Vanier is not hard to miss on the ice; he was the biggest player on the ice this year in the
Quebec Midget AAA league and there’s still room to grow and add strength to his frame. His
older brother Alexis played in the QMJHL and was a draft pick of the San Jose Sharks in 2014,
playing in the ECHL last season. Zachary played this season with the Riverains, finishing the
season with 9 points in 40 games. He has the size that attracts attention from scouts and
coaches right away. Vanier has a long reach and this can be useful to him, but he will need to
use it more often to defend one-on-one and in his zone. He can play a physical game, but that
too was rather inconsistent this year. He has not yet learned how to play that physical game
without getting into trouble penalty-wise. With his size, he’s also a target for opposing players
who will take runs at him and challenge him. He will need to be ready for that at the next
level. He does some good things on the PK, as he’s a big body in front of the net with a
willingness to block shots. With his long stick, he can also block passing lanes in the slot and in
front of the net. He still needs to get smarter on the PK, and when he does, he’ll be a more
useful player there. Vanier’s play with the puck will need the most work if he wants to play at
the junior level, as his passes lack accuracy and he’s too slow at moving the puck, providing
time for the opposing teams to apply more pressure on him. He’ll need more work with his
skating and footwork, as many times this year he was beaten wide because he couldn’t make
a good pivot and handle the speed off the rushes. He possesses a big slapshot from the point
and will hit the net if he has time to release it, but will need to work on improving his release
to get it on net faster. Vanier is a long-term project; you love the size and raw strength, but he
has a lot of things he’ll need to work on in the next couple of years to reach the QMJHL level.
