Scouts downsize player searches
Small and speedy an advantage in the new NHL
If
the NHL was receiving any
better reviews for its improved product, Gary Bettman himself would have to write them.
The games are faster, with greater flow, and the skill of hockey’s top players is showing through in a way that hasn’t been seen in 15 years.
The question arises: Do the radical changes in the game mean scouts will be looking for a different type of player in the future? With a premium on skill rather than size? Has the ship come in for special, diminutive players in the mould of Martin St-Louis?
“ You’re asking the right question,” says John Stanton, an amateur scout with the Los Angeles Kings. “ We are looking at that, big time. You still need the big guy, because he’s hard to stop, driving to the net, but he has to be able to skate.”
The impact on the game of the new rules and stricter enforcement of existing calls has been evident in just one week of regular-season play. Remarkably, the changes were making a difference to the scouting trade even before the first puck was dropped for the NHL pre- season.
These are good times for smaller, skilled players. Perhaps better than even they know.
E. J. McGuire, the NHL’s director of central scouting, tells the story of Andrew Cogliano, a slick, 5-9, 178-pound centre who played junior B with the St. Mike’s Buzzers in Toronto the past two seasons.
In McGuire’s words, Cogliano, 18, was considered to be the “stereotypical small, skilled forward.” That status led him to sign a letter of intent with the University of Michigan. He was directed away from the Ontario Hockey League because the conventional wisdom was that he would get killed trying to fight through all those big junior players.
In April, Cogliano was ranked 63rd on the Central Scouting list, which is the guide and standard for NHL clubs trying to compare prospects. A 63rd ranking equates to a third-round selection. Not very high for a kid who scored 102 points in 49 provincial junior games last year. Cogliano’s size was the mitigating factor.
But Cogliano’s status changed in a hurry, even if there were no official changes to the official Central Scouting list after April. In late spring, the NHL’s hockey operations chiefs, Colin Campbell and Mike Murphy, instructed NHL managers that obstruction calls were going to be made after the lockout. NHL organizations got the message, explicitly, that the league was serious this time about making changes to open up the game. A video went out to all teams so they could show their players what was coming.
This sent a ripple through scouting circles, to the point that Cogliano was suddenly being talked about as a potential Paul Kariya. In July, at the entry draft held in Ottawa, the Edmonton Oilers drafted Cogliano in the first round, 25th overall, 38 places higher than he was ranked just three months earlier.
The next time around, a player like Cogliano will automatically be moved up by Central Scouting.
“It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy,” McGuire says, “because we’ll rank this type of player higher and teams will see them ranked higher, which will result in them being drafted higher.
“ And it’s not just the little guys. To use the pejorative, it’s going to help the ‘ scared guys.’ ” Not players who are afraid to go to the net, because that’s still vital, but for fast players who feared taking a lane to the outside, they can now try to make a deke without worrying about getting tackled or hit with a stick. Those type of players might flourish.”
Like most hockey people, McGuire is all for physical hockey battles.
“ Combat,” he says, “ is our game. You have to have battles in the corner and battles in front, but we’re trying to have a definition for the combat. The last time we had a season, a guy would get cross- checked in front of the net three or four times and the call might not get made until the defenceman’s stick breaks on the player.”
Coaches will always try to manipulate the rules in their favour. McGuire knows this. He has coached in the NHL as well as major junior, and U.S. and Canadian college hockey.
McGuire remembers teaching the three- count on the pin hold to break up a team’s offensive cycle. The defender pins the guy who releases the puck, and counts to three before letting him free. Now, pinning the player without the puck will draw a penalty.
Scouts like McGuire and Stanton who spend a lot of time in junior rinks say the junior players and officials are having a much more difficult time than the pros adapting to the changes. It’s still common to see games with 14 or 15 penalties per team. McGuire believes the NHL is going to be instructional in this way. Players watch NHL hockey, and will clearly see what they can and can’t do without drawing a penalty.
The same goes for the old philosophy of scouting — draft them big and try to make a player of them. The day just got brighter for the smaller guy who already is a player.