Justin Poirier Scouting Report
April 8, 2024
By Blain Potvin
Sticking to your best skills is what gets you to the NHL. Shooters shoot and Justin Poirier is most definitely a shooter.
Offensively, Poirier is a dangerous power-play shooter and is extremely dangerous down low and in the slot. He thrives at the net front, is adept at driving to the net has an excellent shot with an impressively quick release and can handle the puck in traffic.
Poirier is one of the better draft-eligible goal scorers to come out of the QMJHL in recent memory as he is the first 17-year-old to score 50 goals in the QMJHL since Sidney Crosby accomplished the feat with the Rimouski Oceanic in 2004-05. Poirier finished the season with 51 goals, but this may not be enough to get him into the NHL. At 5-7.25, he is significantly undersized by NHL standards. While he may comment on how he models his game after small forwards in the NHL today, like Cole Caufield, Poirier does lack areas that most small forwards rely upon to offset their lack of size, compete level, defensive ability and skating. He weighs 181 pounds, however, and like Caufield and Alex Debrincat, may be stocky enough to handle the size and strength of NHL players if he can improve his skating enough to keep up with the pace.
His skating is an issue. At the QMJHL level, it’s satisfactory, but projecting out to the NHL, it becomes a weakness. He can generate acceleration in direct lines using his first few steps, however, he is limited by a lack of lateral ability due to weaker edgework. While he is steady on his skates when absorbing hits, making him a good puck-protection player, that will be challenged in the professional ranks against stronger and faster opposition. His skating could be worked upon with a development coach, especially when focusing on his edgework and adding more crossovers so that he can maintain speed when changing directions.
His compete level is an issue. Poirier is an aggressive forechecker and is good at anticipating a defender’s outlet passes. He likes to dish out hits, and battle along the boards. He does, however, tend to lose focus, and his effort dips as the games wear on, especially if things aren’t going his way.
Offensively, he can make poor decisions with the puck because he’s a shoot-first type of player, and while he is a decent playmaker, he will overlook a better passing option to take a lower percentage shot because of his propensity to shoot.
Defensively, he demonstrates strong knowledge and anticipation in this area, but as noted earlier, his focus wanders. If his team is hemmed in, he will scramble and lose his mark. While all of these deficiencies point to him being available on the second day of the NHL draft in 2024, they are areas of the game that, given time, could be improved upon. This makes him a high-risk; high-reward type of prospect teams love to gamble on with later-round picks.
Here are highlights from Poririer’s game versus Charlottetown on April 3: