Gabriel Bilodeau

Aaron Vickers

Bilodeau is a strong skater with great all-encompassing mobility and solid speed. He moves his feet a lot with great fluidity; it helps him to walk the blueline with ease. Bilodeau possesses good puck-moving skills. He can skate with the puck or rely on a solid breakout pass while in movement. He eats up open ice with his feet when it is there before making a pass that is a better option. Even his long-range passes are accurate. Bilodeau has a solid shot with fairly good velocity. His wrist shot is quick and heavy and his slap shots come in low on the net. His hockey IQ seems to be above average. Bilodeau makes good reads, and has good decision-making when in control of the puck and without the puck as his head is constantly moving to adjust his position. He will give great support for a D-to-D pass and looks to throw the pass up ice quickly. When he does so, he stretches the ice for his teammates, creating space for them. Offensively, he will regularly jump in to create odd-man rushes. When he has the puck at the blueline, he has great patience to wait until a lane opens up for either a pass or a shot. With his good feet, he will often create those open lanes as he can switch direction quickly. His defensive basics are there, and maintains good gap control and has good angling in the corners. However, he will need to add strength to defend a bit better. Physically, Bilodeau is not the most physical player, but he can pin his guy or finish a check.   (May 2016)