Hi! It’s time for my second installment of CBJ Prospect Watch! This time I get the pleasure of seeing Columbus’ most recent first round draft pick, the exciting Sonny Milano. I had this date circled on my calender, as I was quite hyped to see Sonny play. I watched his Plymouth Whalers take on the Mississauga Steelheads on Friday, December 5.
Firstly, if you haven’t read it yet, go check out Paul’s take on Sonny from late November. Then compare notes!
Offensively, Milano had a pretty good night: a goal and two primary assists, all on very pretty plays.
Milano’s goal was beautiful. Undrafted defenseman Matt Watson sprung Milano, who came in on a partial breakaway with Mississauga defender Brandon Devlin draped all over him. Milano fought Devlin off just enough to gain a bit of room, then fooled Mississauga goalie Cam Zanussi with a quick backhand deke and went roof.
Milano’s two assists both came on smooth passes: the first was a laser beam tape to tape up-pass cross-ice from the d zone [yeah, that’s a mouthful] to Matt Mistele, who beat the lone defender back and scored backhand. The second was on the powerplay, as Milano worked a set play along the boards, sucking in a defender, then pulling a fast backhand pass through the created seam, over to Mistele in the slot, who outwaited a defender and fired a wrister past Zanussi. That play was something Milano and Mistele tried to work in to every powerplay. It was successful once more, resulting in a shot on goal, but also failed twice, both ending in easy clears.
Sonny’s offensive game is exciting. He’s a player who you watch play and think that something cool could happen any time he gets the puck. We’ve all seen the YouTube highlights of his stickhandling skills and, though he’s a bit more conventional with his puck usage during a game, he still has some very solid moves. His skating is very good, he was probably the fastest player on the ice tonight, with a quick first step and the ability to change directions or stop on a dime. This caused some chaos for opposing defenders, who struggled to keep up with his shiftiness. Milano has a fantastic backhand, something which was on full display tonight. One concern is that he may rely on his backhand a bit too much, as he didn’t get off a clean wrist, snap or slapshot all night.
To call Milano a puck-hog would not be entirely inaccurate. He’s constantly calling for passes, skating the puck up ice and rarely making a pass during an offensive rush, preferring to carry-in without resorting to the use of his linemates. The Mississauga defenders had trouble figuring out proper gaps during his skate-ins, which allowed Milano to carry the puck into the offensive zone seven times. He didn’t attempt a single dump-in or pass-in during the game, and his teammates were always quick to try and find Sonny when heading up ice. His linemates, Matt Mistele, Will Bitten and, late in the game, Francesco Vilardi, combined to only attempt four entries while Milano was on the ice.
For all the holding of breath when Milano is on offense, the flaws in his game are also pretty evident.
Milano is, to be blunt, a bit of a floater. I don’t think I saw him below the face-off dot in the defensive zone all night, except for one rush where he was the lone forward back on a line change. He was always up near the d zone blueline calling for passes and waiting for pucks to come free. He was not physical in the sense that he was laying the body, but he didn’t shy away from contact. In fact, when in possession of the puck, he would routinely skate directly into opposition defenders to try and stickhandle through them. This was very successful early, but after the first period, resulted in multiple turnovers and broken up rushes. Sonny also relies on his backhand more than any player I’ve ever seen. His cross-ice passes were done almost exclusively on the backhand, even when it made little sense to do so. This ended up getting him into trouble more than once, when a pass was flubbed, fluttered past a teammate or just downright ended up nowhere near one and resulted in a turnover.
Milano was primarily used in the offensive zone to start the game, but the Whalers were playing heavily undermanned: they dressed only five defenders, which quickly became four, and only ten forwards. Mississauga was dominant with regards to possession and shots during the game, finishing with a lopsided 48-25 shots margin in their favour. Milano ended up taking tons of defensive zone face-offs later in the game – probably not by choice, as Plymouth only had a handful of even strength o zone face-offs after the first period. His line generated the best scoring chances for the Whalers, but were still outclassed in the possession department. Milano finished the game with five total shots, but was on the ice for just 11 5v5 shot attempts for, and 21 against, for a 34% Corsi For rate.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While Milano’s excessive creativity and explosiveness is a lot of fun to watch, he’s going to need to learn to rely on his teammates a bit more, and work on his play away from the puck. That’s not to say he needs to be neutered; his strengths are what they are. But rounding out his game is something that’s going to need to be done before he can take a step up into being the top prospect in the Blue Jackets organization.
Best Case Scenario: [I really don’t want to do this but I’ll just echo what Paul and others have said] Patrick Kane
Worst Case Scenario: Nikita Filatov
Up next for me is another viewing of Niagara defender Blake Siebenaler, and then Windsor Spitfires forward Markus Soberg. In between? A couple viewings of Connor McDavid!
Previous Reports
Sonny Milano, by Paul Berthelot
Nick Moutrey, by Jeremy Crowe
Blake Siebenaler, by Cory Bell
Julien Pelletier, by Cory Bell
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– Jeremy
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