2024 T25U25: Cade Webber is #14

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Cade Webber has joined the Leafs organization out of the NCAA . He's 23 and a half, he shoots left, and he's 6'6" or 6'7" depending who you ask. He's also somewhere between 194-210 lbs depending on who you ask as well.

He's got this year and next year left on the Top 25 Under 25, and only one year left on his NHL deal, let's see who he is and what he can do with that time.

Cade Webber	Vitals
Age as of July 1	23.48
Position	LD
Height	6'7"
Weight (lbs)	210
Shoots	L
Draft Year	2019
Draft Number	99

The Player

Drafted by Carolina back in 2019, Webber went to Boston University where counting stats don't need to be brought up because that's not what he does.

As a brand new player to the organization, I tried to absorb as much information about Webber as I could. As someone who doesn't get points, highlights aren't exactly abundant. As a result, I think a lot of writers are all kind of circling around the same talking points about blocking shots and being a big body.

What I was able to find are some of his accolades ancillary to on-ice value.

For one, he set NCAA men's hockey history with 137 blocks in a single season. Blocks are an interesting stat because it's a valuable skill to have, but it's often a worrying sign when players have to do it a lot. It simply means that player is getting shot at a lot and not stopping chances from being made in front of them. When choosing between the puck potentially getting recovered far from the net or close to the net, there's more success when the puck is farther away. That said, teams need players who will block shots when the time is right (PK, late in games, tight playoff games).

The 2023-2024 ECH Sponge of the Year Award goes to Cade Webber of @TerrierHockey for a casual 137 Soaks, which is a new single-season NCAA Hockey record 🏆🧽🐐

Honored to have witnessed history - T's and P's to whoever steps into those gaps next season for the Terriers 🙏

📸:… pic.twitter.com/hFg1EHFrDG
— EVERYTHING COLLEGE HOCKEY (@TeamECH) April 22, 2024

Second, he won the academic achievement award in Hockey East.

Congrats to Cade Webber on being selected as one of the two inaugural recipients of the Hockey East Academic Champion Award, which honors outstanding accomplishments both on the ice and in the classroom!#ProudToBU https://t.co/svpaCXIv9L pic.twitter.com/o5bwjFN2Yh
— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) July 16, 2024

And last, he was distinguished as the best defensive defender in Hockey East. It's hard to tell if this was just a result of his blocked shots or if there was more to the decision.

Never a doubt who was getting this award.

Congrats to Cade Webber on being selected as the Best Defensive Defenseman in Hockey East! pic.twitter.com/4f4Qv4Mdgv
— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) March 13, 2024

Webber's first season with the Marlies is where we'll find out a lot about this player. What I'll be looking for is whether he can keep up in a league where he's not the biggest, strongest, and oldest player. If he can keep up with forwards and stop plays in the corner. If he can be active with his stick in the neutral and defensive zones. And if his decision making allows him to be in position and get the puck up the ice for the other guys to take care of it. I'm not expecting anything on the offensive side. How much of that checklist he can tick off will determine his ceiling, because frankly this player is a black box to me. A player character who hasn't been unlocked yet.

In the meantime, the one more bit of insight I was able to find was his press conference at development camp. His talking points came down to nutrition, needing time in college to figure out what kind of defender he wanted to be, and ending up deciding to have the quiet, simple, error-limited game that's defined as a defensive defenseman.

On the nutrition front, I was quite surprised when EP had his weight at 194 lbs. For someone who's nearly 2 metres tall, that's tiny. But according to the Leafs it's 210. In the video he spoke about learning when to eat, what to cut out, and how to hit the balance between strong and heavy. It's a hard balance to reach when you're a big guy who has to be both mobile and rigid.

I'm very curious to see what kind of defensive defender Webber is. There's a couple ways he could go:

One side is Mikko Kokkonen, or dare I say Chris Tanev. The style of positionally sound, good skating, and good stick-work hockey. As a bigger player, this is a lot of what Ben Danford can do, though Danford has offense to his game.

On the other side, Webber in the press conference mentioned guys like Brandon Carlo and Jani Hakanpää who are tall and good at shoving forwards out of the way. Good stick that maximize their reach are key for guys like this. We saw something like this with Joel Edmundson. Carlo is kind of the peak at this among modern players, Webber mentioned Zdeno Chara as the ultimate player with that skill.

The Votes

As expected with a yet-unlocked player, the voting range was very wide at 15. Brian had Webber at 8, with Zone Entry, Cathy, and myself all having him in our top 10s. On the other side, The Bag and dhammm had Webber in the 20s. Lots of votes in the teens, and that's where he ended up.

Voter	Vote
Cathy	10
Brian	8
Species	13
Adam	16
Hardev	10
dhammm	22
Cameron S	16
Hound Line	14
brysplace	19
Catch-67	17
Sclodiggity	18
shinson93	16
The Bag	23
Zone Entry	9
Weighted Average	15.07
Highest Vote	8
Lowest Vote	23

You may recognize I put Kokkonen ahead, even though he ended up behind in the voting. That's because I know who Kokkonen is, whereas I don't know who Webber is yet. I've seen Kokkonen play a game that can translate to the NHL. I haven't yet with Webber. He could either be great or way out of his depth. I don't think he'll end up being that bad, but there's no way to know yet how good he'll be in pro hockey.

The Opinions

dhammm: I don't think a defenseman with this little offense to his game projects as anything major going forward, but the Leafs saw enough there to trade for him, and whether or not Webber can eke out a career as a 7th defenseman or better at the NHL with his reach and defensive ability relies in part on getting the opportunity that kind of proactive acquisition implies he'll get. See the reverie I fell into when thinking of Mikko Kokkonen.

Sclodiggity: Curious that the Leafs targeted him in a trade (or maybe Carolina called to dump a contract, who knows). He does fit a mould that the Leafs have been targeting lately but there’s just too many gaps in his skill set and little evidence of progress to see him reaching the NHL level. Even as an older college player there’s zero offense. He’s 23 years old with zero pro games.

shinson93: Solidly in my “maybes”. I’m waiting to see something more than a long shot 4th rounder. Size can make up for some mistakes, but I wasn’t seeing a guy that processed the game quick enough.

Cameron S: Webber does things a lot of dmen seem to lack nowadays, he doesn’t light up the scoresheet or make nifty moves. As a purely defensive dman (which the Leafs seem to lack in the pipeline), he can clear the front of the net and block shots.

The Bag: He’s older than Kokkonen by nearly two weeks and he’s never played a pro game. He did not seem to be even accidentally involved in offense with Boston U, but that puts him in the same company as three of their other defenders not named Hutson or Willander.

With Webber I really struggled to separate the player from the GM who acquired him. Maybe he’s more than his height and he can keep up with the NHL game. I do wonder what Treliving saw that the Canes didn’t, though.

Brigstew: The only reason I ranked Webber as high as I did is because I can see him being another Simon Benoit, a guy who is good enough in an important skill (defense) to make the NHL even if he doesn’t have a huge impact outside of it. Once you get to the bottom of the lineup, you’re not looking at guys with fun, offensive flair. You’re looking at guys who are good in other areas of hockey. He fits a role that is valued by NHL teams, and it is a role he can play. I watched Webber play in the NCAA and while he is extremely unexciting, he’s good at what he does. I am more certain of him being able to make the NHL on the backs of that size, skating and defense than I am about any of the myriad prospects I ranked behind him who may be better at offense.

Cathy: I set the guy I voted ninth in my rankings as a king of the fellows I think aren't likely to hit the NHL at all. And then I said: now what? I had my 25 in Victor Johansson and I had to fill in. And I sorted them all out and I just kept not moving Webber down. A player who just defends – and everyone would be guessing about his impact on shots against or quality against, so I'll leave that aside – but just defending in the defensive zone is not quite as valuable as a player who can only shoot the puck. But the difference isn't large. Enough that Nick Robertson got in ahead of Webber.

I'm excited to learn about Webber this season. Until then, what do you think about the player?

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