Not all good coaches are good at coaching all aspects of the game, especially in terms of skill development and blending that with decision making.

That said, some people are simply a lot better at processing things at high speeds, seeing those patterns and open passing lanes better and faster than most others etc. Those are the guys where their hockey sense really stands out usually.

I don’t know a ton about Lawrence but he certainly seems naturally intelligent. Certainly smart enough to advance his academics to be able to enroll and begin classes at BC in what should’ve been halfway through his Sr year of HS (and actually, most kids with an August b-day would probably be held back a year and a kid his age would oftentimes still be a Jr in HS. At least here in the States anyway. I think the kids in Canada tend to have a later age cutoff). And he seems coachable too. So yeah, I expect him to make some good strides.

I’m cautiously optimistic with him. It’s absolutely possible the Blues hit a home run with this kid. But there’s also reason for caution as he dropped for a reason and unlike other times I’ve seen kids drop, I see the reason why he dropped a bit as being pretty valid. But that’s what makes scouting hard. You have to evaluate 100s of kids based on whatever data you can get. Sometimes the data tells you a clear story and other times it’s inconsistent, murky and there’s less of it when a kid gets injured and misses games. A year from now, he might be viewed differently.

IMO, if he stayed where he was instead of going NCAA mid-season, we would have had NO CHANCE at him on the 11th pick. Huge win for us as I had him as the 2nd best center in the entire draft, so no complaints here.

Speaking of his move, who in his group of peers thought that was a good idea. It's hard enough for a kid to transition to the NCAA at the beginning of the season, even with the weeks of practice, coaching sessions, team meetings and the workout regiment, but mid-season without ANY of that??? It probably took a month just to learn the system, let alone knowing it as if it were second nature. You have NO IDEA of your fellow players skill-set, setup routine (where they like the puck) let alone making those actions automatic (not having to actively think, just know).

For those of us who've played NCAA hockey, learning all of that with the speed involved is a huge hurdle, and it showed in Tynan's game when he first arrived.

Again, Good For Us...