Meet the Future: Andreas Athanasiou

Fourth RD, 110th overall – Andreas Athanasiou

The vitals:

Height: 6’0″

Weight: 179 lbs

Shoots: Left

Position: Left Wing

Team: London (OHL)

The report:

Andreas Athanasiou is slick.

For my money, he might be the best skating forward in the entire class, possibly the best skater period.

Add to that, he has very nice hands and you can see why he was an enticing package for the Wings.

The big knock on Athanasiou is that he is wildly inconsistent and his potential as a professional hockey player is questionable.

If he can figure out how to put it all together, he can be a very good scoring third line winger who can blister up and down the wing and change the tempo of the game. If not, he’ll be a career minor leaguer. This is a home run swing type of pick for Detroit.

I get to see a lot of Athanasiou as he plays for the Knights in the OHL, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen him play the same way twice. He’s just all over the board.

He’ll get to develop in a very strong system with the Hunter brothers in London on a powerhouse team that should contend for the Memorial Cup the next two years. Hopefully a couple years from now he’ll be able to compete for a spot in Grand Rapids.

This is a project pick that has some upside, but Athanasiou is a long ways away from ready.

If you want a Red Wings comparable, he’s Darren Helm with mitts, but without the consistency necessary of a pro hockey player.

Follow him on Twitter here.

Check out this impressive video from the NHL R&D camp.