Stickhandling Maineiac

David Perron
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Country: Canada
Position: Left Wing
League: QMJHL
Team: Lewiston Maineiacs
Height: 6'0''
Weight: 180
Shoots: Right
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Scouting Report: This second year draft eligible, first year QMJHL'er came out of Quebec's woodwork after playing Junior AAA with the St. Jerome Panthers of the QJAHL last year .. patterns his game after favorite player, Alex Kovalev, and it shows as his controlled skating stride and talented stickhandling strike a resemblance .. has amazing hand eye coordination and reaction that allows him to deflect pucks that most could not .. a stickhandling wizard who is just a notch below Kane .. disregard all the cliché’s there are about offensive Q forwards, as Perron is not a soft player .. a strong hitter who does not go out of his way to be a checker, but will always finish his checks surprisingly hard and loud if its his responsibility/player to follow through on .. does not shy away from board work, albeit he routinely gets knocked off the puck easily .. not a perimeter player at all .. parks himself near the front of the net, and is a bit of a pain as he jams and hacks at the goalie for loose rebounds .. plays with Faubert and Courcelles .. comes back and helps his defenseman almost acting like a centerman at times .. plays the boards and slot in his own zone with confidence .. made a great diving play to stop a glorious offensive chance against that most players with his talent would not bother trying .. a judicious skater who does not skate hard the entire shift .. is not an explosive skater, and does not have great top end speed, but incorporates a lot of stops and starts to throw off defenders .. still, a good skater who doesn’t lose speed when the puck is on his stick, which is important for starting rushes .. a patiently smart player who employs many tricks to control the play in the offensive zone .. his most imminent flaws are his older age and inconsistency .. some games he dominates and some games he is content with blending in .. Perron is a guy who needs to learn how to be an offensive leader every night, but his offensive gifts are interesting to say the least.

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2006-2007 Regular Season Stats

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70 games 39 goals 44 assists 83 points +37 75 PIM
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2007 Playoff Stats

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21 games 13 goals 18 assists 31 points +6 22 PIM
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Draft Day Status/Projection: For all the concerns about Perron's older age, he is one of the most raw, and unproven prospects in the draft with this year being his first year in the QMJHL. He took a huge step up from playing Junior AAA to playing in a premier CHL league, and performed magnificently. Because he is still relatively unseasoned and lacking experience at the junior level, there is a great amount of intrigue as to how much better he really can get. DraftBuzz ranks him 18th and projects him to be selected 16th to 30th. He is a great one-on-one player and team's may like the fact that he is a "year" or so more physically developed than his peers.

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(photo courtesy of www.lewistonhockey.com)