He is a hard-nosed, hard hitting, two-way blueliner and a solid puck mover. He makes a good, hard and accurate first pass. He can also rush the puck and isn’t afraid to take it for a skate. He is very mobile and has some excellent head fake moves when carrying the puck. He is able to protect the puck using his body and reach. He owns a rocket of a slap shot, which he releases quickly and seems to get through traffic and on net on a very regular basis. Thrower is a very smart defenseman that plays a lot of minutes and is good at finding a way to move the puck up ice. Along with his offensive skills, he also has an extremely large element of toughness in his game. He is physical and is above average at stepping up in the neutral zone to throw a hit. He is a scrapper who has been known to knock down much bigger and stronger opponents. He sticks up for teammates and leads by example on the ice. He isn’t afraid to throw down and will not back down from many challenges. He backs up his trash talk, which he does often to get under his opponent’s skin. He grew leaps and bounds defensively this year. He reads the play well and makes good decisions with the puck for the most part. He is aggressive and uses his size well to separate the puck from his opponent. He is willing to block a shot and pay the price to make a defensive play. While he has some room for growth in his own end, he is a hard work- er and will improve. (May 2012)