Colorado Avalanche: Early Season Evaluation and Pressure for Tyson Jost

Tyson Jost’s Abilities

Tyson Jost was the last player who got “picked” by Patrick Roy. That’s significant not because of my noted Roy obsession, but because of what happened in the summer of 2016 — the Colorado Avalanche completely transitioned their style of hockey. They took a left turn at size and became a speedy, puck-moving team.

That transition relates to Jost because he was the first player the team drafted in the new mold. Here is how he was scouted by The Draft Analyst:

"“Jost is a shark, appearing out of nowhere with speed and tenacity to ruin the breakout play a coach worked on for weeks. Once the puck is on his stick is where his artistry comes to the forefront, as he protects it with his head up while travelling at a high rate of speed before shifting down a gear, curling and weaving in and around the offensive zone for as long as he has to.”"

I find it interesting that this professional scout specifically notes Jost’s speed and skating skill. What’s more, the scout describes Jost’s role as a “three-zone center with decent size who will not necessarily avoid physical play, and he’s shown to control the puck while taking a beating.”

That’s the style I’ve seen from Tyson from Day 1. One of the first things I noticed was his forechecking on a team (the 2016-17 Avs) that was not forechecking, or backchecking, or doing anything other than checking out.

Ben Kerr of The Last Word on Sports concurs with the scouting of Jost’s skating ability:

"“Tyson Jost is an excellent skater. He is shifty with good acceleration, agility and edgework…Jost has very good top end speed, and when he does get past a defender he can drive to the front of the net.”"

My favorite scouting report of Jost comes from Ryan Clark of The Athletic:

"“Jost’s highlight tape gives the appearance that he is a smooth-skating, puck-handler with a penchant for frustrating defenses, annoying goaltenders and using the right amount of flair to make it all work.”"

In fact, Clark’s article goes into great depth about Jost with a lot of observations from his UND coach, Brad Berry. Some of the characteristics that Berry observed were his habit of studying fellow centers to gain an advantage over them in the faceoff as well as his play away from the puck — essentially his tenacity. That last is something I’ve always observed in Tyson.

Of course, all of this translates into what Anthrax Jones calls Jost’s “Swiss army knife” of abilities.

How does this translate to Jost’s ceiling, though? Well, I’m going to contrast three videos. The first is Tyson’s highlight reel from his time at NoDak:

Next is a breakaway goal from last season:

And here is Jost’s goal from this season:

You know what I especially notice as a big difference from all those plays in NoDak to his plays here? Confidence. At UND, even as a freshman, Jost is buzzing with the confidence that he can be a difference-maker.

I don’t see that in his two Colorado Avalanche goals. And that has nothing to do with his actual abilities. It has to do with his head space. Here is an area where I think the Avalanche have let Tyson Jost down.