Sam Rinzel
Chaska High School
Skating:
- Straight Line Skating:
Sam Rinzel didn’t play with a ton of pace this season which means he doesn’t showcase his top speed or straight line stride often but when he does it comes out as something that could be improved upon but not something that is significantly below NHL average to the point where it is going to prevent him from playing. His posture is ok, he has an adequate knee bend and tilts his upper body forward to make full use of the force he generates. His stride recovery should be improved upon. Often, he doesn’t extend enough out of his recoveries, limiting power on his forward stride, but to me, in general this points to his effort level at times rather than any mechanical flaws in his stride. His upper body swing is good, starting with a more narrow arm swing in the acceleration phase to compliment the narrower width needed from the feet for acceleration and transitions into a wider arm swing in the stride phase to help generate power in his stride.
Through 3 tracked Minnesota high school games, Rinzel had a top speed of 31.17km/hr Not a very impressive top speed at all, but I think this is more representative of the general lack of pace to his game against this level of competition than any mechanical deficiencies in his forward stride.
-Lateral and Backwards Skating:
Moving laterally, Rinzel is super mobile, especially through his c-cut and crossover movements. He loves to utilize both linear and lateral crossovers to build speed and manipulate defenders. His open hips allow for a lot of lateral mobility allowing him to deploy a mohawk pivot or weight shift to get around the opposition defenders and forecheckers. He has decent posture, he keeps his knees just about over his toes and shows many signs of good dynamic posture by displaying terrific rotation in his hips and solid weight transfer. Rinzel blends his skating well with his significant stick handling skill. He likes to pop the puck into his hip pocket to protect it, incorporating upper and lower body manipulations all while he uses arms away from body handles to leverage his wingspan to beat defenders 1 on 1.
Rinzel needs serious development on his defensive skating. He is currently limited as a transition defender due to a lack of heel pushes, forcing him into being extra conservative protecting the middle lane. This means he is left unable to play attackers as aggressively as you would wish with someone of his physical profile. This lack of heel push also plagued him in maintaining proper spacing. He has struggled with an inside cut, unable to defend rush pattern changes.
Rinzel’s mix of patience, manipulation and constant motion allow him to dominate at the high school level, and his frame points to massive upside at the NHL level but there is a lot of work to do with the player and with that comes substantial risk. His immediate development should focus on improving his defensive skating but with that being said the uncertainty of his hockey sense remains the biggest limiter to his projection. Sam has a unique and coveted mix of tools and has flashed high end potential this season for Chaska High and Waterloo. I think the evidence supports Rinzel's potential being high enough to rank him as a player on the fringe of this year’s first round.