Quoting: NHLfan10506
Just my personal preference. Rinzel is indeed bigger, but I like mobility and calmness. He is great with the puck in own zone, especially under pressure. He was Gophers top dman by end of this last season (Minnesota has been dman factory in recent years). He also played very well at WJC. He should get more attention from prospect evaluators going forward (I feel like many of them just base their lists off draft position).
I don’t want to take anything away from Mateychuk. He is good too. (Ty Smith won WHL dman of year twice in a row)
I agree with all of this.
@squashmaple said earlier that Rinzel is just an average skater, but that is wrong. Rinzel is not just a great skater for his size, but a great skater in general, and he likely only gets better.
A little off subject but for comparison, Rinzel is barely a year older than Levshunov and was also a rookie in the NCAA this past season. So, they were at a very similar point in their development. I can honestly say, as an observer without bias, that I liked Rinzel way more than I liked Levshunov. He's got the poise, compete, skating, size, range, physicality, effectiveness in all zones, tools, everything, to be an effective NHL dman. Also, I had always heard that the NCAA is a superior league to the entire CHL, yet I had no way of making that determination for myself. But, recently, after a few years of watching junior and college religiously, I finally see why people say that and I definitely believe it is true.
He and Mateychuk are completely different players. But, yeah, I also believe people are going to start to take notice of Rinzel very soon if they haven't already. Minnesota has a knack for churning out great dmen. So, if Rinzel takes another big step, he could be in the upper echelon of defensive prospect rankings very soon, if rankings are something that is important to you. Personally, public scout rankings are fun to look at and can be a useful starting point for doing your own scouting, but I like to make my own determinations.