Letourneau’s start to his sophomore NCAA campaign is going much more to plan than his rookie season, as he is currently performing at a point-per-game clip in 14 games after an abysmal zero goals and three assists in 36 games a year ago.

The hype was high for Letourneau in his draft year, fresh off a Herculean 61 goal, 66 assist, and 127 points season in the Triple AAA ranks for St Andrew’s College. The numbers, in a vacuum, are staggering; however, they came in Triple-A. However, they were the highest point totals in that league in more than 20 years and the 18th-highest all-time. So what do we have with the massive 6-7 forward?

Letourneau was selected 25th overall by Boston.

He is using his huge, 6-7, 228-pound frame on both Boston College’s power play and penalty kill, seeing two minutes with the man advantage a night and just under a minute on the kill. Letourneau will benefit from exposure to both special teams units, allowing him to hone his skills and develop on both sides of the puck.

He has been shooting from all over the ice this season and has scored the majority of his goals in close, using his size advantage to overpower defensive coverage. What is intriguing to see is that he has put the puck in based on his positioning and ability to claim a dangerous place on the ice, but also has roofed the puck over a frozen goaltender, shown patience to out-wait a desperate goalie, and sniped through coverage off of a faceoff. Letourneau’s confidence is apparent this season as well, as he emphatically celebrates his goals.

Managers who took him high on the draft year hype should breathe a sigh of relief as he looks far different than the three assist player he was last year. What we can glean is that there will be growing pains, as there are for every large player developing, and perhaps we should ensure we are not locking up a farm slot on our rosters in shallower leagues until we are more certain. He still appears worth a hold in deeper leagues, as his frame alone will help propel him to the NHL as long as his skill can keep up. He’s shooting nearly four pucks on net per game, and only throwing a hit and a half, which feels surprising for someone his size.

As he continues his collegiate career and moves toward professional hockey, it will be natural for Letourneau to lean into a two-way, defensive role on a team. Still, it is too early to pencil in his role- or deployment- at the bigger stages. For now, let’s enjoy watching him develop into a pretty unique hockey player.

His first NCAA season certainly cooled the jets of fantasy managers who sorted the draft class by height or otherwise took him in their fantasy drafts. His 36-game rookie campaign saw him provide zero goals and three assists, with six penalty minutes- not the type of season we’d have hoped to see.

Keep in mind, Letourneau only just turned 19 in February, and has a lot of runway ahead of him before he gets into professional hockey. Larger players, let alone the size he is, famously take a long time to hit their stride, and Letourneau has plenty of time ahead of him to show us if he will hit the expectations of settling in as a decent two-way, middle-six centreman in time.

Letourneau is a simple, puck controlling center with just enough soft skill in his passing and shot to be a threat of his own. The PHC has been a bit disingenuous to his offensive upside, but there’s still reason to believe there’s a good offensive player here. Letourneau has a great understanding of positioning his body in transition to protect the puck and is able to find lanes other’s can’t by just muscling people. I am a little concerned he’s reliant on his size as Letourneau doesn’t seem to have an answer to strong defenders who plant their feet and challenge him head on. I don’t know if he’s a reliable puck carrier at higher levels either, due to his very floaty stride, Letourneau may find himself struggling against backcheckers in the future and he doesn’t yet have the mobility to react and get himself second chances like others his size do. Letourneau’s strength comes from playing simple, mistake-free hockey, and at his size that’s enough to warrant a tangible NHL future; I’d just bet it’s in a more limited role. To play the comparison game, I see a lot of Nick Bjugstad in Letourneau. I imagine for Dean to see success, he will need to take a lot of the same cues in his development. David Saad