Welcome back to the next iteration of The Win Column‘s 2024 Calgary Flames Prospect Rankings. Slotted in at #11 in the Flames’ organizational pipeline is the Moncton Wildcat’s standout defender Etienne Morin. Selected in the second round, 48th overall in the 2023 NHL Draft, Morin has found success in his QMJHL return.
Morin’s development so far
From Salaberry-de-Valleyfield Quebec, the 2005-born defender found footing playing up a year with the CIHA White U18 during the 2019–20 season posting 22 points.
Despite having his 2020–21 season completely axed due to the pandemic, the 6’0″ defender was still selected by the Moncton Wildcats in the second round 21st overall of the 2021 QMJHL draft.
From there he made the 2021–22 season roster, having a successful rookie campaign posting 33 points while also displaying high-end offensive vision and physicality.
The following 2022–23 season he doubled his point production to 72 points setting a QMJHL record for most goals by a defender with 21. En route to the draft, the Quebec product also helped Team Canada earn a bronze medal in the U18 WJC.
This combination of soft and hard skills led Morin to jump on NHL scouting radars leading to the Calgary Flames selecting him in the second round of the 2023 NHL Draft.
Returning to the Wildcats for the 2023–24 season Morin saw some point regression down to 49 points in 58 games. Morin is still looking to improve his off-puck game in a multitude of ways.
The Wildcat’s star defender even saw action with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers this past season in their April 12, matchup against Abbotsford where he played around 12 minutes. This aptitude in major junior plus possible pro-acumen led to Morin inking a three-year entry-level deal with the Flames on July 5, 2024.
Morin’s strengths
Shooting
Without a doubt, Morin’s shot is one of the most translatable elements of his game. Through his shooting mechanics, release, and power his shot is a threat for any opponents. The mechanics highlighted by his release point, hand positioning, and hand-eye shine, often generating a quick shot.
His weight transfer is relatively clean and that mixed in with his mechanics allows the Moncton defender a quick slightly deceptive and hard shot. A shot block will definitely leave a mark.
Although his accuracy is not eye-popping at 48%, with small elements of deception that aren’t always shots, (but statistically count as them like slap passes, and fake shots) it leaves some room for improvement. The frequency also justifies a lower average as Morin takes about 5.5 shots per game.
Physicality
Physicality is one of the premier elements of the Quebec defender’s game. His muscle mass (power), balance (stability), and ability to isolate (body positioning) towards opposing players allow him to excel in the harder skill elements of the game.
His physical play especially makes him an asset in zone play, which helps explain his 1:36 of penalty kill time this past season, and his 0.88 hits per game.
This physicality of Morin also thrives when the pace of the game slows down, through his great board play (good body positioning), puck protection mechanics, and ability to nullify any chances against on the outside lanes. This is best articulated through his puck battle-winning percentage of a superb 62%.
This physical presence is even more evident in zone play when Morin chooses to tie players up and box them out he shows some okay defensive instincts and can be an intimidating slot presence, as he often can attack in-close players with good angles.
Offensive instincts
The Moncton offence runs through Morin largely because of just how much his shooting and offensive upside complement each other. This offensive upside is demonstrated through above-average vision, passing, and creativity.
His vision is best articulated through his facilitation, as he can see through some layers and be a regular chance generator.
Morin also shows capable puck control highlighted by his precise in-zone passing (average of 31 passes per game with a 90% accuracy), occasional activations, and the ability to open passing lanes.
Morin’s game displays some creativity through his playmaking, offensive poise, and puck fakes. Through these elements on average, he generates 0.88 scoring chances against per game and has an expected goal for of 0.2.
These offensive instincts particularly shine on the power-play, where he largely serves as a top-of-house facilitator that compliments his vision or sidewall asset that compliments his shooting. Plus he gets plenty of special teams opportunity with 3:03 of power play time this past season.
Morin’s weaknesses
Skating
The issues around Morin’s skating are quite glaring as he has limited knee/lower body flexion leading to a wonky posture. This straight-up posture then generates decreased power and interrupts his stride, making it appear as though his feet are quite heavy.
This stride and posture then combine to limit his top speed, rate of lateral acceleration, and overall agility. This is most noticeable in defensive transition as his poor speed/power means he falls behind within gap control resulting in below-average pivots and chasing plays more often than not.
The QMJHL standout struggles to close gaps which then bleeds into poor play recovery too, as he displays a below-average defensive motor only exacerbated by his shortcomings in skating.
In short, in defensive transition, his poor/loose gap control and lack of speed create pace-of-play issues which generates greater quality chances against as he gets burnt by faster opposing forwards on the regular.
With the help of a power skating coach, and a player development coach this may improve in the future, and for his hopes of playing at the NHL level.
Senses
The QMJHL defender suffers from a notable lack of awareness, below-average play reading, and spatial awareness.
This poor awareness manifests itself in the O-zone through his poor shot selection, (where he does have an NHL transferable shot). This often results in offensive plays being killed as he rarely does anything but shoot. This also adds an element of predictability to his play.
This lack of senses is also demonstrated through below-average play anticipation and decision-making. These issues are exemplified by plentiful blind passes, and puck chucks causing turnovers while also reducing a team’s breakout effectiveness.
These throwaway plays generate quality chances against and serve as a prime candidate for reduced ice time at the pro level.
In both transition and zone play, the Quebec product shows limited play reading as a byproduct of limited scanning, a lack of spatial awareness (players can often sneak behind him), and below-average positioning (own goalie screening, gap closing, play chasing).
Now he does display some awareness of lane creation with the puck, but this isn’t the case on the defensive end. This problem is best demonstrated by his lack of an active stick and limited defensive poise. To make matters worse, he shows overt aggression in zone play/defensive transition leading to easily avoidable lunges for the average pro player.
The defender’s compete level remains inconsistent and shows notably lesser engagement, motor, and hustle without the puck.
Perhaps these are issues that he can resolve with more experience and coaching, expect Morin to be hitting the team video sessions regularly once he joins the Wranglers full time to better fix these issues around senses and compete level.
Transitional play
If it isn’t clear enough through the skating and senses issues, Morin is largely a liability in transition. This is shown by his mixed success in give-and-go puck skills, mixed with his decision-making, and lack of momentum continuation/generation.
Expect the Canadian defender to be more of an established O-zone/special teams threat with his shot and capable vision.
Morin’s next steps
Expect Morin to return back to Moncton for the 2024–25 season where the Wildcats look to build off of their 38–23–7 record from this past season. Expect his special teams time to increase as he looks to be one of the defenders, (along with Nashville’s 3rd rounder Dylan Mackinnon), that the team will lean on.
Still a couple of seasons away from competing for a NHL roster spot, in the future.
NHL ETA: 3–4+ years
Projected Role: Top-six defender, (if one of the senses or skating weaknesses can be fixed).
Calgary Flames 2024 Top 15 Prospects
Honourable Mentions | #15 William Stromgren | #14 Jacob Battaglia | #13 Aydar Suniev | #12 Luke Misa | #11 Etienne Morin | #10 Henry Mews | #9 Samuel Honzek | #8 Matvei Gridin | #7 Jakob Pelletier | #6 Andrew Basha | #5 Jeremie Poirier | #4 Hunter Brzustewicz | #3 Matt Coronato | #2 Dustin Wolf | #1 Zayne Parekh
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