Michael Sdao

[BrawlFan]

Hey everyone,

I am wondering if anyone has seen Michael Sdao play for Princeton? I cant seem to find an assessment of him on the Sens board and was wondering if anyone has watched him play and can assess his chances of being an NHLer. Does he compare to Mark Borowiecki? a fellow Sens prospect?

[Tony Piscotta]

Not all that familiar with Borowiecki so I can't really make a comparison.

Mike is one of those heart-on-his-sleeves players who is well-suited to the pro game. Defensively, he can put himself in disadvantages with his positioning and scrambling at times but he's a very physical player and will likely be called on to drop the gloves at times in the pro game (something he did fairly effectively in the USHL - check out YouTube).

Offensively, his biggest gift is his cannon of a slap shot - though his release is at times a bit tardy and there are some blocked shots.

There has been talk about him possibly being shifted to forward at the pro level but I don't know if that's necessary.

It's interesting because at times this season he's been playing with converted forward Eric Meland on the Tigers' top pairing.

Originally Posted by BrawlFan

Hey everyone,

I am wondering if anyone has seen Michael Sdao play for Princeton? I cant seem to find an assessment of him on the Sens board and was wondering if anyone has watched him play and can assess his chances of being an NHLer. Does he compare to Mark Borowiecki? a fellow Sens prospect?

[Oilers Chick]

Tony's assessment is pretty spot on.

As for the Borowiecki comparison, especially since I have seen Borowiecki, I would say no. They're both different players. Borowiecki has a little more finesse (for a lack of a better term) to his game than Sdao and IMO, Borowiecki is a better skater. Having said that, I do think that Sdao has more of the intangibles such as being a physical presence, ability to create time and space for his teammates, etc. My only gripe about Sdao is his discipline. As much as I like the fact that Sdao is physical, he also needs to be able to temper that sometimes so it doesn't negatively impact his team. He can find a balance there, he'll be a greater asset to his team.