Jack Finley (4 Star Amateur Rating, NHL Grade — B) Forward
Neutral Zone NHL’s Donald Godreau, May 2020: A lanky 200 foot centreman, who makes an impact in all areas of the game. Despite his frame, Finley shows decent foot work. He can’t be described as explosive at this stage of his development, but for a 6 foot 6 forward he has good pop in his stride, and is really light on his feet. He moves well through traffic, and tries to keep his turns as tight as possible. He has great hands for a player his size. Shows solid puck control, and quick hands. He has an aptitude for sliding his way between the boards and defenders on puck retrieval, and has a nice feel for releasing pucks to areas where he can chase after the puck and win races over often times more fleet footed opponents. Finley makes good decisions with the puck. A solid passer, and can make plays under duress. He also has a nice snap shot and quick release that catches goalies off guard. Finley is also an excellent face off man. It seems uncanny to us how many face offs he wins cleanly just through his quick hands and reaction time. On the power play he plays around the net, quick to jump in front of the goalie to screen or slide to the side of the net where he can either take shots or make plays for teammates. He shows patience with the puck, and uses his size well to buy himself more time to make plays. On the penalty kill, he uses his long and active stick to take away time and space, and reads opponents well. He plays positionally sound, but isn’t afraid to get aggressive when there is blood in the water. His long stride covers a lot of ground quickly. While being a physical force isn’t natural for him, Finley is more of a thinker on the ice, he still knows how to use his size and length to his advantage and isn’t afraid to lean on guys and muck it up in the corners. It will be interesting to see that as he fills out his frame more, if he becomes a little bit more of a killer on the ice, but even if he doesn’t there is a lot to love about this players game. Grade: B
Neutral Zone NHL’s Ian Moran, February 2020: The thing that’s really noticeable to me is how smooth Jack is for such a young kid. It’s a great combination because he’s one of the youngest players in the draft as well as one of the biggest. Anyway, he’s big and smooth which makes him a big time legitimate NHL prospect. He plays a complete game and understands that he is not a dancer. Jack goes to the dirty areas to battle for his ice and his stick is always ready for a tip, rebound or one timer. Defensively he protects the scoring area first and then moves into contact or containment. He does a very good job of using his reach to play stick on puck eliminating time and space. Jack has good timing in the neutral zone during transition and again, his stick seems to always be ready. In all honesty, he is an NHL Development coaching staff’s dream.
February NHL Draft Rankings: Jack was ranked #108 in Neutral Zone’s February draft rankings.
WHL – Ranking the 2020 NHL Draft Prospects, October 2019: Jack was ranked the 12th best 2002 NHL Draft prospect in Neutral Zone’s WHL October rankings and was our 7th rated forward.