Filip Sitar commits to RPI
The talented center will look to rebound with the Engineers
A month and a half ago, RPI picked up a commitment out of the transfer portal from ‘05 center Filip Sitar. He comes over from UConn where he played this season as their 4th line center. Prior to going to UConn, Sitar was committed to Northern Michigan, but he flipped his commitment after their head coach chose to leave for an AHL coaching job. He ended up following one of NMU’s former assistants, who had departed to UConn. Sitar struggled last season with UConn as he only finished with 1 goal, 2 assists, and 3 points in 31 games. However, this is RPI’s most exciting transfer portal pickup in my eyes, and let’s get into why.
Prior to going to UConn, Sitar was considered an NHL draft prospect in Europe. He was ranked by some NHL draft outlets for the 2023 NHL draft, his first year of eligibility. Last year, he broke out even further with 15 goals, 35 assists, and 50 points in only 40 games in J20 Nationell, the top junior league in Sweden. This was good for the 15th most points in the league, and the 10th most among U19 skaters. He also moved up to play 11 professional games in Sweden in the SHL, which is extremely impressive for a young player despite not having any points in a limited role. The SHL is unanimously considered a top 5 professional league in the world, comparable to the AHL and KHL. This excellent year led to Sitar again being ranked as a potential late round NHL draft pick by some outlets, even though he was again not selected.
So what happened at UConn? Why did he struggle as a freshman despite his clear talent? There’s a few different factors that went into it. First, due to his professional games in Sweden, Sitar had to serve a 7 game suspension to begin the season. He didn’t make his debut until November 2nd about a month into the season. Second, when he did finally slot into the lineup, UConn used him as their 4th line center all year. He only averaged about 10 minutes of ice time per game, got zero power play time, and was used as a defensive forward. Third, the adjustment from Europe to North America is tough sometimes on players because the ice is smaller. There’s less time and space and more physicality, and it’s natural that it takes some time to adjust to. This combined with the suspension to put Sitar behind the rest of the team at the beginning. Lastly, when I watched Sitar’s games, he did seem to be unlucky.
Luckily, Sitar was able to balance out his play at UConn with an impressive year internationally for Slovenia. He played for their U20 team at the D1A level and led the entire tournament in scoring with 9 points in 5 games, not an easy feat even though it’s one division below the top level. He also earned an invite to Slovenia’s World Championship team, which is very impressive because very few younger players are invited to play in the IIHF World Championships. Typically, only a limited number top young players get the chance. At this tournament, he got the chance to faceoff against Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon with Team Canada, Juuse Saros with Team Finland, Filip Forsberg and Jonas Brodin with Team Sweden, etc. That’s a great experience for a young player.
Now, onto the scouting report. I watched extensive film to get a good idea of the type of player that RPI is getting in Sitar. I watched 2 UConn games, 1 game with the Slovenia U20 team, 1 game with the Slovenia World Championship team, and 1 game from last year in J20 Nationell. Sitar is a very good two way center with plenty of talent. He’s a good skater with good speed, but that’s not even one of his best assets. He’s pretty skilled and likes to have the puck on his stick to make plays through the neutral zone and in the offensive zone. His best asset is by far his intelligence and IQ. He processes the game extremely quickly and makes fast and smart decisions with the puck to keep it moving. He also has outstanding vision and passing ability, consistently spotting lanes opening up in advance and then putting passes right onto the tape of his teammates for scoring opportunities. He’s quite creative as well with some subtle fakes and moves to manipulate defenders to move one way in order to create space for a passing lane to his teammate. Sitar likes to play both ways too; he’s defensively responsible with a good stick. He is excellent in the faceoff dot and won 56.3% of his faceoffs at UConn.
At UConn, I thought he played pretty well despite his numbers. In his limited time, he was always really good defensively, which was his primary role, but he still created good looks and chances offensively. In one of the games I watched, he hit a post on a good shot, and he was consistently generating pressure in the offensive zone. I noted a couple different occasions where he gave his teammates great passes in the slot for scoring chances that they should have buried, but they didn’t. I think he was unlucky there because he certainly did not look like a player who should have only had 3 points on the year. With Slovenia’s U20 team, he was totally dominant. The puck and play ran through him, which is hard to do as a forward. He totally controlled play when he was out there, and his opponents were unable to strip the puck from him or stop him. On the power play, he was practically unstoppable, setting up multiple goals, and Slovenia’s power play ran through him as the primary puck handler on the flank to set things up. With Slovenia’s World Championship team, he looked overmatched at that level playing against top professional players, which is to be expected for a 19 year old forward.
With his talent, ability to play in all situations, and intelligence, I expect Sitar will play in RPI’s top 6 at center along with Dovar Tinling. Having 2 centers that won more than 54% of their faceoffs and are skilled and smart will bode well for the Engineers being able to generate offensively despite losing a lot of talent due to the coaching change. I’m not too concerned about Sitar’s struggles at UConn because I thought he was playing well despite it, and he will be used in a much more featured role at RPI where his offensive abilities will get more chances to shine. I can’t wait to watch him in the Cherry and White. Congratulations to Filip and his family!