Colorado Avalanche Top 25 Under 25, #17 Tyler Weiss

The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by members of the Mile High Hockey community. Eight writers and 320 readers ranked players under the age of 25 as of September 1, 2018 in the Colorado Avalanche organization. Each participant used their own metric of current ability and production against future projection to rank each player. Now, we’ll count down each of the 25 players ranked.

Tyler Weiss (pronounced “wees”, like Dale Weise) is a small, speedy winger who still has some growing left in him and was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche in the fourth round in 2018. He is another in a recent string of late-round picks from this past draft making it onto our Top 25 Under 25 rankings.

After two years in the USDP (with a few stints on their junior USHL squad), the 18-year-old as of January will be moving to the University of Nebraska-Omaha for the next four seasons of his development. The last time Nebraska made it to the Frozen Four of the NCAA, it was being led by 2013 third-round pick Jake Guentzal in his second season.

From where Weiss started, a scholarship to a NCAA school for hockey seemed very out of reach. The story of this kid making it as far as he has is incredible and I have linked it below.

From Get to Know Tyler Weiss: “Weiss grew up in North Carolina, a state that has only produced one NHL regular to this point (Patrick O’Sullivan), and quickly emerged as the crown jewel of the state’s quickly-growing hockey community. But along the way, he faced some major adversity, the likes of which have been a huge problem with youth hockey in America but isn’t talked about nearly enough. According to an article in The Athletic written by Sunaya Sapurji, the Weiss family’s finances would not allow Tyler and his older brother Ryan to continue playing hockey into their teenage years, but Ryan willingly gave up the sport to allow Tyler to further his budding career.”

Similar to Sampo Ranta from last week’s T25U25, Weiss has raw talent that can take him very far in his career if coached well, which he will have a chance to do over four seasons at a good NCAA program like Nebraska. In an interview printed by the Carolina News and Observer, Weiss’ USHL coach from this past season — where Weiss admittedly did not play well for — had high praise for his young player:

“His skill level is off the charts,” said Seth Appert, Weiss’ coach with the USA Hockey U-18 team. “He can be a top-two line forward in the NHL with further maturation of his game, when he’s a more complete player.”

In an interview with NHL.com, Weiss gave some really interesting answers, especially surrounding when Colorado drafted him.

When did you know the Avalanche was interested in drafting you?

”I went to the Scouting Combine and had 22 interviews, and I didn’t have any interviews with Colorado. So being picked by Colorado definitely caught me off guard.”