Prospect Pulse: Toni Ritter

Going back to the World Junior A Challenge well, Prospect Pulse goes overseas to profile German Toni Ritter. Ritter, a left shooting forward who can play either wing, was a guy that no one really knew much about until the tournament. Its likely fair to say that pretty much everyone knew about him afterwards, for good or for bad.

The good is that Ritter is a big man with good skating ability. He has a powerful stride that, although he isn’t the fastest skater, gets him to where he needs to go and allows him to win most races for the puck. He is one of those freight train type players who are hard to stop once they get a head of steam up. A very hard worker (he is German after all), Ritter plays a two-way game and won’t be found cheating on the defensive side of the puck. Scouts observe that he will hustle despite long odds, and was seen to break up odd man rushes and clear rebounds on breakaways. He displays patience beyond his years when he has the puck and makes smart plays. He gets his shot off quickly (Thats what she said) and follows the shot to the net.

The bad is that he rarely scores. Despite the hard quick shot and the good offensive work ethic, he is Marchant-esque in the goal department. Like I mean he has more trouble scoring than me at a Democratic convention (despite their trampy nature). Observers who were at the tournament note that he could have been hampered by an epic run of bad luck, but there may be more to his drought. Red Line projects him as a mid-3rd rounder.