Harry Nansi
| C | Owen Sound Attack (OHL) | 6-3 | 179 lbs |
Skating:
Straight Line Skating:
Harry Nansi’s skating needs to be much improved and is a major swing skill for him. He is athletic but there are some clear areas that require significant attention. His top-end speed is not poor; he can generate enough momentum in open ice to remain competitive, but this is more of a testament to his athleticism than his mechanics. His acceleration is inconsistent and lacks explosiveness, which impacts his ability to separate from opponents or recover quickly on transitions. His mechanics in the stride phase are a major issue and limit his overall skating efficiency. Nansi’s posture during his stride is the primary concern. His stance is too wide, which compromises his ability to generate power and maintain balance. He does not fully extend through his strides, and his weight transfer is uneven, resulting in lost energy and a lack of agility. His recovery phase is inefficient as well, with his strides often extending outside the midline of his body, leading to instability and slowing him down. It’s also noticeable that Nansi falls back on his heels often, this is also likely an issue with his stride recovery being shallow. Additionally, he does not consistently hinge at the hips or bend his knees sufficiently, which reduces his ability to get low and maximize force through the ice.
Nansi had a top tracked speed in the 27th percentile of all players I have tracked in my 4 year dataset in the 3 OHL games I tracked of him this season. I should also mention that my dataset may be a skewed sample due to my tendency to want to track faster players. Watching Nansi, if he can improve his first step acceleration, his top end speed can greatly improve thanks to his athleticism, even without fixing other parts of his stride.
Lateral Skating:
I mentioned earlier but Harry Nansi’s lateral skating is a significant area of concern, creating substantial limitations that impact his overall effectiveness on the ice. He struggles to maneuver dynamically or adjust his path efficiently. When moving laterally, Nansi’s stance is very wide, even wider than his speed creation or stride phase. This wide stance doesn’t allow him the agility to shift weight smoothly and with control. These make his lateral transitions cumbersome and predictable. His turns are therefore wide and inefficient, as he fails to engage his edges effectively or initiate proper rotational mechanics. Instead of using controlled weight shifts and clean crossovers, he relies on awkward, inconsistent movements. His inability to hinge at the hips or maintain a low, stable stance further limits his agility, as his knees often extend past his toes, throwing off his balance and power generation. This mechanical flaw reduces his ability to carry momentum through changes in direction, leaving him vulnerable to being outmaneuvered in tight situations, it also leads to losses in balance and stability often.
His upright stance also prevents him from generating the power or flexibility needed for sharper cuts and quick direction changes. This affects his speed creation potential as well as his turning radius. His lack of lateral explosiveness means he cannot accelerate effectively out of his turns, making him easy to contain along the boards or in one-on-one battles. Without drastic improvement in this area, his ability to perform in dynamic, faster pace of play situations will remain severely limited, capping his overall potential as a player.
Skills:
Motor
Nansi’s motor is a major advantage for him. His relentless pace and work rate make him stand out on every shift. Nansi’s feet never stop moving, and that constant energy allows him to pressure opponents, win battles, and draw penalties. He is in the 97th percentile among all OHL forwards (minimum 10 games played) in puck battles won per 60 minutes, highlighting his ability to pressure opponents consistently. His aggressive approach also leads to drawn penalties; Nansi ranks in the 91st percentile for penalties drawn per 60 minutes, a testament to his tenacity and willingness to engage physically.
Nansi’s motor directly contributes to his forechecking success. He is in the 76th percentile for offensive zone takeaways per 60 minutes, which speaks to his ability to disrupt opponents, force turnovers, and create opportunities for his team. He launches himself at opponents on the forecheck, closing gaps quickly and pressuring puck carriers into mistakes. Even when plays don’t go as planned, Nansi’s sheer effort and determination ensure he remains an impact player, finding ways to stay involved and apply pressure. Nansi’s high motor and tireless effort make him a menace on the ice. His energy, puck battle ability, and forechecking success give him a solid foundation for higher levels, particularly if he can refine his positioning and skating mechanics. His work rate is undeniably one of his defining attributes and will be a key element of his game moving on to higher levels.
Playmaking
As a playmaker, Harry Nansi exhibits flashes of brilliance. Nansi demonstrates advanced vision and creativity, often looking to make high-danger passes. He ranks in the 89th percentile among OHL forwards (minimum 10 games played) in even-strength high-danger passes per 60 minutes, highlighting his ability to identify and exploit valuable scoring opportunities. Similarly, his 71st percentile ranking in even-strength shot assists per 60 underscores his potential as a facilitator. Despite his tendency to work the puck into more contested high danger areas, Nansi’s even-strength pass completion rate of 81.6% places him in the 67th percentile, suggesting that he generally manages to maintain team possession even when working the puck into great situations.
Nansi’s underlying playmaking numbers contrast with his pedestrian production of 7 primary assists in 33 games this season. This discrepancy indicates that his outputs should be higher, and his raw numbers may not fully reflect his on-ice contributions. Some of this can be attributed to the relative lack of offensive talent on the Owen Sound Attack. Nansi thrives when working the puck into high-danger areas and demonstrates an ability to make a variety of plays, such as hook passes or drop passes, to find open teammates and oftentimes his teammates can’t finish quality opportunities Nansi helps create. His skating mechanics however, often hinder his ability to execute complex ideas consistently. With limited agility, he finds it difficult to execute some passes when in motion. Quickly following a turnover, where no movement is required and before the defence has time to set up, Nansi is deadly, quickly picking out high danger reads with accuracy, utizilizing his passing vision and scanning habits rather than his skating.
Offensive Zone Intelligence
In the offensive zone, Harry Nansi makes his presence felt primarily through his puck protection skills and offensive vision. His ability to protect the puck and maintain possession is evident, ranking him in the 69th percentile among all OHL forwards in average time per puck touch. Despite his mechanical flaws as a skater, Nansi’s offensive awareness and puck-handling skill allow him to create opportunities for his teammates through his high level passing and quality reads. Nansi’s shows the ability to anticipate plays and adjust his positioning accordingly. However, his limited skating mechanics hinder his ability to generate consistent high-danger opportunities for himself, with only 16.6% of his total shot attempts coming from high-danger areas, placing him in the 35th percentile among OHL forwards. This speaks again in large part, to his skating limitations.
When watching Nansi, his offensive talent is undeniable—he demonstrates flashes of brilliance with his vision and playmaking ability, often executing advanced passing techniques to create chances, and executing smart routes without the puck. He excels at drawing penalties and maintaining puck possession through effective shielding, but his skating limitations, particularly his wide turns and lack of lateral agility, restrict his offensive impact with the puck when trying to create space for himself. This is shown in his pedestrian underlying production. He ranks in the 49th percentile among OHL forwards (minimum 10 games played) in even-strength scoring chances per 60 and the 42nd percentile in offensive zone cycle shots per 60. These numbers don’t reflect the player he has the potential to be completely, and with improved skating he has clear potential in this area.
Stickhandling
Harry Nansi’s is always doing a lot with the puck. He’s unafraid to challenge defenders with high-risk, high-reward moves, sometimes putting himself in tight spaces to make plays. Nansi ranks in the 91st percentile in attempted dekes per 60 and the 92nd percentile in dekes per puck touch among OHL forwards (minimum of 10 games played, per Instat). However, his success rate lags behind, sitting in the 27th percentile for deke success percentage. While this disparity highlights his current limitations in execution, it also shows how he has confidence and willingness in that area. With his other skills this could be a trait that if other parts of his game get better and he becomes a cleaner stickhandler it could signal long-term growth potential.
Nansi is especially effective at leveraging speed differentials to exploit space, often adjusting his routes and angles to open up passing or shooting lanes. His aforementioned puck protection skills are solid, maintaining control in tight situations and drawing penalties from defenders attempting to dislodge him. His active movement in the offensive zone ensures that he’s always a threat, constantly recalibrating his position to maximize space and opportunity.
His main move is a simple head fake shimmy shake and that doesn’t get the job done at the current level he plays. He needs to improve his arsenal of moves. Nansi’s stickhandling is also hindered by his skating mechanics, which limit his ability to execute at a high level. His wide skating stance impacts his agility and his chest being too far forward hinders his balance, making it harder to transition smoothly between dekes and leaving him prone to turnovers when pressured. This mechanical inefficiency also affects his ability to absorb contact and navigate through crowded areas at full speed. Improving his skating will not only enhance his puck control but also allow him to better exploit the space he creates with his stickhandling.
As Nansi refines his mechanics and sharpens his stickhandling execution, the other facets of his game suggest a looming breakout in point production. With his high motor, offensive creativity, and willingness to take risks, Nansi has the potential to evolve into a dynamic playmaker and a key contributor in the OHL and beyond.
Perception:
Tactical Recognitions
The Owen Sound Attack are struggling this season. They have accumulated a 9-19-5 record in the OHL so far this season. They have a distinct lack of top end offensive talent and this shows in them being bottom 3 in the OHL in goals per game and scoring chances per game. Nansi’s role has been limited, he plays in a third line role, averaging 14:34 a game. This includes time on the second unit power play, given his motor and ability to disrupt the play I would like to see Nansi get opportunities on the penalty kill but this something that hasn’t happened yet. As Nansi’s box score woes continue, he has seen less and less ice so far this season. I can see where the coaches are coming from in some regards, looking to spark things offensively, but it has also affected both Nansi’s ability to showcase himself and surely his mentality as a player.
At the time of writing, the Owen Sound Attack don’t have a single point per game player on their team. It's clear that through a lack of top end offensive talent and conservative tactics, Owen Sound have limited Harry Nansi’s production quite a bit. This isn’t to say that he is blameless in their offensive struggles as he has many issues in his game, but simply some context for his lack of boxscore production. As a team they rank 18th in the OHL in terms of goals scored versus expected, scoring 0.45 goals less per game than their scoring chances would indicate, meaning there is some room for positive regression to the mean offensively. Nansi would benefit from this too, he ranks in the 21st percentile in goals scored above expected in the OHL among forwards who have played more than 10 games. He should have almost 2 more goals than he does now. Nansi has most often been paired with Benjamin Cormier and a rotating cast of Antonio Tersigni or Pierce Mbuyi, all younger players who haven’t proven themselves offensively. Owen Sound is a very young team, they rank 18th in the OHL in terms of average age. In many ways this lack of experience shines through. The Attack also rank bottom 5 in goals per game and scoring chances per game, this speaks to their lack of offensive talent this season.
Speed Perception
Harry Nansi is one of the more intriguing project players in the 2025 NHL Draft. Despite significant mechanical limitations in his skating, Nansi demonstrates an advanced understanding of speed differentials and how to exploit them effectively in gameplay. This is in large part thanks to his scanning habits, His ability to read the ice and anticipate where the play will go help him create opportunities that others might not see. This is especially noticeable in pre-possession sequences. Nansi adjusts his routes to maintain offensive pressure, despite his subpar skating. He consistently pre-scans to identify gaps, delays or reloads to open up space, and capitalizes on opponents’ slower reactions. His quick decision-making is evident in his offensive zone play, where he spaces himself intelligently to capitalize on available openings. His ability to shield the puck and draw penalties, even with limited agility, highlights his high hockey IQ and his knack for timing his movements to match or exploit changes in pace.
A lack of lateral agility, balance, and explosive first steps hampers his capacity to fully take advantage of his skills. His immediate focus in his development should be on fixing his skating mechanics, which makes it difficult for him to maintain control at higher speeds or under physical pressure. I got to know Harry while working with the Nepean Raiders when he was in Bantam and Midget. He is a great kid, quite shy, but works very hard and is dedicated to his game. He is well aware of these issues he has as a player and it will be interesting to see how he adjusts.
As one of the youngest draft eligible players in this year’s draft, Nansi’s has to have one of the highest potentials for later picks in this draft class. This potential lies in his ability to pair his offensive vision and puck skills, with his frame and athleticism. If he can refine his skating, particularly laterally, he has the tools to become a play-driving middle-six forward. However, his development will require patience and significant work. As a raw but high-upside prospect, Nansi is well worth a swing in the later rounds of the draft. If aspects of his game improve, he could blossom into a dynamic offensive force. If not, his impact may remain limited to flashes of brilliance in isolated moments.
Finlay Sherratt
December 2024