Zach Benson

Undersized centre-wing who tore up the CSHL as a 15 & 16 year old with more than a point per game pace on the loaded Winnipeg ice team. A 200 foot player with great offensive instincts  Benson finished as the top scorer at the Capital City Challenge, a four-team all-Canadian event with three randomized U-17 squads and the women's Olympic team, and was named the tourneys MVP. He possesses terrific hand-eye co-ordination, ultra smart hockey IQ, and a sniper's mentality. Lightning quick on ice decision-maker. He is an offense driver who is also equally as good a passer on the rush. Plays bigger than his stature and at a very high pace, as he wants the puck on his stick when Very creative and brilliantly elusive, he is smart and poised, always looking to take space in battle zones and take over games. Does all those little things to challenge in close for pucks, and uses his stick to persistently forecheck away pucks and ones loose that his team throw into the corners. His game is small area brilliance, where his side to side agility helps wins pucks and makes things happen with his passes. Looks to play a bigger role in Winnipeg his draft year. Some teams will be leery of his thin sized frame, but he has giant toolbox that makes him dynamic with all the attributes that smaller scorers need in the battle zones, and he decides his action and achieves it before the defenders see it coming. A disciplined gym rat working to build msucle. Defenders will get a piece of of him with hard body checks but Benson rebalances quickly on his skates and accelerates to top speed. The World Junior Under-18, which surrounded him with stars, just made him shine brightest of the other super forwards. Works very hard to be viewed as more than a small skilled guy. He looks like an NHL first liner with the tenacity of a fourth line plugger. A top speed player with a high motor that causes the opposition take penalties because he is so difficult to defend when he has the biscuit.

                                                       --Bill Płaczek--