Danielson impressing with all-around game ahead of 2023 NHL Draft

The 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held June 28-29 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The first round will be June 28 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS) and rounds 2-7 are June 29 (11 a.m. ET; NHLN, SN, TVAS). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a look at center Nate Danielson of Brandon in the Western Hockey League. NHL.com's full draft coverage can be found here.

When Marty Murray took over as coach in Brandon on Nov. 28, one of his easiest decisions was making sure center Nate Danielson got as much ice time as he could handle.

"He's a no-brainer to get the tap on the shoulder if we're up by a goal or down by a goal going into the last minute, or take a big face-off," Murray said. "He's our guy."

The 18-year-old (6-foot-2, 185 pounds) led Brandon in goals (33), assists (45) and points (78) and won 52.6 percent of his face-offs. He also scored 13 power-play goals and three short-handed goals.

"I thought ice time was something I didn't really lack, but I thought Marty did a good job of managing my ice time and making sure I was playing the right amounts," Danielson said. "I thought once he stepped in, it was really good for me and just allowed me to be creative and play my game.

"He always let us be creative and I think that I was able to run with that and really allow myself to play my game and sort of get into a groove."

The groove offensively allowed Danielson to lead Brandon in scoring. Defensively, it made him one of the most difficult players to go against in the WHL. Connor Bedard, the leading scorer in the WHL and the projected No. 1 pick of the 2023 draft, said Danielson was the toughest player he faced in his age group.

"He was probably the guy that maybe gave me the hardest game," Bedard said. "He's so fast, so skilled. So if you turn it over or something, he's going to go down and do something. He's a great player."

NHL scouts noticed the growth in Danielson's game and NHL Central Scouting has him No. 7 in its final ranking of North American skaters presented by BioSteel, which was released in April. It was an improvement from No. 13 in the midterm ranking in January.

"He went from being considered a two-way forward because he has such a responsible game to where he became an offensive threat, an offensive forward," Central Scouting vice president Dan Marr said. "The ability to show that finishing touch, that creativity on the offensive hockey side, that was something that is important. The game is about scoring goals, the game is about speed and offense, and he showed that he made a significant improvement there."

Danielson's speed and offense are powered by his strong skating, but it's also an attribute he continues to work at, with a focus on improving his first three strides and getting to top speed quicker.

He works with two skating coaches, but the emphasis is the same with both, on all the fine details that go into a skating stride.

"There's a lot more than probably people realize with all the different knee bends and all the different angles that your body's at," Danielson said. "They do a really good job of video, getting all the different angles. I think the biggest thing for me that are my keys to skating is just my knee bend, being at the right angles, and also my chest lean, not being too far forward, but still upright, so that's the biggest thing."

And the natural strength he'll gain in his lower body also will help.

"He's a real nice, fluid skater," Murray said. "I would like to see him maybe get a little bit more pop in his first three steps. He's got a really nice long stride when he gets going and it's kind of effortless a little bit. But in saying that too, I think the one of the things we talked about is just continuing to work on that pop in your legs to get those first three strides of explosiveness. I think that will really help him along the way."

Also helping him has been motivation from his older brother, Noah, 20, who played with Drumheller of the Alberta Junior Hockey League this season after playing four seasons with Medicine Hat of the WHL.

The brothers faced off for the first time last season, with Nate and Brandon winning five of six games against Noah and Medicine Hat. Nate had seven points (three goals, four assists) in the six games, and Noah had three assists.

"Me and him are super competitive all growing up ever since we were young," Nate said. "He's sort of the reason I got into hockey. I saw him skating and playing hockey and I guess I sort of just wanted to be like him.

"Having him to sort of push me, being two years older than me, he's been huge in my life."

Noah remains huge in Nate's life, and now so do players like Nick Suzuki of the Montreal Canadiens and Elias Lindholm of the Calgary Flames.

"They're both pretty elite in the offensive zone as well as they take care of their own end," he said. "I like to watch them on nights off and just try to pick up different little things that they do."

Suzuki (No. 13, 2017) and Lindholm (No. 5, 2013) each was a top-15 NHL draft pick and it's likely Danielson will be as well.

"Everybody wants to know what his ceiling is, and I think he's going to be a real good second or third-line center [in the NHL], and hopefully he's even better than that," Murray said. "I think a lot of times, they want to know what his offensive ceiling is in particular and my response to that is I think our forward depth was a little light last year, and that's no disrespect to any of our players. But we didn't have a guy to flank him that is coming off an 80-point season or 100-point guy. We just didn't have that depth up front. So to me Nate pushing 80 points was really impressive in that regard too, just because we didn't score a ton, it wasn't easy for us to score. But he seemed to find his way on the score sheet."

Photos: Paige Bednorz; Mark Peterson Media

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