With the NHL Draft now less than a month away, the Flyers are going to have to go to work on officially creating a short list of prospects to target.
For one prospect, the scouting process isn't over just yet. The next player in our prospect profile series is still playing, trying to help his team win the Memorial Cup. Our series continues with forward Max Jones.
If you want the total package, this is it. Size, speed, a ridiculous shot: Max Jones has it all.
Jones has been among the stars for the OHL's London Knights, who currently are undefeated in Memorial Cup play and already locked into Sunday's Memorial Cup championship game. Jones has two goals and an assist in three games, all wins, for the Knights in the Memorial Cup. During the regular season, Jones scored 28 goals and added 24 assists for 52 points in 63 games.
London possesses a ton of talent with last year's fourth overall pick Mitch Marner — now a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect – and 2016 hopefuls and projected Top-10 picks Matthew Tkachuk and Olli Juolevi.
TSN's Craig Button had the Flyers selecting Jones with the 18th overall pick in his last mock draft, and it's no surprise why.
The Flyers need a forward that combines size, speed and scoring. Jones has all of that and more.
"Jones is a throwback type of power forward that plays with a nasty edge and surprisingly high skill that should have NHL teams excited," Future Considerations writes. "He is a fun player to watch as he is a driver of the play, whether finesse or a power game, and makes a difference. Skates well and processes the game quickly. Loves to lay the body and you can expect one large hit per game but his best asset is his rocket shot that just screams off his blade."
"Max Jones is a diligent and hard-working power forward capable of being an impact player every shift," Curtis Joe of Elite Prospects writes. "He's strong on the puck and routinely looks to create separation. He knows his game inside out and has a wide array of tools at his disposal."
You want a goal-scorer. Jones has a knack for finishing from all areas. He has an incredible shot that, as Future Considerations put it, "screams off the blade," and combines his speed and strength well. He's essentially a hybrid forward, a mutated mix of power forward and sniper.
When he has the puck, he's almost unstoppable. Good luck taking it away from Jones. The 6'3", 201-pound forward just fights for every inch and maintains control with a determination that is hard to find in an 18-year-old.
And if he gets the puck with room to skate, look out. Jones has tremendous speed and even better acceleration. If he gets a chance at a breakaway, he's gone and has the playmaking ability to put a move on a goaltender and open him up.
Another area where the Flyers could really use a player like Jones is on the penalty kill. Jones had three shorthanded goals this season and showed his strengths as a two-way forward. He's already shown a strong 200-foot game and is really the type of forward that fits into the Flyers system.
The two areas of concern for Jones are areas where production can get sporadic. For a player with Jones' skill set, you wonder how he only scored 28 goals and didn't finish the regular season with point-per-game numbers. For one, there's a lot of sharing the wealth in London with so many top prospects present. Jones isn't a fixture to the London power play like Tkachuk or Marner or Christian Dvorak, so his totals take a hit from that too. It is worth noting that when Jones remained in London while Marner and Tkachuk were playing in World Juniors, Jones held his own in a top-line role.
Which makes for another point on the 18-year-old. This is only Jones' first season in the OHL. A player like Marner, now in his third season in London, has put up tremendous numbers. But how's this for comparison. In Marner's rookie season in the OHL, he scored 13 goals and added 46 assists for 59 points in 64 games. Pretty similar to Jones' production as a rookie.
There are times when Jones needs to work on his decision-making and his penalty minute totals are third-highest among London's roster at 106 total this season. Jones was also suspended for 12 games in April for a vicious hit on Justin Brack of the Owen Sound Attack, which forced him to miss much of the OHL Playoffs.
That said, Jones has the ability to draw penalties too as his strength and determination to cut to the net hard can sometimes get defenders grabbing and clutching just to slow him down.
Check out some of his highlights below.
If you're looking for an instant fix for the Flyers here, you might as well see if you can orchestrate the trade that will move you to the Top 5. Jones' teammates Marner and Tkachuk, among the other top prospects in the draft, are more NHL-ready than he is. But give him a second season in the OHL in 2016-17, and maybe even a third in 2017-18, where he will almost definitely be a top-line forward. The production will be there and the call to the NHL won't be far behind for this talented forward, who really is the total package.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
