Scouting in the world of pro sports and scouting the right players can sometimes make or break a team, and knowing how to look for the right players, or scouts for that matter is what’s at stake as well.
Heavy stuff…
But vital to finding the right players and keeping the talent pool on the rise.
That’s why I don’t want to see many players like John Scott who was all the rage at this year’s all-star
game in Nashville. Scott is a great enforcer for the minors, but other than that his skills are less than desirable for a lot of minor pro teams, or NHL teams for that matter.
But let us keep to what we’re talking about, the importance of scouting in today’s NHL.
In the NHL, a player’s ability to make quick decisions that result in positive results including goals, or just being able to move the puck up the ice well can make scouting an important element of a players rise up the NHL chart.
Why Skating Ability Is A Skill That Overlooked By NHL Scouts:
Skating is a skill that is overlooked by many scouts for skills like puck handling, play making and goal scoring and physical ability to take or give hits.
Great ability or inability to skate and keep up to opposition players, and players on your own team can get you a low or high scout rating, along with not being able to see how opposition players are setting up their players for possible turnovers of the puck.
But an NHL scout needs to see that a player is improving in these areas and never gives up on the ice, working out and making inroads to become a better communicator, with coaches, trainers and other players.
That way a scout can keep these types of players on the back burner if they improve in the OHL, AHL or college hockey.
What a lot of NHL scouts are doing that’s detrimental to the quality of players coming into the NHL; are thinking that they have to get the best players when they’re really young playing minor hockey, there by owning the rights to these players. Most players at the top of the NHL Food Chain—so to speak usually fizzle out and either strictly play minor pro hockey, go into other career paths ultimately.
At most a top NHL prospect becomes trade bait going from team to team at most.
This is why scouts in the NHL need to know how to hone in on what a player is capable of doing skill wise—talk to other coaches they had through the years, not just their current coaches, to get a handle of on-ice skills and how these players are with friends, family and if they have goals they are striving for besides being a pro hockey player.
99% of scouts won’t be able to find a Connor McDavid who plays for the Edmonton Oilers now, or a Sidney Crosby for that matter. But what scouting in the NHL has done is systemize it so there is a rating system for players, and can be pulled up anytime through software to take a look at how a player is doing currently, instead of ‘wingin it.’
One of the best training systems for potential NHL scouts is through Sports Management Worldwide. Their scouting and general manager course can teach scouts how to identify not just the best players in the NHL, but players who normally don’t get scouted and would be well suited to becoming a strong NHL candidate, or a career minor pro hockey player. The scout and GM course will also give you the ability to run a hockey organization from ticket sales to selling team merchandise, setting up hockey events, and dealing with other GM’s and scouts in the business of the NHL.
The importance of being an NHL scout is even more prudent in today’s NHL to scouting the right players to improve the quality of the players, and prevent the watering-down of the game.
Total commitment to becoming a great NHL can be fun too to discover players off the beaten path, and enjoy the great game of NHL hockey.