Former C.B. hockey players turn to scouting
SYDNEY — There comes a point in every hockey player's life when they realize it's time to move on from the competitive side of the game and for Stuart MacRae that moment came in 2018.
The Coxheath product had been playing senior hockey in Newfoundland, but the commitment was too much, especially while he was starting a young family.
The now 38-year-old MacRae didn't want to leave the game entirely so he reached out to the then Cape Breton Screaming Eagles about the possibility of scouting for the team.
“I didn't want to get too involved into coaching at the higher level because it takes up a lot of time and there's a fair amount of travel,” said MacRae. “I thought scouting would be a good way to stay involved while getting out to the rinks and watching some good hockey.”
The Eagles didn't disappoint.
The team welcomed MacRae to its scouting staff in August 2018 and tasked him with the assignment of evaluating Nova Scotia talent.
“The people you meet in hockey are always great and it's something I thought I'd miss when I stepped award from the game,” said MacRae.
“Scouting allows me to keep in touch with former players and former teammates who may work for other organizations, so along with watching hockey you're also bumping into people you haven't seen for a while.”
Like many others, MacRae went through the scouting process as a player. He was taken in the fourth-round, No. 60 overall, by the Quebec Remparts at the 1998 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Entry Draft.
The centreman played 41 games with the Remparts during the 1999-2000 season before joining the Eagles via trade for the remaining 28 games of the season.
MacRae went on to play two-and-a-half seasons with the Eagles, serving as the club's captain in 2002-03, before being traded later that season to the Halifax Mooseheads to begin what's known as the classic “boomerang trade” between the Nova Scotia rivals.
He went on to play four seasons with the St. Francis Xavier X-Men and later spent time between the ECHL and Central Hockey League. He spent four years overseas — three with the Cardiff Devils and one with Odense Bulldogs — before playing in Newfoundland.
MacRae considers himself fortunate to have landed a scouting position with his hometown team.
“It's pretty similar to when I played with the team,” said MacRae. “You have a little bit extra pride because it's your hometown team and you want them to do well — it's definitely a cool factor.
“A lot of scouts have moved around from team-to-team over the years, and that's great, but to scout for a team you played for and one in your hometown it makes it a bit more special.”
One of the players MacRae scouted who was eventually picked by the Eagles was forward Connor Trenholm. The Cole Harbour product was a third-round pick in 2019.
“I had watched him all season and he was a player that everyone was pretty high on,” said MacRae.
“I think he's a good example of why it's important to go to the games. He wasn't putting up huge numbers in under-18 — he might have been picked a little bit ahead of where he was ranked by central scouting — but that's why you go to the games and get a good feel for the player and what they can do and he's proving it.”
BACK IN MOOSE COUNTRY
MacRae isn't the only former Cape Breton QMJHL player who's currently scouting at the major junior level.
Brad Cuzner of Glace Bay joined the Halifax Mooseheads as a Nova Scotia scout prior to the start of the 202021 season. Like MacRae, Cuzner reached out to teams offering his service.
The 29-year-old used his connections including Claude Aucoin, the person who scouted him while at Notre Dame for the Eagles in 2009, and current Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme.
“Claude got me in touch with the Val-d'Or Foreurs, so I kind of started with them before the season started,” said Cuzner. “I was in talks with Drummondville and Halifax — with help from Dom — as well and the Mooseheads told me they had a spot for me if I wanted to help them.”
Cuzner, a shifty forward, was drafted by Cape Breton in the fourth-round of the 2009 QMJHL Entry Draft. He played two seasons with the
team, before being placed on waivers in August 2011.
He was claimed off waivers by Halifax and went on to play one full season with the team in 2011-12, before making the move to Antigonish to play for the X-Men.
Along with scouting last season, Cuzner coached the Sydney Mitsubishi Rush of the Nova Scotia Under-18 Major Hockey League, getting a first-hand look at the province's talent from the bench.
“It's not as much just about how the player is, it's about the person and what they bring to the dressing room too,” said Cuzner of the scouting process. “It's been interesting to learn that side of the game and how in-depth teams and scouts go as to finding out as much as they can about players.”
Along with general manager Cam Russell, Cuzner is also working under Allie MacDonald, a longtime Atlantic scout and currently an assistant general manager with the Mooseheads.
“These guys are professionals and Cam's one of the best general managers in the league in my opinion with what he's been able to do with the organization over the last 10 years,” said Cuzner, the son of former Cape Breton MP Rodger Cuzner.
“Allie's great. He's all full of business and he's been great to me. I've known Allie for a long time and my father's good friends with him.”
BACKING QUEBEC
Former Eagle Nick MacNeil is also working as a scout in the QMJHL. He joined the Quebec Remparts organization as a Nova Scotia scout prior to the start of the 2020-21 season.
“The assistant general manager, Chris Veremette, called me in September and asked if I was interested in being their Nova Scotia scout,” said MacNeil, the current head coach of the Cape Breton West Islanders Under-18 major team.
“Being on the Islanders' bench this season definitely helped ... seeing the players.”
The Creginish product was drafted by Cape Breton in the fifth-round, No. 79 overall, at the 2005 QMJHL Entry Draft.
MacNeil, 32, played his entire major junior career with the Eagles, serving as the club's captain in 2009-10. He had 99 goals and 181 points in 254 games in Sydney.
He later played four years with the University of New Brunswick before spending three full seasons in the ECHL between Bakersfield and Norfolk.
MacNeil has been the head coach of the Islanders for the past three seasons.
The 2021 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Entry Draft will take place on Friday and Saturday virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.