Riley Piercey – Flint Firebirds – Player Profile

Height: 6’3”

Weight: 200 Pounds

Date of birth: March 20, 2002

Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario

Position: Wing

Shoots: Left

OHL Draft: Round 1, 16^th overall, 2018 Priority Selection by the Barrie Colts

NHL Central Scouting Rankings

Riley Piercey played his Minor Midget AAA hockey with the Toronto Marlboros during the 2017-2018 season. He scored 26 goals and 30 assists while skating in 59 games. Piercey went on to add 4 goals and an assist in 6 games with the Marlboros at the OHL Cup. He also scored one for Team GTHL Red at the OHL Gold Cup as they went on to capture silver.

The Barrie Colts would select Piercey with the 16^th overall pick at the 2018 OHL Priority Selection. Here’s what OHL Central Scouting had to say prior to the draft:

Riley is a big power forward that is very hard to play against as he is constantly moving and takes the body every chance that he has. He is a powerful skater that when at full speed is very quick. He is a player that makes the simple, effective play the majority of the times. He has a good shot which he gets off quickly. Riley plays hard in all three zones and rarely takes any short cuts. He is the type of player that coaches like to have on the bench because he can play up and down a lineup.

During his OHL rookie season, Piercey appeared in 60 games for the Colts scoring 3 goals and 11 assists. He also represented Canada with Team White at the World Hockey Challenge Under-17 going pointless in 5 games.

Piercey began this season with the Colts and in 35 games had 9 goals and 4 assists which was kind of disappointing. But on January 7, 2020 the Colts sent Piercey along with Tyler Tucker to the Firebirds for Evan Vierling and draft picks.

The trade was kind of a breakout for Piercey as he went on to score 8 goals and 13 assists in 27 games prior to the season being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more then doubling his points-per-game from .37 to .78 points-per-game.

The trade started to draw some attention to Piercey. While we here at OHL Writers had him as a potential 7^th round pick coming into the season, NHL Central Scouting left him off their pre-season watch list, their November list and their mid-term list. It wasn’t until their final list that they had Piercey ranked – 129^th among North American Skaters.

Piercey is a big bodied forward who can play both sides. He’s not afraid to use his size to play the physical game. He also uses that frame extremely well to win battles down low and along the walls. Technically, he skates extremely well, has some excellent edgework and is difficult to knock off of the puck and once he gains possession, he is willing to drive directly to the net. He doesn’t possess top end speed, but for a player his size navigates the ice well. We would like to see some improvement in his speed.

Once Piercey arrived in Flint, we saw that he had some vision and playmaking skills. However, using those assets consistently has been an issue. When he produces offensively, they come in bunches and he can go multiple games without producing.

When you’re not producing, you have to bring other elements to the game and we believe Piercey is capable of that. The physicality, energy, the willingness to stand in front of the net to provide a screen and a solid defensive game is there. We believe he has a good shot with a good release however, at under 2 shots per game, he doesn’t utilize it enough.

Piercey is still raw and has some potential. He will be worth a late round pick in hopes that he can find some consistency and continue to develop.