Jump to content

Claimed: Niko Bogdanavic Rookie Profile


Recommended Posts

24576.jpg

Name: Niko Bogdanavic

Age: 18

Weight: 202

Height: 6' 1"

Position: Defenseman

Handedness: Right

Hometown: Belgrade, Serbia

 

Hailing from Belgrade, Niko has had that European hockey mentality engrained in him from a young age, despite being a trouble maker and always getting in fights. Growing up with his drunk of a father, Niko did not have that typical father figure or the self discipline young boys needed. After getting into a huge brawl outside of school one day, and severely injuring another student, his hockey career was threatened. One of his coaches knew of the raw talent Niko had, the troubles he faced at home and school, and decided to proceed to adopt him, channeling that anger into a man who turned into a powerful defenseman. Now on the brink of being a professional player, the breakdown of Niko's game is finally here. 

 

PROS 

 

Shot Blocking: Niko has always prided himself on being a great defenseman and with that, his shot blocking ability. A big body that hovers around the net, many opposing players find it hard to get their shots past Niko. He has a nose to be in the right position many times and often bails his team out of many dire situations. 

 

Checking: Channeling his anger from his childhood, Niko loves to slam people into the boards. Any time he can get away with putting his body into someone to get that puck, he's going to do it. It's an art form and Niko is Leonardo Da Vinci. 

 

Team Player: Niko is the epitome of a team player. If he needs to play out of position, he will do it. If he needs to sit on the bench and let someone else play due to a stretch of inefficiency, he will do it. If he needs to work on something else in practice, he will do it. He knows his limits and if something else needs to be done to help the team, Niko is all about the greater good. 

 

big-check.jpg

 

CONS 

 

Offensive Ability: Having always worked in his defensive game, Niko has spent little time working on the offensive side of his game. From time to time he will score a goal or get an assist, but they are few and far between. If Niko wants to be a well rounded player, he will need to start applying practice hours to his offensive abilities and not just strictly defensive. 

 

Anger/Emotions: While he hasn't completely learned how to check his emotional swings, he does have a decent grasp on it, but it's that slight unbalance that can be an issue. If he feels slighted, or if something on the ice angers him beyond his control, he will turn that anger into uncontrolled rage, resulting in boarding penalties, fights, or worse, ejections. He becomes the literal definition of the word GOON. Niko needs to get that agression completely under control otherwise he may find himself unemployable in the league in the very near future. 

 

Puck Handling: This can go hand in hand with offensive ability, but given just how bad he currently is with that puck at the end of his stick, we figured it was worthy to be in a category on its own. Focusing all his energy on the defensive end, puck handling has been neglected from Niko's game. It's pretty amusing though to see just how bad he really is. He may be able to free the puck from an offensive player, but he can't really do much with it after that, leaving another teammate to be close by to get the puck and get it clear. 

 

Work Ethic: Sometimes Niko likes to half ass his practice time. Sometimes he will give you his full six to nine hours a week, and other weeks he will pack it in and only apply three to five. We don't necessarily consider this to be a complete con as it could always be worse and he could skip entire weeks not turning in any practice time, but the fact that he might not give it his all on everything hundred percent of the time

is the reason we need to file this under a con. He will give you his time every week, it's just a matter of how much. For now though, he seems to be going full out with an occasional half week. 

 

REVIEW

 

All in all, Niko is a solid defenseman with some slight anger issues that may flare up into occasional fights. His defensive abilities are some of the best in his class, and definitely the best we have seen from Serbia in some time. For now, he is not a two-way player, but with his attitude of being a team player, he should be willing to round out his game and apply practice hours to his offensive abilities. If a team chooses to have him be a strictly defensive player, Niko will obviously be more than happy to continue to work on that aspect of his game. Niko is a down to Earth kid who should make any team happy to have him in their lineup. 

 

oshie-shot-block.png

Edited by Jonessee27
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...