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Miguel Fidler 2014 NHL Draft scouting report: Mercurial scorer

With the 2014 NHL Draft here, Land-Grant Holy Land takes a look at the draft prospects of some of OSU Hockey's recruits

By Matt Torino
Matt Christians

Tyler Nanne isn't the only Edina High hockey team member committed to the Buckeyes and likely to be selected in the upcoming NHL Draft. His teammate, Miguel Fidler, is a left winger who saw his draft stock rise substantially over the last year. He's risen 47 spots in the NHL Central Scouting rankings just since the Mid Term rankings were released in January. But how highly is he likely be drafted and what kind of player is he?

Playing Style: Miguel Fidler was seen mostly as a cog in the Edina High machine prior to his senior season, but stepped up in a big way, scoring 41 points in 25 games after scoring only a combined 22 in his 48 previous high school games. He adapted his style to the scoring role he took on as well, decreasing his penalty minutes to only 24 total after never having less than 28 in the previous two seasons.

However, his future on the next level may have to be in a checking or Bottom 6 role. The scoring improvement was necessary to be mentioned as highly as Fidler is, but there is a troubling aspect to it.

Just a disclaimer now: if you don't like hockey advanced stats like Corsi and Fenwick and all that jazz, you probably like Miguel Fidler more than I do.

Fidler scored 16 goals in 25 games, which is an encouraging number, even at the high school level. At some point scoring would translate, or at least you'd think. And Fidler was second on his team in shots on goal with 46 total, only one behind the leader. What's troubling to me, though, is that his shooting percentage was 35.6%. High school players of course are going to have higher percentages with porous opposing goalies and defenses. But if his shooting percentage dips, as it will, and he continues not averaging even 2 shots on goal a game, how much is he going to score? Fidler's underlying advanced stats seem to point toward a Bottom 6 role for him at the next level. Nanne, for example, averaged over a shot per game from primarily the defensive position, which is a decent number. A high level offensive forward should easily eclipse what Fidler has done so far, but he hasn't yet.

His raw shots on goal total just isn't high enough to sustain his goal scoring production once his shooting percentage takes its inevitable dip and that should be worrisome for any potential drafting team, and for Steve Rohlik as well. But there's always the very distinct possibility that Fidler is still developing and just figured it out on offense this past year. His game could keep improving on the offensive end into college and beyond.

Looking at his older high school seasons doesn't really show you much either. His role was much smaller and the sample size was therefore a lot smaller than during his senior season. He may have just blossomed getting Top 6 minutes.

And yet, he only scored 9 points in 20 games played for the Upper Midwest High School Elite League team, Team Southwest. There, playing against higher level competition like Shattuck-St. Mary's (the school that's produced the likes of Zach Parise, Nathan MacKinnon and some guy named Sidney Crosby), Fidler only registered 6 shots total. Five did go in though. Doesn't seem sustainable, does it? Time will tell.

NHL Central Scouting Ranking: 133 among North American Skaters

Family Background: Miguel is from Edina, Minnesota, unsurprisingly since he plays hockey there, and may not be Minnesota royalty like his teammate Nanne, but does have a Minnesota North Stars pedigree. His father Mike played for the team from 1978-81 and also played for the Hartford Whalers, Chicago Blackhawks and Cleveland Barons over his NHL career.

When Is He Coming to Columbus: 2015-16 per EliteProspects and College Hockey, Inc.

Who is Miguel Fidler: Whether or not you believe in my Corsi fueled #hot #takes on Miguel Fidler, you probably want to know what kind of person he is.

Well, Miguel's Twitter's was hacked very shortly after he permanantly signed off of the social media network on March 4, 2012:

I don't even know where to start here:

His alternative name for subtweeting hasn't caught on, unfortunately:

And he got punched by a paralyzed hockey player who went to prom with Michelle Beadle:

Draft Projection: I don't think teams will be able to turn down the goal scoring he's produced so far, unsustainable or not. He could go as high as the third with that production or as low as the seventh. It's completely up in the air despite his relatively high ranking. It all comes down to whether teams believe in his offense he showed at Edina during his senior season or are turned off by his lack of it at Team Southwest.

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