NHL Draft: 5 Reasons To Fall In Love With Marco Rossi

4. Rossi Is Extremely Confident In His Abilities

This isn’t the most important attribute, but confidence has a long way in turning a prospect into a superstar. This is especially important for players who aren’t the biggest already. They need to play with an edge, and it appears Rossi has that.

When asked what he improved on this season, he said everything. Obviously, it’s harder for some of the junior players going into this draft because they have to compete with players like Lukas Raymond who’s currently playing in what should be their post-draft year season. Raymond has been dominating while Rossi and others are just sitting and waiting.

Rossi has all the talent in the world, but we’ve seen with prospects in the past that once they lose confidence in those abilities, things fall off. Look at McLeod. He was a monster prospect that looked like a future star when he carried the Mississauga Steelheads to the OHL Finals. Now, he’s a forgotten prospect that’s going to fall outside the top five, and after the draft probably falls out of the top ten. Rossi’s confidence would avoid such a situation.

This is going to be an intriguing draft, and the Devils will likely have to pick the best of who’s left, but Rossi is being mocked as available by many experts. If the Devils can get someone who thinks this way at 7, it will give them a lot of flexibility to make him work. He’s so confident, he decided against signing in Europe to start the season because he feels he’s good enough to make the NHL right now (see the previous slide).