We are thrilled to share that Neutral Zone Women’s visited our Dawg Daze of Summer tournament in Connecticut.
Neutral Zone is a first-of-its-kind hockey scouting and news site. The women’s team is made up of 9 experienced scouts who attend games, tournaments, and showcase events to discover and evaluate the best players in their respective regions. Neutral Zone scouts come from diverse, high-level hockey backgrounds, most of which include playing, coaching, or scouting at the NCAA, CIS, or other elite-level amateur programs.
NEUTRAL ZONE NGHL DAWG DAZE OF SUMMER SCOUTING REPORT
We visited the Dawg Daze of Summer tournament in Connecticut. We were able to see games all day on Saturday at the Northford Ice Pavilion. We focused on the U19 division only this weekend and saw a lot of good talented players. There were teams from all over the country, the diversity of teams was great to see and awesome for these girls to see what other talent is out there for their age group. Below is a list of players we believed stood out the most to us. Reminder: This is how we believe each player played THIS WEEKEND only and is not a representation of their full-season play.
A+
Kaylee Lewis #11 (Dallas Stars Elite U19, F, 2022, UVM): Kaylee Lewis is a D1 UVM commit and that comes to no shock for us. She showed us excellent speed, up ice, all game long, paired with great vision to find the open player when entering the offensive zone. She always had her head up to make a play and she positioned herself in areas of the ice to help her teammates get her the puck. She showed us that she can outmuscle defenders to win battles along the boards with her good size and competitiveness. She does everything with high tempo which should translate well at the division 1 level.
A
Gabby Demorat #34 (Team Colorado U19, F, 2022): Immediately we were able to see that Gabby is a very smart and poised player. She skates well when she has the puck and does not rush to make decisions. Her teammate utilization was displayed on many occasions by feeding them in the slot and giving a hard effort to win puck battles which helped make her linemates’ lives a lot easier. She used her body well to puck protect and keep the puck longer on her stick to maximize scoring chances. Gabby also made herself easily findable for breakouts and made zone entries look smooth and effortless for her team by controlling the puck through the neutral zone and making good passes. We believe the team saw the success they did due to her hardworking play all weekend.
A-
Macy Gehrke #88 (Team Colorado U19, F, 2022): Macy was a very high offense player. She skates very well with the puck and can accelerate to top speed in under 3 steps. She displays good edge work by picking up a lot of speed to blow past defenders and keeps her feet moving as she cuts to the center of the ice. We saw her bury some goals and she showed off her versatility on finding the back of the net. She can put on a very well-placed shot to score, or to produce a juicy rebound, or can crash the net and bury from the dirty areas in front of the net.
Jordan Ray #20 (Florida Alliance U19, F, 2022): Congratulations on the weekend warrior Jordan Ray and we can see why since she finished the tournament with 21 points in only 5 games played. Jordan was very explosive with her skating. She showed us, on many occasions, that she could zip out of corners with quickness and intent on getting a scoring chance. She placed her shots on net well and really focused on making the goalie’s job very difficult. Jordan was also able to display a great ability of getting open in high scoring areas, whether it be back door or in the slot which really helped her rack up an abundance of points.
B+
Lilly Hartnell #5 (Dallas Stars Elite U19, D, 2021): Lilly is very close to being a great 2-way player. She forechecks hard and makes the lives of opposing defenders very difficult. She will do anything to get the puck from you if that is using her body or getting scrappy along the boards. While she uses her body well to win 50/50 pucks, she is a clean player with good skating ability. She shows good edgework by picking up speed in transition with ease and getting to top speed quickly. When she can get more scoring chances and find the open player, she will be even better at the next level.
Su-An Cho #16 (Florida Alliance U19, D, 2022): Su-an Cho is a very offensive defenseman. She really likes to jump up in the play and take the puck up ice herself. She is allowed to do so because she uses her ability to find skating lanes to help her get into the offensive zone. She can control the puck on her stick and use that with her poise to not rush a bad shot on net but instead curl back and make a play towards the center of the ice to develop more chances. She also showed great patience in the D zone to pick her head up and make the smart pass up ice or leg it out.
B
Samira Schmidt #15 (Team Colorado U19, F, 2022): It seems Team Colorado really preaches puck protection and body position because Samira did a great job at both. In the corners especially, Samira did a good job of using her edges to give the defenders very little chance to take the puck away from her. She then showed us many times that she could shield off opposing players and pick her head up for a pass to her teammates. We were able to get a board side vantage point for a game and she kept with the pace of the game well by making decisions quickly and capitalizing on her decisions.
Sydney Merritt #12 (Dallas Stars Elite U19, D, 2021): Sydney, like the rest of her team, showed great effort and willingness to win. She did the necessities really well with forechecking and winning almost every puck battle she was involved in. She also liked to help on the backcheck by finding the open player and making sure they were covered. Sydney has an ability of having great straightaway speed. She used this to pressure the D in the neutral zone, to cause havoc and force the opposing defense to make a bad pass.
Emily Gerrie #24 (Team Colorado U19, F, 2022): Emily put herself in a great position all game in all 3 zones. In the offensive zone, she made herself available for the puck and supported the puck by staying high and entering puck battles when needed. She displayed the same great support in the defensive and neutral zone as well to make her defenseman more comfortable to make a pass up ice or rush up ice on their own. Emily also showed us how well she can stick handle away from trouble and find open areas on the ice.
B-
Madelyn Pope #55 (Florida Alliance U19, F, 2022): Madelyn is a tall girl who uses it to her advantage. She still has the footspeed to skate by defense on the rush and can use her frame to protect the puck very well from the opposition. She used her teammates well by getting passes to players in higher scoring chances and she could send a hard shot on net herself.
Tess Barrett #76 (Minutemen Lady Flames, D, 2021): Tess was definitely one of the better defensemen in the tournament and she showed us a lot of good things. She was very well positioned on the point by being able to step up and keep the puck in the zone when needed to hold the offensive blue line. She was also the quarterback to the powerplay and showed off her poise by not forcing bad passes to any of her teammates. Her gaps were good for one on ones and she showed a noticeable amount of confidence with the puck when it was on her stick by holding off on tough to make passes but instead making the easy and better play.
Abigail Ainley #40 (CT Jr. Eagles, F, 2022): Abigail truly got better as the game went on. She showed us that she can use her speed in all areas and situations on the ice. She was able to track down pucks quickly and get down low from dump ins to cause panic from opposing defenseman. She relies on her foot speed which is no problem at all since it created more chances to score and helped her get to an area to make a pass across the zone or for a cycle down low.
Mallory Farrell #7 (Minutemen Lady Flames, F, 2024): Is a good size and strong forward. She used her strength and body to shield off sticks and used the perimeter of the ice to her advantage. She showed us good confidence with the puck on her stick and seemed to be the most effective when she was in possession of the puck. The game we saw from her was played mostly in the offensive zone and she made the most of it by having her head up and using her playmaking to find smart passes to her teammates.
C+
Kayla Persinger #10 (Ironbound u19, D, 2021): Kayla was a very good all-around defenseman. She was able to hold the puck in the zone and wouldn’t jump back too early. She was able to help out on breakouts by making clean tape to tape passes or legging it out of the zone herself. She really likes to rush the puck up ice and she was quite successful doing so. We think when she can pick her head up more and show off more of her passing skill, she would open more eyes for coaches at the college level.
Cate McLean #16 (Mid-Fairfield CT Stars U19, F, 2023): Cate is a player who does the little things well and keeps her game simple. There was no shortness of effort either because we saw her many times pressure the opposition in the D zone and be able to transition up ice smoothly and quickly. She handles the puck well while on the rush and when she does not have it, she supports her teammates well by being close by to pick up loose pucks. She could have had more assists this weekend but due to good goaltending unfortunately she missed out on at least a couple. With that said, she showed us that she can find open players and give her teammates chances to put goals on the scoreboard.
Emily Long #17 (Bridgewater Lady Bandits, D, 2022): The game we saw, Emily was involved in a very exciting game against the CT Jr. Eagles that made it all the way into a shootout. We bring this up because we really liked the way she handled this close and intense game. She played a simple and honest defensive game and did not try to do too much. She had an active stick at all times to make sure odd man/even rushes were stopped before any chances from the other team could happen. Emily used good gaps on one on ones and this made it easier for her to steal pucks and create less chances on net for the other team.
C
Kendall Conley #21 (Mid-Fairfield CT Stars U19, D, 2023): Kendall was able to show us great IQ in all 3 zones. She showed us good IQ by getting in passing lanes and making sure her goalie could see every shot come at her. What was easily noticeable was when she was on the ice, breakouts went very smooth and with little to no mistakes. She would find the open winger and send a good clean pass right on the tape to her forwards. She also did not let very much get by her on one-on-ones due to tight gaps and she forced the opposing forwards to dump the puck in instead of trying to get around her.