I can think of no quote better-suited to describe my analysis of Fargo Force forward Tristan Broz in his draft-year than the one that Mike Milligan delivered as the hit series Fargo's antagonist. “Sometimes the answer is so obvious you can’t see it because you’re looking too hard.”

Through the months spent evaluating players for the 2021 NHL Draft, Broz represented one of the consistently entrenched first-round prospects for Elite Prospects, before he eventually landed at the 31st spot in time for our final ranking in the draft guide. 

The ranking may have been consistent, but Broz's play wasn't. It continued to evolve with each game, a fact captured perfectly in our game reports in the draft guide. His progression was like that of the Icy-Hot back patch -- cold at first, and then he caught fire.

The question we had to answer as part of this evaluation was what changed? Did Broz's game really progress when one compares the first half of his season to the back half? Did elements of his game become more translatable? Was it a sampling issue on our part? Let's find out.