Hockey Prospects (76th overall):
”Matthew was selected 8th overall by the Hamilton Bulldogs in 2015. He was immediately utilized on the top line for the Bulldogs allowing him to accumulate 38 points as a 16 year old. He continued his place on the first line this season, increasing his stats to 62 points, just under a point per game. He also participated for Canada's Under 18 team twice, once at the Ivan Hlinka, then again at the IIHF World Under 18 Championships.
Matthew has excellent power forward size. He isn't an overly physical player but he's shown the ability to protect the puck and it’s a developing quality in his game. His best asset would be his shot. He has a high powered shot that has pretty good accuracy. He has good positional awareness in the offensive zone and can get open to utilize that big shot. He generally doesn't handle the puck very long and is at his best when the puck is on and then off his stick. He can get himself into trouble if he tries to do too much. On the rush, if he doesn't have a lane, generally Matthew will dump the puck. However, his lack of skating ability hurts him when trying to play a dump and chase style of game. He can struggle to keep up and disappear when the pace of the game picks up. Defensively he was adequate, but has room for improvement.
Overall Matthew has NHL level goal scoring potential. His shot is powerful and accurate. He has good smarts and reads plays well. His biggest drawback by far is his skating. He really struggles to get going and we didn't really see much improvements this season. He has a boom or bust feel to him. If he can correct his skating, improve his pace and be a little tougher, he could ultimately become a top six forward at the NHL level. If he doesn't improve his skating, quickness and pace, his scoring ability could get lost in the flow of the game at the pro level.”
Quotable: “We missed on him in the OHL Draft. We didn’t like his skating at all and had him ranked too low. The skating has been good enough to allow him to be productive in the OHL. I thought early this season that his skating might come along.this year but it hasn’t. In the first half of the season I was liking a lot about him, other than the bad feet. He’s smart and he can score. In the second half, it was more than just the bad feet that bothered me. I thought he was cheating towards offense a bit too much and wasn’t working hard enough. When your skating is as weak as Strome’s is, I think you need to be elite in several other areas. - HP Scout, Mark Edwards
Quotable: “I could list off quotes from twenty scouts about Strome but 19 would just be saying the same thing. Different ways of talking about bad skating. If the skating was even average most would give him a very large bump up their lists. I don’t think I spoke to one scout who didn’t think Strome was a smart player.” - HP Scout, Mark Edwards
Quotable:”All the Strome brothers are such smart players but none of them are good skaters and the youngest of the bothers ends up being the weakest of the three.” - NHL Scout (April 2017)
Recrutes (52th overall):
”Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Strome has joined Nicolas Hague and Maxime Comtois as Canadian prospects once thought to be solid top-15 candidates that are expected to drop into the second round, and it’s a good bet that none of them fall further than the Hamilton winger.
After scoring 29 goals in his first 47 games, Strome had six goals in his last 26 contests, including one goal in seven playoff games. Even more disconcerting was that a prospect who needed to improve his skating speed appeared to get slower as the season went on.”
“He was by no means fast at the Ivan Hlinka last summer..but he looked a lot quicker than he did at the U-18’s, where he was a turtle,” said one scout who considered Strome to be a top15 lock last autumn. “His feet are poor. You don’t mind everything else, but it’s a terrible stride, ugly to look at.”
“Will it get better? I have no idea. He’s got good hands and smarts...from the faceoff circle in he can do things when he has the puck, but when he doesn’t have it...forget it.”
Some scouts wondering about his commitment to conditioning as he appeared to gain weight as the season progressed. “Usually a player will drop a few pounds during the season..and if they don’t it’s because they added some muscle. “That’s not the case with Strome. It will be important for him to show up in decent shape at the Combine.” There are scouts who now vow that they wouldn’t take Strome in the top two rounds, yet for some there is still the wonder on whether he might be able to piece it all together. “I think he’ll go in the 40’s, he’s pretty smart,” said one scout. “If the skating ever comes you’ll have a player.”
Brock Otten – OHL Prospects:
”Strome takes a bit of a tumble in my final rankings, falling outside of my top 10. The reason for that is two fold. I think Strome struggled a bit down the stretch, in the playoffs and at the U18's, and some of the other guys in that range (like Jason Robertson), did a bit more to edge him out. I'm still a believer in his abilities and NHL potential, I just think that he's more of a mid second round pick and not a first rounder. Outside of the fact that his two brothers were high NHL picks (Ryan and Dylan), I think the thing most people talk about with Matthew is his skating. It's not great, but it's definitely improved since he started in the OHL. While his top end speed may not have improved, his overall agility and balance definitely have IMO. If we're comparing Matthew to his brothers, he's sort of a different breed. He has his brothers' elite vision and playmaking ability, but he plays much more of a North/South power game than either Ryan or Dylan do. This is the part of his game which I really want to see continue to develop. He's at his best when he's physically aggressive, throwing his body around in the corners and driving the net with authority. He can be a tough player to stop then because of how soft his hands are and because of how smart he is. He sees the ice exceptionally well. But this disappears from his game at times and it limits his effectiveness because when he's not aggressive and using his size to slow the game down, his deficiencies in the skating department become evident. This is what happened at the U18's IMO, where he looked a touch behind the play on the bigger ice surface. Even if his skating never becomes an asset, he's smart enough, skilled enough, and big enough to make an impact as a complimentary scoring line option (think of a guy like Justin Williams or RJ Umberger).”
Corey Pronman, ESPN (40th overall):
”This is Part III of the Strome trilogy -- Return of the Strome? Revenge of the Strome? -- but scouts generally aren't as big fans of this installment as they were of Dylan Strome and Ryan Strome. Matthew isn't as good a prospect as his older brothers were at the same age, but he's still a noteworthy prospect. He's a little more of a pure goal scorer and less of a playmaker than his brothers, but the latter part of his game is more than competent. He's got above-average stick skills and can make plays to his teammates at a high level. The OHL coaches polled called him the second-smartest player in that league's Eastern Conference. I like his power game a lot, too. He's very strong for a player his age and he uses his big frame well to win pucks and maintain possession. Strome's major issue is his skating. He's very sluggish out of the gates and struggles to put OHL defenders on their heels.”
Kauhean luottavainen en kaverin NHL-tulevaisuutta kohtaan ole, vaan tältä vaadittaisiin melkoista täyskäännöstä kohti ammattiurheilijan elämää, jonka myötä voisi saada liikettään ja muutakin fysiikkaansa parannettua. Tätä haastateltiin siinä draft-lähetyksen lomassa ja oli kyllä melkoinen pullaposki, jolta löytyy varmasti ylimääräistä löysää kropastaan, mikä pitäisi jatkossa saada jalostettua lihakseksi. Lisäksi nuorimman Stromen pitäisi entistä voimakkaammin siirtyä kovaa duunia paiskivaksi ja riittävän nöyrästi pelaavaksi voimalaituriksi, nykyisen semitaiturin ja selänsuoristelijan sijaan, jollaisena ei tule aurinkoisia päiviä näkemään. Mikäli toivottavia muutoksia sattuisi tapahtumaan, niin sitten nuo vahvuudetkin pääsisivät paremmin esiin ja tästä voisi jotain tullakin, mutta hieman skeptinen pitää olla. Pallo on kuitenkin Stromen nurkassa ja oli top100 ulkopuolelle pudottuaan ehdottomasti katsomisen arvoinen kortti. Toivottavasti tämä neloskierroksella valahtaminen hieman herättelisi, ettei kaikki nyt aivan ilmaiseksi tulekkaan.