Here's my scouting report on him:
Rossi is a slick, competitive center whose size can fool you. He does not play like he’s only 5’9” and part of that is because of his very strong lower body. Notice how at the end of
this clip Rossi gets shoved by a defenseman from behind who is clearly 3-4” taller than him and he shakes it off like nothing. That’s why I think he won’t have a problem with his size at center in the NHL. He isn’t going to burn you every shift, but he
has some speed in him. He also combines
good edge work with good hands to evade checks (yes, he just skated through three opponents without being touched).
His hands are among the best in this class. He’s a very smart player and can
thread needles and should run a first unit PP at the next level. And if you need Rossi to snipe some goals,
he can do that too. I know this is a cliche, but Rossi is fearless and isn’t afraid to get to the
dirty areas to score. In general, his competitiveness is something that really stood out to me, he’s feisty in his own zone and on the PK which is something I love to see in center prospects. If you haven’t noticed by now, Rossi is who I’m hoping falls to us at 9th overall. I have him as my 4th ranked prospect in this draft but as we all saw last year with Caufield, some teams are scared by shorter players so there’s a chance he’s available for us.