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If it wasn't for his teammate Adam Fantilli’s ridiculous freshman season, Gavin Brindley would be talked about a lot more than he currently is.
In the last five years, only six players have ever been drafted during their freshman season in the NCAA. Those players are Brady Tkachuk of Boston University, Quinn Hughes of Michigan, Dylan Holloway of Wisconsin, Matty Beniers of Michigan, Kent Johnson of Michigan, and Owen Power of Michigan.
Which means there will be nine players drafted out of the NCAA in the last six years with six of them being from Michigan. Brindley, Fantilli, and Matthew Wood of UConn are likely adding to that.
Brindley put up 12 goals and 38 points in 41 games for Michigan after playing two seasons in the USHL with the Tri-City Storm, where he notched 23 goals and 64 points in 102 games.
Ryan Kennedy has Brindley being taken at pick No. 23, and Tony Ferrari of The Hockey News has Brindley being taken at No. 12. So there is no doubt Brindley has the talent to be picked early in the draft, but we may also see him fall to the 20’s.
Compareables
According to Byron Bader’s HockeyProspecting model, Brindley and Beniers had almost identical draft years. Beniers was limited to just 24 games, but he notched 10 goals and 24 points.
I want to talk about a 2016 first-round pick that was drafted out of the University of Wisconsin as a freshman. That is Luke Kunin who played 34 games for the Badgers and put up 19 goals and 32 points.
Now, he wasn't drafted out of college, but I want to touch on Cole Caufield, who also played his college hockey for Wisconsin. Caufield played 67 games for Wisconsin across two seasons, notching 49 goals and 88 points.
I don’t think Brindley is going to put up Caufield's numbers, but I like the comparison to his size. Caufield is a 5-foot-7 forward with wicked speed and skill, and Brindley is a 5-foot-9 forward with speed and skill.
As you can see, all of Kunin, Caufield and Brindley had similar draft years in terms of production. So is Brindley a mix of both Caufield and Kunin?
What Could You Expect From Brindley?
I think it would be fair to say Brindley will be a secondary scoring winger in the NHL. He likely won’t play center, but he has a little bit up to the draft.
"After helping the Americans to a bronze medal at the World Junior Championship, Brindley returned to the NCAA with a vengeance. His 28 points in 21 games post-WJC made him one of college hockey’s most dangerous players. The production was finally matching the process, and Brindley became one of Michigan’s most important offensive weapons." - Tony Ferrari (The Hockey News)
I think the reason why Brindley might fall to the Wild in the 20’s would be due to his lack of size. We have seen so many times where talented prospects fall farther in the draft just because they are under 5-foot-10.
This year, Brindley ranked 10th in college hockey in points amongst freshmen and ninth in assists.
His speed and tenacity of always hunting the puck makes for him to be a pretty effective NHL player someday. I also appreciate that Brindley doesn't play as if he is 5-foot-9. Instead, he plays like he’s 6-foot, which is exactly what you want to see out of smaller forwards.
It will be interesting to see where Brindley falls to and if he is available for the Wild at pick No. 21. If he is, I think he's worth taking.