Jean-Luc Foudy – Windsor Spitfires – Player Profile

Height: ‘6

Weight: 176 Pounds

Date of birth: May 13, 2002

Hometown: Scarborough, Ontario

Position: Center

Shoots: Right

OHL Draft: Round 1, 10^th overall, 2018 Priority Selection

NHL Central Scouting Rankings

Jean-Luc Foudy of the Windsor Spitfires and younger Brother of Liam Foudy (18^th overall pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2018) is a graduate of the Toronto Titans Minor Midget AAA system. During the 2017-2018 season, Foudy registered 25 goals and 35 assists in 52 contests for the Titans.

Foudy also appeared in both the OHL Cup (and the OHL Gold Cup, scoring 2 goals and 5 assists in 10 combined games. He would represent Canada on two occasions; first during the 2018-2019 season at the World Hockey Challenge Under-17 (1 goal and 3 assists in 5 contests) and second, at last summer’s Hlinka-Gretzky Cup (2 goals, 2 assists in 5 games).

OHL Central Scouting had this to say in his OHL draft year:

Jean-Luc is a skilled, playmaking type of center that makes everyone around him better. He has elusive speed that catches defenders off guard at times He is quick to jump into holes for loose pucks and wins the majority of races to pucks. He is crafty with the puck and can stickhandle in very tight areas. Jean-Luc is one of the smarter players in the age group He is always in the right spot at the right time and the puck seems to follow him around the ice.

The 2018-2019 season was Foudy’s rookie year in the OHL and things were looking bright. He appeared in 63 games, scoring 8 goals and assisting on 41 others. His 41 assists led all rookies a season ago.

Foudy comes from a sports family. As mentioned, he is the younger brother of Liam who was a star with the London Knights and got a taste of the National Hockey League this season with the Blue Jackets. His father Sean was a defensive back in the Canadian Football League for 6 seasons. His mother, France Gareau was an Olympic Athlete at the 1984 Los Angeles games. She competed in the 100-meter race and won a silver medal in the 4 X 100-meter relay. She also competed at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

As Foudy came up through the ranks, the general consensus was that he had all the tools his older brother exhibited and, in some cases, then some. But his numbers for the 2019-2020 season are a bit disappointing. He appeared in 59 games during the cancelled regular season and, while he virtually doubled his goal production to 15 from a year ago, his helpers took a nose dive down to 28.

Foudy is an elite skater with elite speed, maybe the best in the draft class. He is a puck possession beast at top speed. He is capable of exiting his zone with possession and speed and going on the attack. He gains the zone with alarming speed and it puts defenders on their heels. However, we think he plays on the outside more then we’d like to see. He has the vision and playmaking abilities to make plays from there and we think that at times, his linemates can’t keep up to his abilities. At the same time, he has shown the ability to take pucks into high danger zones, although the willingness doesn’t appear to always be there.

Foudy is dangerous on the powerplay, especially with the extra space on the ice. The tools are all there to run the powerplay from anywhere in the offensive zone. He’s a huge minute eating pivot who could log the full two minutes on the powerplay if need be. He also takes advantage of the extra ice on the penalty kill. He finds those open areas and gets to them as quick as anyone and he can fly up the ice making him a threat on the PK.

Certainly, all the tools are there for a first-round pick at the NHL Draft. And I think the general consensus was that Foudy was a legitimate first round candidate. The cancellation of the regular season and the uncertainty of the playoffs may have hurt his chances of proving he is worthy of that. All things considered, we here at OHLW think that it’s more likely Foudy is an early second round option.