NHL Draft profiles: Offensive defenseman Mews 'likes to make plays'

This is the 18th story in a series of player profiles from the NHL's Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y., focusing on potential second-round picks for the Penguins at 44th and 46th overall.

LAS VEGAS -- If a team wants to come away from the draft here in Las Vegas with a skilled, offensive defenseman, Henry Mews might be just the guy.

Mews, 18, is a 6 foot, 189-pound right-handed defenseman from Ottawa, playing for his hometown Ottawa 67's in the OHL. He told me at the NHL's Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y. earlier this month that he "likes to make plays over the ice. I use my smarts, my skating really well, and I make those around me better. I put my teammates into good positions with the puck, and I think I'm the smartest player on the ice every time I'm on the ice."

It's not just that Mews puts up a lot of points for a defenseman, he puts up a lot of points, period. He finished No. 2 on the 67's in scoring this season with 15 goals and 46 assists in 68 games, trailing only Blue Jackets center prospect Luca Pinelli, and carrying a nine-point lead over the player with the next-most points: Cooper Foster, a forward who was the Penguins' 2023 sixth-round pick. Those 46 assists were good enough to tie for 25th in the OHL overall and rank eighth among defensemen.

Mews' 61 points in his second OHL season almost doubled his production as a rookie in 2022-23, when he picked up 12 goals and 19 assists in 55 games. That's an increase in three goals and 27 assists, something he gave a lot of credit to his teammates for making happen ... but also acknowledging that it's the natural progression for him.

"We had a few NHL draft picks on our team, and it doesn't happen without them," Mews said. "But I mean, I'm an offensive-minded player, right? So, that's my thing. That's going to be my thing moving forward as a pro player, NHL."

Mews' offensive talents make sense -- he was a forward for some time growing up. While he looks up mostly to defensemen like Adam Fox and Brandon Montour today, he grew up watching a lot of Erik Karlsson on his hometown Senators and wanted to play defense like him. He started as a defenseman, then was moved to forward for a few years by his coach -- his father Harry Mews, a former forward out of Northeastern University who went on to play three professional seasons for the AHL's Baltimore Skipjacks and ECHL's Hampton Roads Admirals. Mews went back to defense in 2021-22, his last season before being drafted into the OHL with Ottawa.

"I like quarterbacking the play," Mews said of his interest in getting back on the blue line. "I like seeing the ice and using my vision really well. I like being the anchor back there, and I like just starting the plays from my behind my net. And I like being offensive minded as well. So, I like to do it all."

Two things he'd like to do a little more of moving forward are improving his defensive game and his decision-making in his playmaking.

"I'm a player who likes to make plays all over the ice," Mews explained. "And, you know, those sometimes lead to mistakes. So just simplifying my game more defensively and making plays and stuff. So that's all stuff I can work on too, which is great. I'm excited for it moving forward."

The website Elite Prospects has a consolidated ranking list, which takes rankings from a number of major ranking services and averages them out. The consolidated ranking has Mews at 45th overall, smack between where the Penguins pick at 44th and 46th. Within that, though, the different ranking services vary wildly on Mews, which isn't uncommon for players out of the first round. He's ranked as high as 24th (Draft Prospects Hockey) down to 60th (Recruit Scouting), with 38th (Daily Faceoff), 42nd (Dobber Prospects), 48th (Bob McKenzie) and 53rd (Elite Prospects) in between.

Mews told me he met with 20 teams at the combine earlier this month, and that the Penguins were one of them. He called that meeting a "good talk with (Kyle) Dubas, really good," and mentioned the film review of his own plays that many other prospects who met with the Penguins also mentioned.

The Penguins need defense prospects. They need right-handed defense prospects. And they need skilled prospects. Mews checks the boxes. His need to improve defensively and with his decision-making might make him more of a high-risk prospect -- if he can't put those pieces together, it will be exploited more at the professional level. But if he does put those pieces together, he's a pick that could end up being a high reward, too.