2020 Draft: Quinn improves speed, power to become top prospect

Every Thursday, NHL.com will look ahead to the 2020 NHL Draft with an in-depth profile on one of its top prospects.

Jack Quinn's decision to improve his speed and strength last summer paid off in his second full season with Ottawa of the Ontario Hockey League.
The 6-foot, 176-pound right wing, No. 7 in NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters eligible for the 2020 NHL Draft, was second in the OHL with 52 goals, was tied for eighth with 89 points and tied for fifth with 15 power-play goals in 62 games this season.
"I needed to get harder on pucks, harder to play against," Quinn said. "I wanted to be the guy stripping pucks in my own end, be good defensively and positionally. I had to play faster and be hard to play against.
"I think from there, my hockey sense and offensive abilities would kind of do the rest with the kind of player I am."
Quinn progressed nicely after joining current and future NHL players for off-ice hockey training at Greco Kanata South for three months last summer under the guidance of Tony Greco, a fifth-degree black belt in karate, who transitioned into training not long after winning an IAKSA kickboxing gold medal for Canada in 1995. He trained former NHL forward Mike Fisher and currently works with Philadelphia Flyers forward Claude Giroux and Los Angeles Kings defenseman Ben Hutton.

"This type of training helps generate more speed and power because the ultimate goal is to transfer those movements of tempos into action," Greco said. "Jack adjusted to the training, has bought in and has that leadership quality that translates to the ice. He's going to go through a wall for you. Sometimes I even have to slow him down to focus on one element, but that's just the kind of athlete he is."
When the Canadian Hockey League season was canceled in March due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, Greco provided Quinn with a workout regimen that included runs and sprints a few times each week.
In addition to becoming a tougher player on the ice, Ottawa coach Andre Tourigny considers Quinn a real student of the game.
"He's always been really smart on the ice," Tourigny said. "He's a competitive kid with a lot of push-back. I like his mindset; he's a guy who likes to study the game and a strength for us this year was having guys who were really competitive on both sides of the puck."

Ottawa center Marco Rossi, No. 6 in NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters, said that he likes what he sees in Quinn.
"[Quinn] competes really hard, is really fast, a good skater and has a really good shot ... and he loves to work hard," said Rossi, who was the top scorer in the CHL with 120 points (39 goals, 81 assists) in 53 games.
Quinn led Ottawa with 240 shots on goal and ranked third with seven game-winning goals. He scored 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) and had 92 shots on goal in 61 games as a rookie in 2018-19.
"Training with Tony was good for me," Quinn said. "We had a good group there and it really helped my skating, my explosiveness and just my overall conditioning. I've noticed a big difference this year on the ice."
The 18-year-old, who missed the cutoff for the 2019 NHL Draft by four days, considers it an advantage to be one of the older prospects entering the 2020 draft.
"It's an advantage in the sense that I got to play another year in the league before the draft," he said. "Obviously it's another year to figure the league out and I think I figured things out a lot between last year and this year, so just an advantage in that it was just more time to kind of understand the league and develop your game."
Director of NHL Central Scouting Dan Marr said Quinn really hit his stride this season.
"Jack is smart and plays a hard-driving game with good speed and instincts to execute plays and produce offense," Marr said. "He's clever and poised with the puck, competes responsibly to play a two-way game. There's a lot of upside potential."
Quinn played much of the season on a line with Mitchell Hoelscher, who was selected by the New Jersey Devils in the sixth round (No. 172) of the 2019 draft.

"I think my game has come a long way in terms of attention to detail with playing a 200-foot game," Quinn said. "I feel playing with speed is a big factor in the game. It allows you to also use your brain and make those plays. If you don't have speed], you can still make the plays but maybe won't be fast enough to get into position to make a play."
He compares his style to Washington Capitals forward T.J. Oshie.
"I like how he creates offense for his teammates and can score, too," Quinn said. "I like how he plays with an edge ... I'd like to think I have a bit of that in my game."
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