JAKE BEAN

DEFENSEMAN

6’0.75’’ &  173 LBS

LEFT HANDED

CALGARY HITMEN, WHL

68 GP, 24 GOALS AND 40 ASSISTS

FINAL RANKING ON NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING – 15 (NORTH AMERICAN SKATERS)

PLAYER COMPARISON: DENNIS WIDEMAN

PLAYER PROFILE

Bean is exactly what you want in an offensive defenseman. He has great puck control, he loves to shoot and he’s great at opening shooting lanes or getting his shot on net. His skating is already quite good, but it will be even better once he gains lower body strength.

He has that calmness you want from your defenders when they have to make a quick decision to breakout of their zone. Bean has no trouble rushing the puck up the ice or making that crisp outlet pass to an open teammate.

Much like offensive defensemen Mike Green and Keith Yandle at his age, Bean is at least two years away from the NHL (one final year in junior and then one  in the AHL), as his defensive game is a work in progress and he needs to fill out his frame, there is no rush for this promising prospect.

PROS

POTENTIAL TO BE THE TOP OFFENSIVE DEFENSEMAN OF THE DRAFT

Few defenders score 24 goals in their draft year, especially in a league as defensive as the WHL. I mentioned Green earlier, and to give you an idea of how ahead of Green he is at the same age: Green scored just 14 goals in his draft year. He’s outscored (draft year) the likes of Aaron Ekblad, Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo, Seth Jones, Morgan Rielly, Dougie Hamilton and Ryan Ellis over the last decade, and they were all highly touted prospects in their draft year.

What’s remarkable about Bean is that he’s a late bloomer. He was never drafted by a CHL team. This is only his second season in the WHL and he finished in sixth in scoring for defensemen (only 9 points behind first place Ivan Provorov) despite being a year or two younger than most defenders on that list.  He has the tools to be one of the NHL’s top offensive defensemen. His hockey sense and his offensive tools are perfect to a build a powerplay around, and soon enough NHL coaches will be dedicating entire tactics to prevent Bean from shining.

ONE OF THE GO-TO PLAYERS ON A TEAM WITH NO OFFENSIVE PUNCH

Two of the Hitmen’s top three scorers were defensemen (Sanheim and Bean) this season. Their top scorer, Radel Fazleev, is a 20-year-old prospect drafted by the Flyers in the sixth round. Just 7 points separated Bean and Fazleev. When you take a closer look at Bean’s offensive stats, it becomes clear that he was a huge part of their success. He scored six game winning goals and 12 on the man advantage. For a 17-year- old to have such a prominent role on a good WHL team like Calgary, it shows how special a talent Bean is.

FAR FROM A FINISHED PRODUCT (RAW, JUST TURNED 18 & LOTS OF FILLING OUT)

Another factor that benefits Bean as a prospect is the fact that he’s very raw. He’s constantly getting better and learning new things every day. When he first came into the WHL last year he had a lot of catching up to do against players his age after years of having played in a weak league, the CSSVHL (a league for private schools in Alberta).

Last year he had a lot of difficulty with his backskating, but he worked on it during the summer and it definitely showed this season.

Last season, he was capitalizing on being the trigger man and being fed short passes by Sanheim on the PP, but this year was a completely different story. You could tell he was a lot more confident in his abilities and diversified his game out there. He’s not a one trick pony like some of his detractors were claiming in the past.

Like Keller, he just turned 18, so that means he’s one of the youngest players in this draft. That can only make scouts optimistic about his being able to fill out his frame and get close to 200 lbs, which should be his ideal weight if he doesn’t want to get outmuscled in the NHL.

CONS

POOR PERFORMANCE IN THE PLAYOFFS

This one is pretty easy to explain, but it definitely cannot be considered a plus for Bean. Due to the lack of depth on D for Calgary, they had to play their top pairing 30 minutes a game because their bottom pairing couldn’t handle more than 6 minutes without being exposed. It didn’t help that they played three games in three nights. The combination of fatigue, stress and trying to do too much definitely affected Bean’s performance in the playoffs and hurt his stock some.

DEFENSIVE GAME NEEDS SOME WORK

As I said, Bean is a work in progress, but you definitely see some glimpses of brilliant defensive plays. That being said, the Albertan will never be known for his defensive prowess and that’s perfectly fine.

Dave Tippett (Head Coach of the Coyotes) shared something interesting in an interview before and I think it applies perfectly in this case.

“We had a player that was supposed to be a great, shut-down defenseman. He was supposedly the be-all, end-all of defensemen. But when you did a 10-game analysis of him, you found out he was defending all the time because he can’t move the puck. Then we had another guy, who supposedly couldn’t defend a lick. Well, he was defending only 20 percent of the time because he’s making good plays out of our end. He may not be the strongest defender, but he’s only doing it 20 percent of the time. So the equation works out better the other way.’’

If Bean’s puck-moving abilities are up to par, he won’t have to spend a ton of time in his own zone. Players like Shayne Gostisbehere, Sami Vatanen and Keith Yandle have proven that it’s not because you’re the most imposing player physically or a Norris trophy candidate in your own end that it means that you’re a liability for your team whenever the puck leaves the offensive zone.

PLAYS WITH TRAVIS SANHEIM

Habs fans are no stranger to elite defenders making their defensive partner look better than they really are. Andrei Markov basically turned Mike Komisarek into a multi-millionaire after making the rugged defenseman look like a legitimate top pairing option.

Bean is obviously a solid player, there’s no doubt about that, but there are valid reasons to be concerned about Sanheim masking some of Bean’s defiencies. Sanheim is considered by many to be one of the league’s top prospects (ranked 23 rd on Button’s list from last February, 21st on Hockey’s Future and 19th on The Hockey Writers’ list). It will be interesting to see how Bean does without Sanheim next year since the latter will be starting his professional career with the Flyers organization.

FURTHEST FROM THE NHL OF TOP FOUR DEFENSIVE PROSPECTS

Out of Juolevi, Sergachev, Chychrun and Bean, Bean is the least NHL ready physically and as an overall player. For a team like Montreal, whose window is now, Bean might not be the best option if the management wants their selection to step in as soon as this year or the next. A defenseman who can play regular minutes on an entry level contract would be huge for the team. It would make the decision to trade Alexei Emelin (and his 4,100,000$ cap hit) a lot easier. Bean might become the best defenseman of the four, but he’s most likely going to be the last one to make his NHL debut.

VERDICT

Might not be the sexiest pick come draft day, but it could be a solid one long term. If the team is truly looking to replace Andrei Markov with the ninth overall pick, Bean is definitely the player they want. Hecan move the puck and quarterback a powerplay, just as The General has done brilliantly throughout his entire career with the Tricolore.