Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Bleacher Report and was adapted for NCAA.com
The NCAA men’s Frozen Four gets underway on Thursday and with it comes a load of talent to watch among all four teams.
With Boston College taking on Michigan and Boston University facing Denver, we want to familiarize you with some of the notable college players who will be on display by comparing them as best as we can to current NHL players.
The fun part about making comparisons is that it’s something almost every scout hates doing. It sets unreasonable and often unrealistic expectations for those players, and these things often have a way of coming back to make talent evaluators look a little foolish.
So, we’re going to take a crack at it, because you can’t hurt us with our own words and we’re not paid to be scouts. But when you watch enough games and video of the players, certain players come to mind immediately as to who they remind you of.
That’s pretty much our methodology here.
Cutter Gauthier as Alex Tuch
Maybe it’s because Cutter Gauthier plays for Boston College and is a power forward with a lot of skill to go with his size that made us think of Alex Tuch. After all, the Buffalo Sabres star is a former Eagle and a power forward with size and skill.
Or maybe it’s because Gauthier plays in such a similar way, you’d think Boston College only wants to have players built like that to load up its roster.
However, when you watch how the 20-year-old handles himself in open space and around the net with the kind of hands and shot we’ve seen Tuch use to light it up in Vegas and Buffalo, it’s hard not to picture the two being similar.
Gauthier is the leading goal scorer in college hockey because he’s able to use all of those gifts to make life miserable for opposing teams and that he’s a Hobey Baker Award finalist is no surprise, either.
Anaheim Ducks fans will be relishing the idea of Gauthier lining up alongside Leo Carlsson and Trevor Zegras down the line.
Macklin Celebrini as Mitch Marner
The easiest way to describe Macklin Celebrini is to take a look down the list of past no-doubt No. 1 picks in the NHL draft and select the one he’s most like. After all, he will be the No. 1 pick in June and his abilities are off the charts.
Consider he’s 17 years old and tied for second in the country in scoring. He’s having the best freshman season in college hockey since Jack Eichel in 2015 and Paul Kariya in 1993. That is esteemed company in college hockey and the hype he’s been getting is very real.
But is he like Connor Bedard? Sort of. Their size is similar, but their skills are different.
Is he like Connor McDavid? No, because no one is.
Sidney Crosby? Well, kind of. Like Crosby, Celebrini is an avowed perfectionist and will do whatever he can to round out any of his weaknesses.
But Celebrini’s abilities, size, speed, shot and passing ability remind us of Toronto’s Mitch Marner. Watching him in open space causes opposing teams to freeze. He can beat them with his shot, moves or a pass to an open teammate.
While Marner gets lost in the spotlight on Auston Matthews, just think of what it’ll be like if Chicago wins the lottery again and lands Celebrini to play with Bedard.
Will Smith as Leon Draisaitl
Although the San Jose Sharks’ season couldn’t be going worse, their biggest highlight of the year is seeing how great Will Smith has been at Boston College.
Smith is the leading scorer in college hockey and his ability to score goals himself or set up his array of top NHL prospect teammates has allowed him to show off everything he can do. Gosh, that sounds like a familiar set of abilities…just like Leon Draisaitl.
Draisaitl is an immensely talented player capable of scoring himself or feeding pucks to Connor McDavid or Zach Hyman or Evander Kane or…well, you get the idea.
Smith isn’t as big as Draisaitl, but he plays the game with the same kind of fervor and tenacity. Giving him room to create is a bad idea for opposing teams and giving him room to uncork his outstanding shot is also not great for keeping Boston College off the board.
The Sharks can only hope Smith turns out to be the same kind of caliber as Draisaitl, but the Eagles are targeting a national championship with him first.
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Rutger McGroarty as Robert Thomas
Watching Rutger McGroarty play a solid all-around game and provide the kind of offense that helps to uplift his Michigan teammates means he could be a reasonable comparison for several NHL players.
When you watch him play and take his size into account, though, comparing him to Blues forward Robert Thomas makes a lot of sense.
At 6’1″ and 200 pounds, McGroarty has good size for the college game and is able to use that to his benefit to hang onto pucks and drive the offense. This is something Thomas has been able to do in St. Louis and has helped him set up teammates like Jordan Kyrou.
Every great team needs a leader who is capable of playing unselfish hockey, and McGroarty has been that for Michigan.
When he winds up in Winnipeg, he’ll have more Wolverines flavor alongside Kyle Connor.
Jack Devine as Jake Guentzel
Even though Denver’s Jack Devine doesn’t always generate a ton of attention nationally, sleeping on him is a bad idea.
While Denver doesn’t come with the same kind of history and hype the other teams in the 2024 Frozen Four do, Devine is helping change that conversation by being a forward capable of pressuring the puck all over the ice and forcing the issue in the offensive zone.
What makes Devine rather like Jake Guentzel is how ever-present he is around the net. Whether he’s driving to the goal with or without the puck, Devine forces defenders to deal with him. And the way he’s able to always get around the net has paid off handsomely for him and the Pioneers this year.
Like Guentzel, Devine is a relentless worker whose efforts sometimes overshadow his superb skill set. He never stops moving and attacking the puck. If he turns into a good professional player, the Panthers will be even richer up front.
Ryan Leonard as Gabriel Landeskog
Finding the right comparable for Ryan Leonard is difficult.
He doesn’t have the kind of size his teammate Cutter Gauthier has, but he plays the game physically with skill. He has no fear of getting into dirty areas or in board battles, and he’s more than capable of scoring goals and being a threat on the power play (his 13 power-play goals are tied for most in the country).
Although we’ve haven’t seen Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog play for some time, that kind of descriptive profile seems to match up with him.
While Landeskog eventually became a stronger and weightier player to help him play more physically, expect Leonard to do the same when it’s time for him to take the jump into pro hockey. That he’s had a ton of success already at Boston College at 6’0″, 192 pounds and plays that kind of hockey tells us that when it’s time for him to graduate, he’ll be ready.
His 31 goals and 36 penalty minutes in 39 games makes him one of the most penalized players among the top scorers in the country. Playing big always gets the officials’ attention and Leonard’s play will get everyone’s attention regardless.
The Washington Capitals will be overjoyed when he’s able to join them.
Gavin Brindley as Johnny Gaudreau
This comparison is perhaps a bit unfair, but when there are so few offensively dynamic players in the NHL under six-feet tall, it really cuts down the field of choices.
For Michigan’s Gavin Brindley at 5’9″ 170 pounds, most NHL comparable players are retired by now, but one who isn’t and also played college hockey is Johnny Gaudreau.
Like Gaudreau, Brindley is capable of piling up goals while flying up the wings and using his smaller size to get into tougher areas around the net.
His speed and skill help give Michigan a dynamic weapon to score against opponents and while his size may fool some into thinking he can’t withstand tougher defenses, that’s usually a good way to ensure he can beat you.
That we’re comparing Brindley to Gaudreau, and that Columbus drafted Brindley is not just a cheeky play by us. When you see how he attacks the game and feeds off his teammates, the comparison makes a lot of sense.
Zeev Buium as Luke Hughes
Being a young, puck-moving defenseman who piles up points in college hockey is inevitably going to draw comparisons to a small handful of players.
A year ago, we compared Boston University’s Lane Hutson to Quinn Hughes, and Denver’s Zeev Buium reminds us a bit of Quinn’s brother, Luke, this year.
Buium is tied with Hutson as the highest-scoring defenseman in the nation, but the key difference here is Buium is a freshman and just turned 18 in December. Watching how he handles the puck up and down the ice as well as how he manages it at the blue line within the attacking zone shows his intuition for the position is sky-high.
With 49 points including 11 goals, Buium’s ability to seamlessly jump into college hockey and play at an elite level all before he’s even been drafted by an NHL team compares to the hype Luke Hughes had going into his first season at Michigan.
Although Hughes had hype built in thanks to older brothers Quinn and Jack, Buium has been able to make a name for himself even with his older brother (and teammate) Sha—a 2021 second-round pick of Detroit—holding it down.
Watching Buium have the season he’s having at his age and playing on defense highlights why he’ll be a top pick in the draft this season.
