Sandin is a smart well rounded defender with good mobility. He shows good possession skills where he confidently handles the puck and makes strong decisions. He’s a capable puck carrier with good foot-work, its his ability to see the ice and lead transition with an great first pass that allows him to thrive. Rasmus possesses excellent edge work and can effortlessly elude an opponent showing poise and strong foot-work. He does however need to improve his first step as it is one of the more average traits to his game.
Offensively Sandin acts as a distributor in the offensive zone, however he will often utilize his feet to walk the line and open shooting lanes, changing the velocity and angle of his shot appropriately to get pucks on net. He makes good reads away from the puck, showing aggressive pinches to extend zone time when needed and sneaking in from his point position to create offensive opportunities.
Defensively Sandin excels as a stick-on-puck defender, using his mobility and smarts to excel. He keeps strong gaps and is able to keep the play in front of him due to his skating. Rasmus angles the opponent to the outside well and shows deceptive strength in his ability to stand up an opponent and separate player from puck. In the defensive zone he shows an ability to contain.
Sandin is not a huge kid but he’s not shy to battle and play a physical game. Our biggest concern is the amount of hits he sustains while playing the position. We noticed this even more down the stretch.
"He’s one of the smartest draft eligibles in the OHL this year ...great puck mover too.” NHL Scout, November 2017
“He’s a tough one to evaluate, I think a team needs a plan for him if they are going to pull the trigger early in the draft.” NHL Scout, May 2018
“One thing I like is he isn’t afraid. He’ll turnover pucks sometimes when he’s pressured but he’s not soft. The kid will go where he needs to go and he get’s involved.” - NHL Scout May 2018
“My biggest concern is injury. He isn’t big and he really struggles to avoid contact. It’s such an underrated facet for defenseman. “ - NHL Scout, May 2018
“Love his smarts and his puck moving ability, he’s a great player. My only issue is one shared by several scouts I spoke to about Rasmus...he gets hit a lot and he’s not a big player.The old saying...the biggest ability is availability. It’s the only reason I dropped Robby Fabbri slightly back in his draft year, he got hit hard a lot in my viewings and so did Sandin. ” - HP Scout, Mark Edwards
“For development reasons, some NHL teams will be curious as to where he plans to play next season when factoring that into their draft day decision. Feedback I got from some scouts seemed to be a little bit all over the place.” - HP Scout, Mark Edwards
