Position: C, Shoots: L
H/W: 6-foot-4 / 203 Pounds
Date of Birth: Mar 3rd, 2008
Rudolfs Berzkalns took a major step in his development this past year, tripling his regular season point totals from the year previous and playing his most offensively productive hockey during Muskegon’s deep postseason run. While this increase is impressive, Berzkalns projects to be a net neutral offensive NHLer. The real value that makes him an attractive top 50 pick stems from his projectable play as a checking line center and his physical upside.
Berzkalns has incredible contact skills, improving skating, shows flashes of skill in open ice, and puts forth a strong level of compete every night. As the year progressed, Berzkalns looked more and more comfortable coming out of his shell to attempt skill moves at top speed. In the playoffs he put his offensive game together, scoring ten points in sixteen games and generating substantially more opportunities for himself and his teammates compared to the regular season. Berzkalns demonstrates excellent execution of the little things with strong pro habits.
There are some downsides that limit Berzkalns’ upside such as his limited creativity, inconsistent shooting, and lack of meanness. While Berzkalns does have a flashy pass off the rush every now and then, he isn’t a consistent creator in the offensive zone. Rather, he thrives along the boards, knocking pucks free back to the point and winning battles off the wall. His shooting power is good considering his form isn’t the prettiest but Berzkalns could benefit from getting more touches when looking to fire a catch-and-release shot. Another area of improvement that would elevate his game would be implementing some harder hits and finishing through his checks. He’s already great at pinning opponents and working from there, but by adding an element of fear when defensemen go into the corners with him, Berzkalns can force more errors.
Berzkalns is a good bet to earn a bottom-six role in an NHL lineup and can be a valuable piece to play low-event hockey in tight games. While easy to project to the NHL, his upside is quite limited. It’s hard to see a world where Berzkalns cracks an NHL second line and sticks. He will need wingers that are stronger play drivers and scorers, but his foundation of responsible defense, high effort, and solid smarts make Berzkalns an easy player to work alongside. Don’t be surprised if he’s one of the first few forwards off the board on day two of the draft (Maybe PIT or FLA), or even a late-night one-pick.
Skating
Berzkalns’ skating projects as NHL average as a whole due to his weaker dynamism in his acceleration. He can win loose pucks with his physicality, reach, and a couple nice skill moves here and there but you won’t see him spring onto loose pucks with a quick first step or toast a defender after beating them with a deke. Of course Berzkalns still has some muscle to add to his frame, and should get sufficient resources at Boston University next year to work on explosiveness, but it’s hard to see a world where he can deliver high-end footspeed as needed.
Where Berzkalns’ skating does provide value is in his defensive footwork. For a larger guy Berzkalns has lighter feet when fresh and is able to bounce back and forth pretty easily when tracking play. The same edgework doesn’t translate to his puck carrying as he’s more of a straight-line guy who uses his frame to shield possession. He can also build some decent speed and fill lanes well on the rush, waiting for opportunities to crash the net.
Berzkalns builds some decent acceleration through 3 steps as he crosses out of his zone. He’s not able to create great separation on the rush but is often able to at least establish the zone without a turnover or get a puck on net.
Here, Berzkalns shows off his defensive footwork, keeping his head up, and maintaining his ability to shut down the next pass.
Here, you can see the speed he builds on the rush isn’t high-end but also isn’t holding him back. Berzkalns arrives on time to threaten the middle of the ice before relying on his strong core to post up for a net front chance.
Berzkalns builds up some speed on his crossovers here. He relies on little bursts rather than consistently building and sustaining speed.
Grade: 52.5
Shot
Berzkalns’ shot is a bit flawed currently, but the power is there. He whiffs on a lot of pucks off the collect when receiving a pass and is a much better shooter while carrying the puck. This is a little concerning for me because he’s likely not going to be able to open up space in key scoring areas by carrying the puck as consistently. Additionally, Berzkalns doesn’t involve his core in his shooting form as much as he could. He keeps his body open towards the net, not tapping into as much additional power from the weight transfer that most successful scorers utilize.
An area of Berzkalns’ shooting that stands out is his ability to win inside positioning to allow himself to get shots off. He works hard to gain the advantage in 1v1 battles, presenting easier targets for his teammates. He also finds success pulling the puck close to his body with a toe drag and using defenders to screen his shot.
There’s some upside with his shot and he could potentially flirt with the 20-goal plateau given his excellent positioning.
Berzkalns shows off his power with this shortside wrister on the rush.
One of the cleaner collects where he displays a quick release wrister for the goal. If he can bring this fluidity into his shot form more often, he’ll be able to capitalize at the next level.
A beautifully placed one-timer that finds its mark on the short side.
A consistent issue with his shot is that there are games where he doesn’t force the goalie to make saves. Too many of his shots are handled with ease or are fired harmlessly into the chest or lower body.
Berzkalns loves to use defenders to shield his shot release. The drawback of this is he gets his shots blocked at a pretty worrying rate.
Grade: 52.5
Skills
Berzkalns likes to operate in space with his hands but don’t sleep on his ability to escape off the boards with a nifty skill move. Once Berzkalns wins possession, he moves with purpose and uses quick stickhandling moves to achieve enough room to continue the cycle with safe passes. When Berzkalns has some room to pick up speed on the rush his hands instantly look high-level. He often attempts dekes under defenders' sticks to put his shoulder down and slip by on the outside. While he’s not able to generate many dangerous chances with his hands, he is able to escape from pressure and establish offensive zone set-ups.
Berzkalns already has pretty good balance when dekeing. He falls much less often than other skilled big-men in this class. Here, he holds off the NTDP defender to recover the puck, baiting him to attack the puck from behind before pulling it into his body for protection and accessing the space he created.
Berzkalns won’t be burning through the neutral zone in transition at the next level but he consistently can make a move to get pucks off the wall and continue forward momentum for his team.
Here, he makes a few quick moves to get past the defender and gain the zone. Instead of tossing the puck harmlessly on net he peels off and establishes a set up.
Good work getting this pass off by finding a lane under the defender's stick. While it doesn’t connect, it displays Berzkalns growing appetite for more creative plays.
Berzkalns fails this move to the inside and while the idea is good, even a completion likely results in another defender quickly closing the opportunity off.
Grade: 52.5
Smarts
Berzkalns responsible brand of defensive hockey revolves around supporting his teammates and making the small difference in 50-50 battles. He uses his size to create safe outlets in the cycle game by boxing out opponents and moving pucks quickly. In the defensive zone, Berzkalns is always scanning, identifying potential holes in his team’s coverage and bridging the gaps. He maintains composure on the penalty kill, keeping excellent positioning and taking away lanes from opponents. When play is along the boards, Berzkalns finds ways to escape with possession for his team, putting pucks to areas his teammates can reach first. In transition Berzkalns rarely loses possession, using his frame to create time to find safe outlets rather than overrely on his hands and skating.
He doesn’t create many dangerous chances in sustained offensive zone play but excels at maintaining possession by extending plays and keeping the puck alive. He can make the odd nifty pass when driving to the net to feed teammates cross-crease. I would like to see a bit more improvement in his shooting IQ. Right now, when he throws shots on net it looks like he lacks intention with low-speed wristers, which a lot of the time don’t force goaltenders to make stops.
Here’s an example of a smart pass from Berzkalns when driving to the net. He gains an edge on the defender with a little move and then sets up his teammate on the doorstep.
Berzkalns wins this board battle quickly and immediately gets the puck off the wall to his teammate, who then starts a rush.
Here Berzkalns correctly anticipates that his teammate is looking for a shot and gets into an inside position where he has a chance to deflect a puck home.
Another small detail Berzkalns nails, getting his stick on the ice, giving his teammate an easy target through the net front defender. Unfortunately, he bobbles the reception.
Here, he prescans a cross-ice pass and delivers it quickly to give Muskegon a numbers advantage on the break-in.
Good processing here to immediately fill the right space following the coverage pass-off.
Grade: 55
Physicality/Compete
Perhaps with a grade of 57.5, you’d expect a meaner, more hard hitting pivot that sets the tone of games. Not to say Berzkalns is passive but this rating stems more from his already elite contact skills on offense and in board battles. He uses his lower body strength to work pucks free, bulldozing smaller opponents. Berzkalns understands how to establish winning body position better than almost every prospect in the class and is seemingly always one step ahead of defensemen when jostling netfront.
His compete level is impressive, keeping his feet moving on defense to cut off lanes and pressure wingers. He can fade and get cement boots as most tall players at this age, but for such a high work rate, he does have good cardio. His motor translates to offense on the forecheck, working hard in board battles to get pucks off the wall.
I’d like to see Berzkalns take the next step and add some meanness to his game alongside some harder hits to up his effectiveness in killing plays.
Great work along the boards here by Berzkalns to work the puck into his feet and seal off defenders with aggressive pivots. Berzkalns knows how to give his team the advantage along the wall.
Another example of Berzkalns working hard on the forecheck to win a battle. Again, he uses positioning to box out the defender and skates away into space.
Berzkalns loves going to dirty areas. Here he parks netfront and after missing the chance, he’s quick to pursue his opponent.
Great work here establishing inside positioning to hold off several defenders and staying on his feet long enough to get the chance off.
Berzkalns doesn’t deliver many true hits but instead opts for shoves or pins along the boards. Here he drops his opponent with a shot from behind showing he has some edge.
Good effort to not give up on this play. He stops a potential next chance.
A bit of a weak hit here, he doesn’t exactly inspire fear when opponents see him advancing on their position along the boards.
Grade: 57.5
OFP: 53.875
A note on the 20-80 scale used above. We look at five attributes (skating, shooting, puck skills, hockey IQ and physicality) for skaters and six for goalies (athleticism/quickness, compete/temperament, vision/play reading, technique/style, rebound control and puck handling). Each individual attribute is graded along the 20-80 scales, which includes half-grades. The idea is that a projection of 50 in a given attribute meant that our observer believed that the player could get to roughly NHL average at that attribute at maturity.