In his first game of the OHL season, Hunter Brzustewicz was held off the scoresheet. Since then, he has 16 points in 7 games, including three-straight three-point games in the past week.
That scoring flurry has Brzustewicz tied for the scoring lead in the OHL.
And let’s not forget: Brzustewicz is a defenceman.
It’s pretty rare for a defenceman to lead a Major Junior league in scoring at any point in a season. It’s even more unusual for that defenceman to be a third-round pick who is still just 18 years old. But that's what Brzustewicz is doing.
Here are 14 of those 16 points:
The stunning start to the season suggests that the aspiring broadcaster will blow last year’s point totals — 57 points in 68 games — out of the water.
But you can also call it a return to form for Brzustewicz, who was once one of the most highly-regarded prospects coming up through AAA hockey in Michigan. As a 15-year-old, Brzustewicz had 111 points in 66 games for the Oakland Jr. Grizzlies, the most ever by a defenceman in that league.
For context, Quinn Hughes’ brother, Luke Hughes, who went on to be a first-round pick for the New Jersey Devils, had 83 points in 71 games in that league at the same age.
Things went awry when he joined the US National Team Development Program, however, as he barely saw the ice in his first year in the program, then had limited ice time in his second year. That led to him jumping ship from the program and signing with the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL for his draft year.
That also meant giving up on his dream of playing for the University of Michigan.
“Growing up as a Michigan kid, I was the biggest Michigan fan, always wanting to go there,” said Brzustewicz. “But after not playing the first year at the program, and not really getting the biggest catch-up in the second year at the program, I needed to play. That's what I needed to do to get to the next level and even if that crushed my dreams of going to Michigan, that's what I had to do.
“I’m very glad I did it.”
Brzustewicz was typically ranked in the second round, so the Canucks were fortunate to nab the right-shot defenceman in the third round, and he’s kicked off his post-draft year with a bang.
Let’s be clear: Brzustewicz is extremely unlikely to continue scoring at a two-points-per-game pace. As is often the case with defencemen, some of Brzustewicz’s points have come on secondary assists, with some fortunate bounces helping out along the way. For instance, the two points missing from the above video were secondary assists on passes that happened so long before the goal that the highlight package didn’t even capture it.
It also helps that Brzustewicz is playing with some very good forwards, such as Adrian Misaljevic and Seattle Kraken prospect Carson Rehkopf, with whom he’s tied for the OHL lead in scoring.
But there are also a lot of very good habits in his highlights. Brzustewicz is constantly looking to activate up the ice, whether it’s joining the rush or jumping up in the offensive zone to create an imbalance in the opponent’s defensive coverage.
When Brzustewicz makes a pass, he looks to draw in a defender first, then moves as he passes, trying to jump into a more advantageous space to turn the pass into a potential give-and-go. That’s essential for transitioning to the NHL game.
The question for Brzustewicz, as it so often is with offensive defencemen, is his defensive game. As active as he can be in the offensive zone, he tends to be more passive defensively, taking a wait-and-see approach to dealing with opposing rushes instead of forcing the issue with tight gap control.
Considering he doesn’t turn 19 for another month, however, there’s plenty of time for him to develop those defensive details of his game, as he already has good defensive reads and a high hockey IQ.
