Reply To: Player Traits – What do you look for when choosing a player?

Watch Ontario prospect's stick magic: Athanasiou wields the kind of skills that’ll make Tiger keep his wedge in the bag.

Luke Fox, Sportsnet.ca, February 2, 2012

The Wikipedia entry on Andreas Athanasiou is two sentences long. Web surfers can learn that Athanasiou is a Canadian ice hockey player, and that the 17-year-old Ontario kid currently plays centre for the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights. That’s it.

Which is fine, because words wouldn’t quite be able to capture what the 6’2” Athanasiou can do with the puck anyway. At the Canadian Hockey League’s Top Prospects Game, the Team Orr hopeful showed off his playful puck trickery to NHL.com cameras.

A butter-handed mix of juggling, hacky sack, lacrosse and hockey, Athanasiou's moves make him the most coveted skills competition prospect of his generation.

Game-wise, he’s not too shabby either. The teenager has 16 goals and 22 assists in 44 games played for London this season, and has improved his -11 plus-minus last year to a +14.

Watch Athanasiou flex the kind of skills that’ll make Tiger Woods keep his wedge in the bag.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/juniors/2012/02/02/athanasiou_hands/

Bonus vintage footage: Athanasiou shows off a few trick shootout shots at the NHL R&D camp in Toronto on Aug. 18. He does not wear a Superman cape. (via Puck Daddy)