| Jan Sprynar | Rimouski Oceanic | QMJHL | R | RW | 6’1″ | 176 | Rimouski Océanic | 2022 | Zatec, CZE | 2005 | 2022-2023: B- |
Neutral Zone NHL, January 19, 2023: Sprynar is a right shot forward with an NHL frame. Although he is only winning 47% of his puck battles during his rookie year in the QMJHL, we have seen him physically dominate his age group in both puck battles won and attempted kill shots along the walls. At this point in his QMJHL season he has 86 shots on goal with 27 coming from outside the left dot-lane and an additional 24 coming from inside of the house. Interestingly 16 of his 17 goals this season have come from the left side of the ice on either sweeping quick stick rebounds, one-timer or by driving wide down his strong side and taking the puck to the far post. His 17th goal came on a penalty shot the he also scored on from the left side after a forehand head fake. Sprynar has 8 power play goals. Defensively he works to recover the puck after his team has lost possession and we like the back pressure he applies while communicating with his defensemen. Sprynar also has good puck management skills as up until this point he has 5 grey area turnovers through 40 QMJHL games. To be an NHLer he will obviously need to continue gaining strength, but more importantly we feel he needs to bring the physicality and compete to each shift.
U18: Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, Czechia vs USA, August 3, 2022: After physically dominating versus Team Finland Sprynar had a fairly quiet game versus Team USA. He used his speed to get on the forecheck and be disruptive, but he did not appear to have the same intent on putting his opponent through the wall at every opportunity. He did score an NHL type goal where he showed puck poise on a bouncing puck in the defensive zone before moving his feet to find his left winger for the easy zone exit. After the pass Sprynar moved his feet to sprint all the way down the ice to receive a royal road crossbody one-timer at the top of the crease. On the night he totaled 15:20 in ice time including 1:47 while on the power play and 1:58 while shorthanded. He finished even with 1 goal, 1 shot, 1 grade “A”, 0 hits, received 1 hard hit, had 1 shot blocked, 5 giveaways, 1 takeaway and he won 45% of his 11 puck battles.
U18: Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, Czechia vs Finland, July 31, 2022: Sprynar is a good sized right shot forward with a powerful stride and the ability to maintain pace while gliding. He does not need to over handle the puck before making a play and we liked his gap recognition while approaching the both red line and offensive blueline. We liked his mentality on the forecheck where it was obvious that he was not going to be looked off. Instead he stayed focused on his opponent following through on every check possible. Sprynar had a beautiful shorthanded assist where he hounded the puck down the ice and simply over powered the Finnish defender for the takeaway. He then curled into the high slot-grey area drawing all five Finns to him before laying a soft touch pass into the low slot that gave his teammate a 10′ breakaway. On the night he finished +2 with a primary assist, 1 shot, 1 PP shot, a game high 4 hits, received 2 hard hits, had 2 shots blocked, 8 giveaways, 4 takeaways and he won 50% of his 16 puck battles.
Photo Credit: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images