Ottawa Senators 2024 Top 25 Under 25, #10: Stephen Halliday

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Two years after being drafted 104th overall in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, Stephen Halliday has broken into the Top 10 of our Top 25 Under 25, moving up 12 spots from last year. Seeing as how the 6'3 center went from 41 points in 40 games with Ohio State University last season, to 36 in 38 this past season, it may be difficult at first to see why. Which really tells anyone who's seen him play that NCAA production can be pretty unreliable as an indicator of progress.

There's a lot more age variance in college hockey than in the CHL. You've got 18-year-old freshmen and 23-year-old graduates playing in the same game, along with some even older players that spent an extra year or two in the USHL. These players along with multiple NHL prospects leaving the program can result in a much weaker team in the following season, which will impact individual performance.

Exhibit A: The Buckeyes. In 2022-23, Halliday was one of nine skaters with at least 0.5 PPG, and had two teammates with at least 0.8. The following season, he was the only forward to be above 0.7 PPG, and only three other players reached the 0.5 mark. Even though his development appeared to stagnate just by looking at points, the added context of his teammates shows that isn't the case.

Aside from finishing in the top half of Division I teams in PP%, the Buckeyes struggled offensively, ranking 46th out of 64 in goals per game, and last in the Big 10 conference. In order to avoid being massacred in the Big 10 tournament, someone would need to step up as the Wolverine to Halliday's Deadpool. This ended up being the case, and the Buckeyes made history as a result. With Logan Terness posting a spectacular .965 save percentage across Games 1 and 3, Ohio State became the first seventh-seeded team to advance in the Big 10 tournament, taking down second-seed Wisconsin in a best-of-three series. Shoutout to fellow Ohio Sens prospect Theo Wallberg for saving a goal at the 0:30 mark of the following recap:

They also came close to beating Michigan State in a single-elimination game in the following round, losing 2-1, with Halliday totaling 3 assists across 4 tournament games to end his college career.

A playmaker first and foremost, Halliday was all about sharing the wealth among his teammates. With OSU, he never had a dedicated trigger man to truly take advantage of his passing – this past season he himself was second on the Buckeyes in goals behind defenseman Scooter Brickey.

Perhaps it's the contrast in teammate quality that led to Halliday becoming the Belleville Senators' best player upon joining them down the stretch. It's easy for an AHL team to acquire high-end talent compared to college clubs, and with a capable veteran in Garret Pilon on his wing, Halliday put up 9 points in 7 AHL playoff games – including an assist on the series-winning goal against the Toronto Marlies. Though I'd be hesitant to call that a primary assist because of that rebound...yikes!

It's tough to compare Halliday's production within his draft class since he's two years older than most of them. One thing we can do, however, is humble the rest of the league by looking at his production in the context of the 2020 draft. He was first eligible to be drafted that year and went unselected, so how much has his stock improved since then?

To compare prospects in different leagues, many scouting sources use NHL equivalency values (or NHLe), using past trends to project how points compare from any given league to the NHL. The calculator I'm using, provided by Dobber Sports, uses the following equivalencies, among others:

• 1 AHL point = 0.49 NHL points
• 1 SHL point = 0.60 NHL points
• 1 Big 10 point = 0.33 NHL points

As it turns out the only forwards drafted after the first round in 2020 that project ahead of Halliday's 14 points in 17 AHL games (regular season + playoffs) are J.J. Peterka (34th overall), Sam Colangelo (36th overall), Luke Evangelista (42nd overall), Danill Guschin (76th overall), and Roby Järventie (33rd overall). Had a team selected him in the later rounds, he'd be considered one of the best value picks in the 2020 draft.

Looking back at Ary's in-depth review of the class of 2022, a lack of pace in his game and a heavy skating stride were likely the two main reasons he went undrafted in two consecutive years, but scouts (McKeen's Brock Otten in particular) have noticed improvements as early as his final year in the USHL. Mitch Brown from Elite Prospects had him pegged as a dominant playmaker from the start while also noting his affinity for generating offensive zone entries, which is encouraging since I always thought of Halliday as being at his best when he's cycling the puck on offense, as opposed to moving between zones.

If there's something else to improve on, he's probably already keen to it. He watches a ton of hockey when he's not on the ice, not just for the sake of his development, but out of his love for the game. He's been creating and posting highlight reels on Instagram since 2017, and has studied many successful NHL draftees – particularly Drake Batherson and every one of his goals. Like Halliday, Batherson was a fourth-round pick after being passed on in a prior draft, and it doesn't hurt to look at how players in similar situations found success in the NHL.

Halliday seemed to improve at a breakneck pace in the AHL, and credits head coach David Bell with helping him figure out smaller details and rounding out his overall game. Bell also highlighted Halliday's progression from his first AHL game, citing his faceoff prowess, defensive zone coverage, and increased success in stick battles, all of which he's added on top of his main draw – his ability to find teammates in high-danger areas off sustained offensive zone pressure.

Looking ahead, Halliday is one of several candidates for an open spot on Ottawa's fourth line in 2024-25, along with Zack Ostapchuk and Jan Jenik, with Adam Gaudette and Matthew Highmore, veteran acquaintances of Ottawa head coach Travis Green, having an outside shot as well.

Selfishly, Halliday's the one I want to see the most, but he's also the one with the highest ceiling offensively, so it might be better for his development to have a full season on an AHL top line under his belt. If he's taking another page out of Batherson's playbook, that's the way to go.