North Dakota landed Carson Carels to pair him with Keaton Verhoeff, one of the best pairings in hockey. How will this team look, and how will they complement each other's games?
It’s not news to many that Keaton Verhoeff and Carson Carels were partners at the World Juniors for Canada last season. But what will this duo look like in college hockey? Will one carry more of the load, or will they be fairly even offensively?
They were the third pair for Canada and were in more of a shutdown, transition-type role where Carels was a great transporter and puck-mover in transition, while Verhoeff seemed to own the blueline and more plays from there.
They both have size and can play a defensive style of game, but where they’ll excel is in transition, zone exits, entries, whatever it may be. Both of these players move the puck well and complement each other. If I had to guess, Verhoeff will lean more on the offensive side, and Carels can play a more defensive style of play.
In the offensive zone, both players like to attack space, and with them both being solid skaters, they’ll be able to move around a good bit and find pockets of space to play in. It’s hard to imagine another pairing in the country as good as these two. For some of the processing mistakes that Verhoeff makes at times, he’ll have Carels to back him up, which is exactly what happened when they last played together.
They’re both going to be relied upon to make plays in every end, and with their skill sets complementing each other so well, I would be shocked to see them fail together. Both are top-ten picks from this last draft: Carels, a Calgary Flames prospect, and Verhoeff, a Seattle Kraken prospect. They both project as top-four NHL defensemen, and having each other for the next 1-2 years will only get them used to playing with other good players.
Some young defensemen step into the NHL without having played with many high-calibre players before, and they sometimes struggle to play with someone very good; these two will figure it out in no time.
