Jake Uberti – Niagara IceDogs – Player Profile

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 185 Pounds

Date of birth: March 7, 2002

Hometown: Toronto, Ontario

Position: Center

Shoots: Right

OHL Draft: Round 4, 72 overall, 2018 Priority Selection

NHL Central Scouting Rankings

Jake Uberti played his Minor Midget AAA during the 2017-2018 season with the Mississauga Reps of the GTHL. In 33 games, Uberti scored 11 goals and assisted on 20. He scores 1 goal in 5 games for the Reps at the OHL Cup, but he had a superb OHL Gold Cup while representing Team GTHL Blue, scoring 4 goals to go along with 5 helpers in 4 games.

The IceDogs selected Uberti with the 72^nd overall pick at the 2018 OHL Priority Selection.

During his rookie OHL season, Uberti played in 59 games scoring twice and assisting on 7 goals. He went pointless in 8 playoff contests.

During this shortened season, Uberti scored 17 goals and 16 assists in 57 games.

Much like I wrote about Logan Morrison of the Hamilton Bulldogs, the lack of upper class draft eligible players in Niagara didn’t bring a lot of NHL Scouts into the building so Uberti could suffer from not having a lot of eyes on him. Not to mention that the IceDogs were the second worst team in the OHL getting blown out on many occasions. So, who could really blame scouts looking elsewhere?

Things began to fall apart when netminder Tucker Tynan was lost for the season due to injury. And then the trading of Akil Thomas and Phil Tomasino was the straw that broke the camels back. But after the January 9, 2020 trades that sent Thomas to Peterborough and Tomasino to Oshawa, the door became open for Uberti to step up in a more offensive role and he did just that scoring 7 goals and 8 assists in 21 games pushing his points per game up from .50 to .71 points per game.

Still, it’s difficult to get a true read on the 6’1”, 185-pound native of Toronto, Ontario. Uberti has good size and has a willingness to drive to the net. He can be difficult to knock off of his feet, is solid enough at maintaining possession and wins most of his battles. He’s got a decent amount of speed with an ability to gain the zone with possession.

Uberti also plays a solid 200-foot game, although that could be hard to notice on a team that was, for a lack of a better term, a mess defensively. It’s also difficult to get a read on his vision and playmaking skills. Uberti is capable of driving the play for himself, but I don’t think he utilized his teammates at a level that one could judge those abilities. And that may be because the talent around him wasn’t that high.

There are definitely parts of his game that scouts will like. The question is, how much upside is there?