2012 NHL Draft Eligible Prospect Profile: Cody Ceci – Ottawa 67′s

Photo courtesy of Aaron Bell / OHL Images

By Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell)

With the Ontario Hockey League playoffs now over, it’s time to make my sole focus here, at TheHockeyGuys.net, the upcoming NHL Draft in June. Whether it be prospect profiles, scouting reports, draft rankings, or anything else, that’s my focus now. Since I’m a credentialed OHL writer, the majority, if not all, of my prospect profiles between now and June 22nd will be on OHL players.

I’ve done a couple of prospect profiles to this point on already drafted players (Stuart Percy – Toronto, and Ivan Telegin – Winnipeg) but until the draft is over I’ll focus on draft eligible players. Some of the top prospects who are already drafted will be profiled in the summer.

Without further ado, here is my prospect profile on 2012 draft eligible defenseman Cody Ceci.

Cody Ceci
Age – 18
Position – Defense
Height – 6′ 3″
Weight – 206
Draft Projection: 6-15th overall
OHL Team: Ottawa 67′s
2012 Regular Season Statistics: 17 goals, 43 assists, 60 points, plus-21, 14PIM, 64 games played
2012 Playoff Statistics: two goals, 13 assists, 15 points, plus-1, 4PIM, 18 games played
NHL Comparable(s) – Brent Seabrook
Upside – 8.5/10

Strengths – While Cody Ceci is great in many aspects of the game, in my opinion his biggest asset is his hockey IQ. He consistently makes good, smart plays with the puck. Regardless of how much time or space he has, he rarely makes a bad play with it. He pinches often to help out offensively, but almost never gets caught out of position, which is rare for someone who jumps into the play as much as he does. He’s very mobile for his size and his skating ability is one of his better attributes, but it’s not his best. One scout I talked to said “while mobile (especially for his size), he won’t wow you with his skating”. Ceci is not only more than capable of quarter backing a powerplay, but he is very good when used in a shutdown role as well. He can go up against opposing teams players and not only shut them down, but generate offense himself. He’s no Scott Niedermayer, but he’s pretty darn good.

Weaknesses – Talking to several different scouts, the majority seem to think that Ceci’s biggest weakness is not being physical enough considering his physical stature. One scout I talked to about the potential top-10 pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft said that “he’s never really aggressive enough with his size”. While he is by no means soft, he definitely can make himself tougher to play against for his opponents. A scout told me “(As you’ve seen, he) finishes checks, but doesn’t own a mean streak”. If and when Ceci ever develops a mean streak, he’ll be that much tougher to play against.

Career Projection – First pairing (#2) defenseman – While Ceci has very good offensive tools; great hockey IQ and size, I don’t think he will ever become a true number one defenseman on a good hockey team. If he starts playing with more edge and improves his game from a physical stand point that could change, but right now he projects to be a solid two-way number two defenseman who can quarter back a powerplay.

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