HABS: One-game Scouting Report for Morgan Ellis from Memorial Cup

Morgan Ellis remains an undervalued prospect within the Canadiens organization. Many were not even aware of his existence prior to the 2012 Memorial Cup tournament. That said, Ellis' play has been consistently above average. In fact, he had the best numbers (risk/reward and ratio) of any Canadiens player during the 2011-12 preseason.

This one-game scouting report is from the 2012 Memorial Cup game between the Shawinigan Cataractes and the London Knights.

OVERALL GRADE

Ellis produced a well-above average grade of 77 during the game. His best work was produced in the neutral-zone, and on special teams. Seventy-six percent of his even-strength events took place in the defensive-zone.

	4
WINS	98	WINS
EVENTS	127	EVENTS
GRADE	77	GRADE
PLAYER	4

EVEN-STRENGTH RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Ellis produced an above-average even-strength risk/reward rating of 1.45, and an impressive even-strength ratio of 2.5 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He played 25 minutes at even-strength, and engaged in 3.37 events per-minute played.

	4
POS	60	POS
NEG	24	NEG
RATIO	2.50	RATIO
MIN/G	24.9	MIN/G
	4
MINUTES	25	MINUTES
POS/MIN	2.41	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.96	NEG/MIN
	4
EVENTS/ MIN	3.37	EVENTS/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	1.45	RISK/REWARD
	4

OFFENSIVE-ZONE RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Ellis absolutely dominates when he keeps the game simple. This limits his offensive-zone events at even-strength, but helps his team overall. He had an offensive-zone risk/reward rating of 0.08, and an o-zone ratio of 2 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He engaged in only 6 o-zone events the entire game; recovering 3 loose-pucks, and getting 1 of his 3 shot attempts through to the net.

	4
OZ POS	4	OZ POS
OZ NEG	2	OZ NEG
RATIO	2.00	RATIO
MIN/G	24.9	MIN/G
	4
MINUTES	25	MINUTES
POS/MIN	0.16	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.08	NEG/MIN
	4
EVENTS/ MIN	0.24	EVENTS/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	0.08	RISK/REWARD
	4

DEFENSIVE-ZONE RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Ellis had a defensive-zone risk/reward rating of 0.88, and a d-zone ratio of 2.05 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He won 2 of 3 puck-battles, recovered an incredible 17 loose-pucks, and completed 11 of 20 d-zone pass-attempts. He blocked 3 shots, intercepted 4 passes, and engaged in 2.57 defensive-zone events per-minute played.

	4
DZ POS	43	DZ POS
DZ NEG	21	DZ NEG
RATIO	2.05	RATIO
MIN/G	24.9	MIN/G
	4
MINUTES	25	MINUTES
POS/MIN	1.73	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.84	NEG/MIN
	4
EVENTS/ MIN	2.57	EVENTS/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	0.88	RISK/REWARD
	4

NEUTRAL-ZONE RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Ellis was nearly perfect in the neutral-zone; despite the bad ice. He earned a neutral-zone risk/reward rating of 0.48, and an incredible neutral-zone ratio of 13 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He recovered 2 loose-pucks, completed both his pass-attempts, and was successful with 5 of his 6 attempts to dump the puck deep into the offensive-zone. He engaged in 0.56 neutral-zone events per-minute of ice-time.

	4
NZ POS	13	NZ POS
NZ NEG	1	NZ NEG
RATIO	13.00	RATIO
MIN/G	24.9	MIN/G
	4
MINUTES	25	MINUTES
POS/MIN	0.52	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.04	NEG/MIN
	4
EV/ MIN	0.56	EV/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	0.48	RISK/REWARD
	4

POWERPLAY RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Ellis was part of the number one powerplay unit. He produced a powerplay risk/reward rating of 4.35, and a PP ratio of 5.8 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play.  He engaged in 6.16 powerplay events per-minute of powerplay ice-time.

	4
POS	29	POS
NEG	5	NEG
RATIO	5.80	RATIO
MIN/G	5.52	MIN/G
	4
MINUTES	6	MINUTES
POS/MIN	5.25	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.91	NEG/MIN
	4
EVENTS/ MIN	6.16	EVENTS/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	4.35	RISK/REWARD
	4

SHORT-HANDED RISK/REWARD RATING AND RATIO

Ellis was also part of the number one penalty-killing unit. He earned a short-handed risk/reward rating of 3.00, and a short-handed ratio of 5.5 successful plays for every 1 unsuccessful play. He engaged in 4.33 short-handed events per-minute of short-handed ice-time. 

	4
POS	11	POS
NEG	2	NEG
RATIO	5.5	GAMES
MIN/G	3	MIN/G
	4
MINUTES	3	MINUTES
POS/MIN	3.67	POS/MIN
NEG/MIN	0.67	NEG/MIN
	4
EVENTS/ MIN	4.33	EVENTS/ MIN
RISK/REWARD	3.00	RISK/REWARD
	4