Dawson Mercer game breakdown

I dove deeper into his October 11th performance vs the Shawinigan Cataractes.

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New Jersey Devils prospect Dawson Mercer has garnered a lot of attention for his play in the early-going of the 2020-21 campaign.

He picked up seven points in five games for Chicoutimi prior to leaving for Team Canada’s World Junior selection camp; and posted some eye-popping micro stats in the process.

I hadn’t seen Mercer play this season so I decided to check out a game – thanks, Devils in the Details! – and see what the hype is about. Suffice to say, it’s warranted.

I’ll be digging deeper into why and breaking down his performance from October 11th’s game against the Shawinigan Cataractes.

note: Mercer is No. 19 if you’re looking for him in the GIFs.

The Good

• In my draft review I mentioned that, in some ways, Mercer reminds me of former Devils captain Zach Parise. His tenacity and non-stop motor are among the reasons why. No matter who he is battling against, or how far along he is into a shift, he just keeps working. The effort is *always* there. That’s apparent almost every time he touches the ice. Look at work he put in below just to maintain control of the puck and eventually slide it 10 feet to a teammate. He doesn’t give up.

• Those traits came quite handy on the penalty kill as well. After a failed clearance, Mercer follows up and gets the puck out of the zone. He wins the battle for possession in the neutral zone and dumps the puck forward. An opponent scoops it up and Mercer hounds him the rest of the way down the ice before scrumming it behind the net and killing valuable time off the clock. The motor never stops.

• Mercer is an awesome forechecker and play disrupter. Before I comment on what happened below, I’ll provide a little more background. A few seconds prior to the clip, Chicoutimi’s LD was trying to break out of the defensive zone. Mercer closed quickly and took away any angle for an outlet pass, forcing the LD to throw it cross ice and behind a teammate. The puck eventually came down low and behind the net for a reset. Noticing the defender had to accept the puck on his back hand, and was without any real speed, Mercer attacked the carrier. He won a battle in the corner and came out on his strong side looking to dish, where he connected on a pass into the slot and created a dangerous scoring opportunity.

• Mercer creating high-end chances was a common occurrence in this game. He was consistently able to get the puck to teammates in dangerous areas of the ice; no matter how much traffic he had to get through. Look at how small the lane is on this play. The pass had to be perfect to slip between all the defenders; and it was! Most players wouldn’t even attempt this pass. They would simply defer to a wide open No. 88. Rather than doing that, which likely would’ve resulted in a low percentage point shot, Mercer put a pass on a platter for his teammate and created a 2-on-0 for his teammates on the doorstep. It didn’t amount to a goal but it easily could have.

• Mercer’s hands really are special. They were on full display throughout the game (see above). There was no better example than on this play, though. Mercer danced around a defender and hit a teammate with a beautiful backhand pass for a backdoor tap-in.

• On top of the evident skill level, what I love here is the vision and patience from Mercer. He could have dished it to No. 67 at the start of his possession but it would’ve led to a one timer from outside of the home plate area. Mercer attacked the middle instead, which drew defenders to him and allowed his teammate to get closer to the net for the high percentage shot.

• Mercer's ability to process the game at high speeds was remarkably evident from start to finish. Almost every decision he made was the best one, and he really was one step ahead of the game.

  He consistently opens up lanes by attacking the middle of the ice. He knows how to leak into soft spots in the defense, or lead teammates into space. He knows how to cut off angles and force opposing players into a single, predictable option. He just always knows where to be. There were times Mercer, who is not a top-end skater in terms of speed, would realize he wasn’t going to win a race for a loose puck. Rather than further chasing and getting himself out of position, he would square up and take away the outlet. An opponent may get the puck, but Mercer put himself in position to make sure they can’t do anything with it.

  You can work on your hands. You can work on your shot. You can work on your skating. But one thing you can’t really change is how you think the game. You either see things develop, and know where to go, or you don’t. Mercer does.

The Bad

• Not even Dawson Mercer is perfect. He blindly threw a pizza right to a defender while his team was scrambling to get it out. While it only led to a low-danger point shot, you don’t want to give extra possessions to opponents; especially when most of your teammates are tired. I don’t know if Mercer thought the defender was tight to the wall, or gone for a change, but he clearly made an error on this one (and right after I praise his judgement, no less). I’ll give Mercer a break, though, because this isn’t a common occurrence or habit he needs to work on. It was a one-off.

• The good news is Mercer had nine shot attempts and contributed to eight(!) scoring chances at 5v5 alone. The bad news is he only scored one goal, and it was on the power play. Mercer generated what felt like an endless supply of top-tier looks and wasn’t able to convert.

  He definitely has some finishing ability – he shot 16.9% last season, and is at 21% early on this year – but I had to put something in ‘the bad’ so I’ll go with not maximizing the opportunities he created – even though it happens (but, for real, check out the work he did leading up to this chance).

Data Dump

5v5 Corsi

5v5 Individual Numbers

5v5 Zone Entries

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