Film Room: Alexander Command's special motor makes him a potential NHL play-driver

In this year's class of Europeans, Alexander Command stands out as the skater whose stock has arguably risen the most this season.

While our team had already identified the Swedish centre as a promising talent in September and graded him as a potential second-to-third round pick on our preliminary watch list, it seemed like a highly optimistic take at the time.

By that point, Command had only appeared in three international games in his career, notably having not been included on Sweden's Hlinka Gretzky Cup roster. In October, NHL Central Scouting listed him as a potential late-round candidate on their preliminary watch list.

Fast forward six months, and Command has turned into one of the top centres of his draft class. He led the entire Swedish U20 league among draft-eligible talent with 44 points in 30 games, quickly establishing himself as the key driver on the highest-scoring team in the league.

Starting from November, he climbed into a sizeable role with Sweden's U18 team, too. Finishing his international season at a point per game pace, it was Command who logged the highest minutes among Swedish forwards in the final match at the U18s, serving as the team's No. 1 centre for the majority of the event.

Now standing as a clear-cut first-round candidate, Command's play style and strengths make him highly projectable to the professional game.

The breakdown

While having plenty of other strengths, it's Command's competitiveness and motor that is the biggest separation factor when he's compared to his contemporaries — very few bring so much intensity on such a consistent basis.

Don't let the 6-foot-and-a-half frame fool you: we're talking about one of the most physically engaged prospects in the draft.

To be more specific, Command's functional physical skills are among the very best in the class.

He knows how to leverage contact to his advantage in all situations, whether he's looking to create space for himself along the walls, retrieve loose pucks, win battles, break up plays on top of the defensive blue line, or establish body positioning in the net-front.

With his dogged mentality, he's consistently able to overcome size disadvantages, outworking and out-leveraging bigger opponents off pucks. He has many of the higher-level details down to a tee, like how he uses his off-arm to push away opponents. And when he gains possession, he's incredibly hard to trap, managing to withstand pressure and force his way through checks as very few in the class can. 

Some of Command's physical prowess is more subtle, much of it less so. He throws his body around fearlessly, whether along the boards or in open ice. The U18s became the perfect showcase for this, as he ran over multiple opponents seemingly in every game.

These are the qualities that make the Swedish centre one of the most consistent play-drivers in the draft class, allowing him to — pun very much intended — command the game.

He battles down low in the defensive end to win the puck, makes an outlet pass, then immediately sprints up the middle to offer a give-and-go option. If the puck gets dumped in instead, you can bet he's going all out to retrieve it, then deal with the pressure and establish a cycle.

All of this forms the base of Command's projection. Even without a massive frame, our team is highly confident that his dogged style, motor, and physicality are going to translate extremely well to professional hockey. He's going to win the majority of his battles, offer reliable support to his defencemen, extend possessions, and drive results in transition.

It also notably helps to raise Command's floor. During this season, there were games when he wasn't firing on all cylinders offensively, but still found ways to make himself impactful — this is going to be the case going forward, too.

Speaking of offence, you don't lead the Swedish U20 league in scoring among U18-aged talent without notable creation ability. And at his best, Command was able to show legitimate dual-threat upside.

As a playmaker, the Swedish centre flashed deceptive and manipulative dimensions across the season. Off the cycle, he'd combine his physical prowess with his vision, moving through contact along the walls before dishing pucks to teammates on the inside. Off the rush, he'd change lanes and shift defenders, then find trailers or connect with teammates striking towards the backdoor.

When he's in the zone, there's a notable creative streak to Command's play. Across our viewings, he's lobbed pucks over defencemen into space to create breakaway chances and kicked pucks to trailing teammates. He makes a lot of plays from his backhand, too, displaying plenty of finesse through delicate saucers and skilled slip feeds.

On the power play, Command was part of the most notorious unit in the entire U20 league. With regular season and playoffs combined, he scored 13 power play goals in total, adding eight primary assists on top of it.

The dual-threat potential was at its highest when Command manned the left flank. He'd circle up high, then try to receive a pass in motion from the point before stepping into space, either trying to pick a corner or use the threat of the shot to open up a cross-slot lane to fellow draft-eligible Niklas Aaram-Olsen.

Across the season, Command showed shooting prowess with his catch-and-release wrister, being skilled enough to release these from either of his legs. His release ranks among the quicker ones in this year's European class, too, helping him to occasionally surprise goalies from longer ranges.

While Command's shot grades as an above-average tool on our scale, it's his play away from the puck around the slot that was the main culprit behind a lot of his goals this season, and is likely going to play an even bigger role as he moves further up the ranks.

Through his very good instincts and awareness, Command is able to play off his teammates and reliably find open pockets around scoring locations. Around the net-front, his physical skills come into play once again, as he regularly sneaks through and outmuscles opponents to be in a prime position for rebounds and deflections. His snappy release also proved to be effective when he was moved to play the bumper role on the power play during the latter part of the season.

While the elite motor helps to compensate, Command's skating is arguably the weakest tool in his arsenal.

Employing a somewhat heavy stride and lacking textbook mechanics, he's far from a straight-line burner and can have trouble finding separation, even if his contact skills often help him to still stay on the puck and deal with back pressure. Becoming more explosive through his first few steps could go a long way in him becoming an even more dominant all-around presence around the ice.

Command also doesn't bring as much dynamic skill to the table as some of his peers, who we're ranking in a similar range. He's capable of high highs as a handler, but the consistency of his puck control wavered somewhat across our viewings. While his production remained strong the whole season, his offensive impact — particularly as a playmaker — seemed to take a step back in the second half of the season, even if he closed out on a stronger note at the U18s.

Combined with the 6-foot-and-a-half frame, becoming a true top-six NHL centre would be a huge overachievement from Command, something the team that drafts him shouldn't expect from him.

On the other hand, as we've touched on throughout this article, Command's floor is a high one. Between his work rate, physicality, play-driving ability, and versatility, he has the kind of skill set that will only go up in value in the professional game — he plays the game in a way coaches will adore.

At the very least, there's a good chance Command turns into a strong bottom-six NHL centre. While he wasn't regularly utilized on the penalty kill this season and could further improve his awareness in his own end in certain situations, he should have the intelligence and competitiveness to sculpt his game in a more defensively-focused direction if needed.

And if everything breaks right, Command could develop into a middle-six centre who brings consistent secondary scoring, facilitates others, and drives positive results on both ends of the ice.

There aren't many centres available in this year's class who can match that kind of projection.