Brendan Perlini Draft Profile

I’m not normally a fan of comparisons, but Brendan Perlini reminds me so much of Jeff Carter when I watched Carter in his draft year (2003). Same kind of body type and skill set, and the same kind of concerns about consistency and physical intensity. Brendan Perlini has three great things going for him: Size, skating, and one heck of a shot. Once he gets going down the wing, he’s incredibly difficult to stop and he has both a great slapper and a terrific wrist shot, which he needs little space to get off. He does a great job of getting himself in scoring position to use his shot and has gotten better at fighting through traffic to get open. All that said, the other components of his game are not consistent. For as strong as he is with the puck off the rush, he needs to drive the net with more consistency and really use his size to give defenses a hard time.

Playing with Carter Verhaeghe and Anthony DiFruscia (two terrific board players), he was often guilty of standing around watching the play far too much instead of getting his nose dirty in the corners. I will give him credit, though. His effort on the back check and overall defensive awareness really improved as the season went on. He’s now a capable penalty killer and does a good job of tying up opposing forwards in the slot. Even though he wasn’t scoring a ton in the playoffs, his effort defensively helped to keep Niagara in that series. Perlini was also solid at the U18s and certainly didn’t hurt his cause in the event.
– Brock Otten, OHL Prospects

Brendan Perlini Highlights

Brendan Perlini Stats