CENTENNIALS: Scoring leader Pierro-Zabotel the focus of NHL attention

Merritt Centennials forward Casey Pierro-Zabotel may score one point for every pro scout who comes to watch him play this season. And that’s impressive on both counts.

An estimated 25 NHL teams were represented on Thursday and Sunday when Pierro-Zabotel, the BCHL’s top point producer, led the Centennials against the Salmon Arm SilverBacks, a squad that includes highly-regarded forward prospects Ben Winnett and Riley Nash.

And Red Line Report, a well known scouting website that likes to focus on major junior and Europe, is currently listing Pierro-Zabotel as a rising stock for next summer’s NHL entry draft.

“He just scores,” said one NHL scout, who wished to remain anonymous. “He knows where to go and how to score.
 
“He’s so big and so strong and so smart, he can almost look like a pro at times right now.”

Another NHL scout added: “He really understands the game. He positions himself so well.”

Pierro-Zabotel, 17, has 20 goals and 24 assists in a mere 18 games. To put that in perspective, he had 20 goals and 35 assists in 60 games last season.
His 44 points right now have him on pace for 147 by season’s end. That’s a far cry from the league record of 188, set by Brett Hull, then with the Penticton Knights, in 1983-84, but it’s a pole vault from the 116 that his then-Merritt-teammate Brandon Wong tallied to lead the league last season, or the 100 that Williams Lake TimberWolves star Les Reaney counted to cop the scoring crown in 2004-05.
  
“The more experience helps,” Pierro-Zabotel, a 6-foot-2, 208-pound native of Kamloops explained of his success this season, his third with Merritt. “The changes in the game help, too. There are more power plays and there’s more ice out there for me.

 “I definitely did learn a lot from Wong, with how smart he is on the ice. A scoring title would mean a lot to me, and it would be really good for the franchise.”

One thing that might hinder Pierro-Zabotel’s bid for a scoring title is that he’ll play at the inaugural World Junior A challenge in Yorkton and Humboldt, Sask., in early November and miss a handful of Centennials games. One thing that won’t seem to hurt him is pressure, as he doesn’t seem fazed at all by what’s going on.

“Yeah, I kind of pay attention to the scouts,” he said. “I know that there has been a lot of them at our last two games against Salmon Arm. It’s fine.”

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