European players tend to stand out to the public eye because of the unnaturally large ice thye express their talent on and less physicality from the competition. When you watch a Swedish or a German skater play, you’ll understand that they don’t feel nor do they look like your average seasoned NHLer. They’ll skate faster, they’ll make dekes more often, and they’ll play the body a little less.
Even though it feels like some sort of mind trick once you see them on North American ice, a lot of the times that said prospect remains his stylistic self. William Nylander, Mikko Rantanen, and Tim Stützle are just a few examples of players that had people worried that they wouldn’t transition into the NHL with their toolbox, and yet they did.
This year, that player is Austria’s very own Marco Kasper. Currently playing for Rögle BK of the SHL, Kasper has been tearing up the Austrian leagues ever since he enrolled in the teams. But now he’s taken his talents into one of the most notable leagues in the world, the SHL.
Having tremendously jumped so many scout’s lists in the last few months, Kasper has managed to identify himself as a skillful forward with defensive responsibilities. This has caught the eye of many people, including myself. The things that he has done to make himself stick out amongst all other European players has been glaring, and today, we’ll go over what makes Marco Kasper such a talented player.
After all, he is a magician on the ice. Let’s find out why.
Aggressiveness
Watching Marco Kasper more often than not will give you the sense that he isn’t scared of anyone. He’s managed to use his six-foot-one frame much more often in the last year, and that’s caused him to move up the rankings.
Being one of the more quiet players of the draft, Kasper has been silently lowering the boom on different players around the SHL. Seeing how Kasper is an 18 year-old in a men’s league, it makes his hitting, aggression, and tenaciousness so much more impressive.
More often, Kasper goes into the dirty areas in front of the net and the corners. Kasper isn’t scared of getting his “head taken off” because he understands that he’s strong and aggressive enough to battle back a big check or any pressure that dawns upon him. There hasn’t been a single shift where Kasper didn’t take a risk by going into the corner and battling for a puck. He’s completely fearless of any bigger guy trying to make a move on him.
Additionally, Kasper’s always hard on the puck. Not once have I had to look at Kasper and say “I would like to see some more force when he’s retrieving the puck”. He has some sort of motivation to always attack the opposing player who has possession, and thanks to his already improving strength, he can lay a nice check or steal the puck right off the player who originally had it. He’s always going above and beyond a simple stick tap or a push to the behind. Kasper always finds a way to sneak up on a player and snatch that puck using his forcefulness and two-way ability.
It’s almost like he’s a golden retriever chasing a ball. His mindset is like a broken stereo where it keeps repeating the same phrase “get that puck and go to the net. Get that puck and go to the net. Get that puck and go to the net”. His belligerence and contentiousness to steal pucks and make some sort of roaring play to get noticed by teams who want a physical and sturdy centerman has excelled him whenever it’s time for him to become so much more needy for the puck.
His legs will never stop moving
Every single time that Marco Kasper is on the ice, you’ll visualize how his feet never stop moving. Whether he does or doesn’t have the puck to his stick, he’ll keep those legs active and he’ll constantly be doing quick little crossovers to make sure that his legs aren’t frozen.
Having speedy and active legs in the NHL nowadays is a must. It’s difficult to watch skillful but slow players get stripped off the puck with such ease because that said skillful player simply isn’t fast enough. One of the things that makes Kasper stand out is that he never freezes. If a puck is turned over, he’s able to pivot and immediately explode into a transition to catch up. Having active footspeed in every situation is an essential for every centerman in the NHL, and believe it or not, there are many players in the league that don’t possess that trait.
Marco Kasper has that over many current players. It makes him stand out whenever he plays because you can easily spot the player that’s giving it 100% every shift by constantly moving his legs in all three zones. He’s never going to stop moving his feet even if he’s dead tired.
In the clip above, Kasper finds himself onside at the blue line and shortly he receives a nice pass from the defenseman. Without hesitation he explodes right into action by carrying the puck across the blue line– notice how his legs never stop moving throughout the process– which he later sets up a teammate. While continually moving his feet, he escaped from any defensive pressure that he had, and his teammate found his other teammate who shot the puck.
Once he got to the net, he planted himself there waiting for anything that’ll squeak by. Luckily for him, the puck was sitting right there after a save, and he simply snuck it right by. This showed how he created a play using his footwork and nonstop pace in the neutral zone, letting his teammates create a passing play.
Here’s another example of Kasper skating perpetually.
It all starts with the defenseman messing up on a chip in play, leaving the responsible two-way centerman (Marco Kasper) finding a way to get to the puck when nobody else can. Marco refuses to hesitate as he sends the puck across to his teammate, who sets up his other teammate in the defensive zone staying away from any opponents. While playing keepaway, his teammate sends the puck up right to Marco Kasper who’s silently stepped up from the defensive zone to the neutral zone. Kasper picks it up, avoids a stick check, and draws a zone entry for his team. That was all thanks to his legs that never stopped moving, letting him excel past everyone on the ice. It makes him seem like a silent assassin, which in a way, would be a really good way to assess Kasper as a whole.
Net front talent
Kasper’s elite ability in front of the net in all situations is huge thanks to his aggressiveness that we see from anywhere on the ice. This helps out a lot in front of the net because a player that should be planted in front of the net should be the most ambitious, aggressive, and hard working player on the team. Why? Because that hazardous player will find a way to push the puck into the net without being afraid of getting checked or being forced to make some sort of rational decision out of panic.
Marco is the perfect player when describing the ideal net front presence. Always eager to make a play up front for a garbage goal, Kasper’s willing to get up close to the net just to battle the puck in even if it’s likely not going to go in. This comes in clutch at 5 on 5 and on the powerplay.
Here on the powerplay, Kasper waits behind the net while the play is getting created. Once the puck finds a way to switch into the shooting lane, Kasper opens himself up using some of his special edges– something we’ll go over later–, and gets the puck onto his stick from a pass.
From there he rapidly shifts right in front of the goalie and roofs the puck up to the top corner. Being up so close to the goaltender and acting so quickly, the man in net had almost no time to react as Kasper put the puck behind him. These are the types of net front plays that Kasper attempts to create every time he’s played in front of the net on the powerplay. Transitioning into the NHL where defencemen awkwardly creep up to the hasmarks in stressful penalty kills, this’ll surely earn Marco a few goals up in the NHL.
Once again, it’s Marco Kasper that gets into the dirty areas right in front of the net. This time he has a defenseman on him giving him extra pressure and a harder base to work with. Even as he does get pushed while attempting to set up his teammate, he keeps whacking away at the puck until he does get it past the defenseman. His teammate barely sneaks it in. Kasper’s willingness and hard work as well as his strength around the crease-area puts him ahead of anyone else in this draft class, and it’ll likely be the gold mine to an NHL team’s powerplay someday.
One more net front clip for you:
In this video, Kasper skates behind the net and uses his talented and swift edges to avoid a hit. He changes direction quickly, and while circling around the net, he looks up to realize that the net is completely crowded. That gives him the upper hand to shoot because the goalie basically cannot see through the screening. Once Kasper finds himself an option to put the puck on net, he twists into a shot while changing his direction to the net, and it goes right past the goalie and in. Not only does he exemplify that he can shoot that well and that precisely up close, but it also shows how much of a superior skater he is and how talented he can be with his edgework.
Creation of genius plays and his puck protection skills
Marco Kasper is a wizard when he has the puck on his stick. He’s invariably looking around ready to make whatever play he must, and he’s never afraid to try something new to generate an opportunity in the offensive, defensive, and neutral zone. That’s what makes him so special; he’s so adaptive to any circumstance and it puts him into a category of two-way forwards who have elite playmaking and passing abilities. It honestly reminds me a lot of a heftier Elias Pettersson.
For example in this clip above, Kasper represents everything we’ve talked about and more. It all starts with him moving his feet nonstop skating around the defensive zone and picking up a pass. He moves up the middle of the ice without any pressure and manages to use his puck protection ability to avoid two different defensive plays. He later finds himself behind the net (close to the net skill here), and opens his hips up while using his crafty edges. The second he does that, he spots his teammate who is in front of the net and sets him up with a beautiful pass leading to a goal.
That right there is perfection. Kasper did all the heavy lifting himself while having the energy to look around and visualize his teammate in front of the net. The pass was ideal, and a goal was created all thanks to Marco Kasper’s third eye-like talent. Again, it just feels so similar to Elias Pettersson in his draft year and it’s such a pleasure to watch him generate these types of goals.
His puck protection skills are top notch, too. Being able to shield the puck away from some of the strongest SHL players is so interesting and so captivating to watch because it just hits you how good this 18 year-old is at keeping the puck away from guys 5+ years older than him with so much more experience.
Please enjoy this clip of Kasper showcasing those protection skills as he cuts through team USA’s defense and tries to get a shot on net.
It truly is remarkable how a kid this young with so much more room to grow can be that involved, that physical, and that strong on and off the puck in his first year playing in one of the best leagues in the entire world.
Things Marco can improve on
As good as Marco is, he does have a few holes in his game that must be addressed.
For instance, the timing of his release. He’s got a wicked powerful wrist shot and he knows how to utilize it in the most dramatic and entertaining fashion, but he does need to learn how to get a snap shot off or release the puck off his stick quicker. In many cases, it’s cost him whenever he’s needed to make a shot in a split second. Sometimes he’ll barely have any time and space to shoot the puck, and once he does try to shoot, it’s a bit too late because his release was a tad bit too slow.
Another thing that I’d like to see more of from Kasper is shooting one-timers. Marco Kasper’s got a heck of a shot and that power that we see him play with has transitioned into his shooting. Marco Kasper has a legitimately elite one timer that he has used before. Here’s an example of him using his potent one-timer:
The issue that comes with this, is the lack of the use of his one-timer. His aim and his power that comes from it seems unstoppable to some goalies, but he never sets himself up for them. Whenever he does get a pass on his off-side, he’ll likely pull it back for a wrist shot. It makes no sense to me. He’s fully aware that he’s got a bomb of a shot, so why doesn’t he use it? It’s an aggitaing issue for me personally, but luckily, all he needs is for someone to tell him to use it and practice it a bit more often. There is some serious potential with that one-tee.
As noted previously, Kasper is a fantastic passer. He knows where to be to make a nice pass, he knows where and to whom he should give the pass to, and he always finds a way to make the pass complete. My problem is that Kasper needs to learn how to pass with more speed and more urgency. Transitioning into the NHL where the rinks happen to be smaller will make Marco realize that he doesn’t have that much space to work with anymore, and that’ll mean making quicker and more vital passes. Sometimes he’ll wait too long or maybe sometimes the pass does come off a little weak. It’ll hurt his transition to the NHL if he doesn’t figure out how to make harder and more crisp passes to his teammates.
One last thing that I would like to see Kasper improve is his defensive play on the back end without the puck. Kasper is always aggressive and chasing the puck in the back end, but he occasionally has his slip-ups where he loses sight of it or he scrambles around like someone who can’t find their glasses. Trust me when I say that Kasper is fully capable of playing Anthony Cirelli-like defense. He’s proven that he is smart and good enough to do that sort of principle. I would solely just like to see him work on staying like that on a regular basis, because he can mess up sometimes and it can be pretty bad when he does.
While Marco Kasper may seem like the perfect 200-foot player, he does have a few issues that he must get in order. But fortuitously for him and whoever does daft the Austrian-born centerman, he’s improving on the daily on those issues, and that is why he’s moved up my rankings so much. I’m sure that he’ll gradually keep developing as time goes on, and he may even be the best player to get drafted out of the SHL in 2022. Kasper’s proven that he is an outstanding two-way forward, and that as time goes on, he’ll age extremely well and will be a fantastic pickup for any team in the NHL.
The resemblance to draft year Elias Pettersson is uncanny. Not saying it’s an identical match, but he’s managed to adapt Petey’s game, and if he continues to improve at the pace that he has in the last few months, we may get ourselves a really talented two-way forward with an aggressive side to him in a few years time. That’s something he does have over Elias; his physicality and combativeness.
*Photo Credit: BILDBYRÅN/Mathilda Ahlberg
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