The Second City Hockey staff will profile 10 players leading up to the 2020 NHL Draft, which will start Oct. 6, the Blackhawks could have the opportunity to select at No. 17 overall.
Seth Jarvis seems to be good at everything.
The Portland Winterhawks forward excelled in the Western Hockey League with the second-best points per game mark (1.69) and the second-most points (98) this past season. He played five fewer games than the league leader (Adam Beckman, 2019 third rounder by Minnesota) and scored nine fewer points. Jarvis could have reached that mark given 63 games.
The one thing Jarvis doesn’t do: faceoffs. He had a 44.4-percent mark on just 45 attempts. But it’s not like Portland needed that on top of everything else they got from him. They were regular season champions (largely because of Jarvis’ work) and likely would have gone deep in the WHL playoffs had the COVID-19 pandemic not cancelled them.
In Mitch Brown’s metrics, Jarvis tests well in every category. The only concern most prospect analysts seem to have is Jarvis’ size and play style translating together in the NHL. He’s a greasy goal scorer who goes to the high-danger area with a 5-foot-10 frame. It’s not like that’s unheard of in the NHL, however. It lends itself to perhaps the best comparison for Jarvis as well: Brendan Gallagher.
Jarvis didn’t play in the World Juniors in 2019. His last international test was the 2018-19 U-17 World Hockey Championship when he scored five points in six games.
The concerns with Jarvis are his aggressiveness — often abandoning the defensive zone outright to his teammates — and his transition game. But when he’s in the offensive zone Jarvis becomes special and someone who drives play and to the areas that play should be driven to.
Basics
Position: Center/right wing
Age: 18 (Feb. 1, 2002)
Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Height: 5-foot-10
Weight: 172 pounds
Shoots: Right
Team: Portland Winterhawks (WHL)
Draft rankings
NHL Central Scouting (NHL): No. 11 North American skater
Elite Prospects: No. 13
Scott Wheeler (The Athletic): No. 14
Corey Pronman (The Athletic): No. 12
Cam Robinson (Dobber Prospects): No. 14
Craig Button (TSN): No. 23