Entry Draft Spotlight: Daniel Bucaro
By Joe Keegan
PLL Analyst
Mar 15, 2021
There are a lot of left-handed attackmen entering into the league this spring. Some slashing midfielders. Some playmaking X attackmen. Some stepdown snipers on the wing.
Daniel Bucaro is all three of those roles rolled into one.
The Georgetown product showed a complete skillset in his pro debut last summer. Bucaro (13G, 2A in 5 games for the Outlaws) primarily played behind the cage but sprinkled in some runs out of the box.
From the high wing, he’s a threat to go top side to his strong hand or down the righty alley. He mixes up his shot placement right-handed on-the-run – some low-and-away tucks, some top-shelf snipes made possible by a subtle shoulder dip.
Bucaro explodes out of his first step. His “alleys” are both between the hashes. Sometimes between the pipes. This shot saw 36 square feet of net when it left Bucaro’s stick.
Bucaro is so explosive from the (very) high wing. A lot of PLL mids miss this runway. I'm curious to see how much time he spends here vs. at X on a 100 yd field. pic.twitter.com/u5KK68644t
— Joe Keegan (@joekeegs) March 15, 2021
He dodges furiously. There are some Kieran McArdle-esque tendencies in the way he attacks the middle of the field so fearlessly yet so under control.
Bucaro's ability to get to the inside draws a lot of attention from defenses. His dodge-to-shoot game will make him a starter; leveraging his own shot creation to set up teammates for stepdowns will make him a star. This skip to the backside pipe is next level.
Daniel Bucaro is a problem on the high wing. Lefty sweep. Righty alley. He can beat you either way—or find the skip to the backside pipe. pic.twitter.com/2HtFPbx2Re
— Joe Keegan (@joekeegs) February 27, 2021
More of this, please! It’ll be interesting to see what defenses throw at Bucaro. Much of that depends on what position he plays. How early do they send help toward him on that high wing if he has a short-stick? Very. He’ll need to see these skips (or hit singles) to keep his offense humming.
Some lefties – Andrew Kew, Shayne Jackson, Mark Matthews, Mark Cockerton – will be vying for similar roles. Bucaro can play almost anywhere in any offense. There’s a chance the Archers take him; his game is different enough from Will Manny’s, Connor Fields’, and Ryan Ambler’s that it just might mesh. If the Archers don’t take Bucaro, he’ll drop to a team that probably has bigger plans for him as a feature attackman.
