Oliver Moore, Minnesota's top NHL draft prospect, ready for his career to take flight

Oliver Moore was always on the go.

At his one-year appointment, the pediatrician asked him if he could walk from line to line. He jumped instead.

When he went to the theater, his family had to drive separately because the movie was too long for him to sit still. He was the one at school asked to sharpen the pencils.

"He just needed to get up," Moore's mom, Shawna, said.

All these years later, Oliver still hasn't slowed down. His quickness on the ice is the trademark of his game and one of the reasons why he shouldn't have to idle too long at the NHL draft in Nashville on Wednesday night: The Mounds View native and Gophers commit is projected to be a first-round pick, possibly a top-15 selection.

"It doesn't really feel real yet that this is all happening," Moore said. "But I'm sure that once hopefully I get drafted it'll feel real. Just excited to get going with that."

Moore started skating when he was 2 years old.

His parents took his older brother, Howie, to an outdoor rink, and Moore said he wanted to skate, too. By 4, he was in organized hockey.

He played other sports, like baseball, lacrosse and soccer, but he stuck with hockey.

Baseball was "too much standing around," Shawna said. "Soccer worked because he was moving, but there was a point in soccer he just wanted to be every position. Hockey you're moving constantly. The perpetual motion, you have to use your hands, you have to use your feet, you have to use your brain.

"There's so much more to it. I think for him he just wanted that constant challenge."

Oliver also ran track in grades six through eight and still holds the one-mile school record at St. John the Baptist in New Brighton, clocking in around 4 minutes, 55 seconds.

Shawna logged 10 marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and the two used to run together. But she never thought Oliver would stay in track.

"Because of the waiting around between events," she said.

Hockey it was.

He played locally growing up and then spent two seasons at Totino-Grace. There, he was "lights-out fast," coach Tim Parkos said; Moore's speed — what else? — was his calling card.

"When he makes a cut in and out, he's explosive through that cut," Parkos said. "A lot of guys have to slow down a little bit to make that cut, and it takes them a stride or two to get up to top speed, or two or three. He seems to be able to do that at top speed and somehow look faster."

Since he was 10 years old, Moore has worked with Katie McDonough, a power skating coach at Cutting Edge Performance Power Skating who was a figure skater.

They trained together for an hour a week at a minimum, and McDonough actually taught Moore the basics of skating as if he were a beginner; he was quick, but he skated like he was running — lifting his knees up as if he were jumping out of his skates.

"He had a really bad hop," explained McDonough. "So, he was losing opportunity to gain ice because he was always going up vertical."

Repetition developed muscle memory and once Moore had the fundamentals down, which fixed that hop, he and McDonough focused on increasing his speed.

Moore believes he can get even faster, but the forward is concentrating on harnessing that velocity.

"I can use it all over the place, like getting out of corners with the puck or defensively closing gaps on players," Moore said, "and also just creating separation between myself and the opponent."

NHL Central Scouting ranked Moore as the eighth-best North American skater, and he has been buzzed about as perhaps the quickest in the 2023 draft class.

"If you were to go next to him on the ice and just listen to his feet hit the ice and how strong and how hard and the sound he makes, it's just different," U.S. national under-18 assistant coach Chad Kolarik said. "It doesn't sound like anybody else."

But Moore's footwork isn't his only strength.

The 5-11, 195-pound center is also a playmaking scorer, finishing with 31 goals and 44 assists for 75 points in 61 games for the U.S. national under-18 team last season.

"He would walk down and beat goalies just straight up," Kolarik said. "He would put it right past them high glove, high blocker, wherever he wanted to put it. His shot is NHL-caliber today."

During the IIHF under-18 men's world championship in April, Moore contributed four goals and five assists in seven games to help the United States nab gold.

The 18-year-old Moore was invited by USA Hockey to the World Junior Summer Showcase, which is an evaluation for the next World Junior Championship. Later this year, he will join a Gophers team coming off a trip to the national championship game.

"When he's on the ice, everybody's better because of it," McDonough said, "and he's not doing anything other than showing up and working hard. He has an energy that he brings that's contagious. All of his peers, they gravitate toward him."

Back when Moore was much younger Shawna had people tell her Moore would be special.

"It's amazing to me," said Shawna, who will be at the draft with Moore along with his dad Brian, sister Lila, Howie and other family members and friends. "But what's more amazing to me is the recognition he's getting for it because I knew that, and I know that about him. But now it's other people seeing it, and here he is."

Moore is closing the chapter that led him to the draft, the culmination of all he's accomplished so far, but he's also at the start of what's next.

So, now isn't the time to stop.

Moore is still moving.

"One step closer with the draft," he said. "But it's kind of where all the work begins. It's going to be nice knowing that hopefully a team calls my name, and I can take that step. But I think it's all about what you do after the draft and the work you put in after to be an NHL player and stay there hopefully one day."