2008 Born for the 2024 OHL Draft

[hockeydad1317]

As a poster that finds the draft thread interesting can you clarify your point on people running teams have no experience in conducting interviews. Do you mean OHL franchises have no experience or someone else? One would hope an OHL franchise has that part covered.

The teams my son has interviewed with have typically asked a lot of the same questions…who do you model your game after, how would you describe your game, what do you need to improve on, if you could bring one teammate with you to the next level who would you bring, who is the best fwd/d/goalie you play against etc. A few teams seem more invested in getting the know the player more personally but I think these teams would also be speaking with the player’s coach, maybe teachers too so they likely get a pretty well rounded view of what they’d be dealing with if they drafted the kid

 

[bobber]

The teams my son has interviewed with have typically asked a lot of the same questions…who do you model your game after, how would you describe your game, what do you need to improve on, if you could bring one teammate with you to the next level who would you bring, who is the best fwd/d/goalie you play against etc. A few teams seem more invested in getting the know the player more personally but I think these teams would also be speaking with the player’s coach, maybe teachers too so they likely get a pretty well rounded view of what they’d be dealing with if they drafted the kid

Interesting! Who is it that does the interviews? Is it the GM , coach or scouts? I guess teams interested in certain players already have a good handle on how each prospect plays the game with a few viewings. One scout said he always watches how a player performs away from the puck. Going by what you described teams need to know how the player gets along with others on a daily basis. More to this draft stuff than meets the eye of OHL fans interested in these prospects. The OHL draft is something to look forward to for most fans of the game. Thanks for your contribution.

 

[MH]

totally fair, once in a while there’s a Jacob Julien pop out of no where, but the u18 draft has shown those guys are truly the exception not the rule. I would worn dads that the ncaa route is a much harder route then the OHL is. 80/100 kids a year are drafted and signed to OHL contracts, way less then that go ncaa a year

To put it in context there are 61 NCAA Div 1 teams. If it's 20 players on a roster (including goalies - they might carry more but 20 play) then that is 1220 roster spots. That is spread across 5 birth years (most play one or two years after high school) so 244 spots per birth year. And they are getting kids from all over North America and Europe. Also note a lot of them are on partial scholarships. NCAA is a great league, it's not junior hockey - it's a men's league - but it's not easy to get a spot. I think a lot of people don't understand how hard it is.

 

[MH]

Interesting! Who is it that does the interviews? Is it the GM , coach or scouts? I guess teams interested in certain players already have a good handle on how each prospect plays the game with a few viewings. One scout said he always watches how a player performs away from the puck. Going by what you described teams need to know how the player gets along with others on a daily basis. More to this draft stuff than meets the eye of OHL fans interested in these prospects. The OHL draft is something to look forward to for most fans of the game. Thanks for your contribution.

It depends on the player. From what I have seen the GM and head scout will interview top guys. Local scouts will interview later round guys. All that the draft is is an invitation to the dance. Some guys will get invited even though they weren't drafted. What matters is what you do once you are at the dance. Sometimes it's better not to be drafted then go in the late rounds. If you aren't drafted you are a free agent and can reach out to teams where you might be a better fit.

 

[hockeydad1317]

Interesting! Who is it that does the interviews? Is it the GM , coach or scouts? I guess teams interested in certain players already have a good handle on how each prospect plays the game with a few viewings. One scout said he always watches how a player performs away from the puck. Going by what you described teams need to know how the player gets along with others on a daily basis. More to this draft stuff than meets the eye of OHL fans interested in these prospects. The OHL draft is something to look forward to for most fans of the game. Thanks for your contribution.

We’ve not had one single scout in the room, it’s been the GM or AGM each time.

 

[MH]

We’ve not had one single scout in the room, it’s been the GM or AGM each time.

Great! I know Regional scouts that do interviews. Guess your kid is a top player.

 

[OHL4Life]

To put it in context there are 61 NCAA Div 1 teams. If it's 20 players on a roster (including goalies - they might carry more but 20 play) then that is 1220 roster spots. That is spread across 5 birth years (most play one or two years after high school) so 244 spots per birth year. And they are getting kids from all over North America and Europe. Also note a lot of them are on partial scholarships. NCAA is a great league, it's not junior hockey - it's a men's league - but it's not easy to get a spot. I think a lot of people don't understand how hard it is.

exactly. lots of dads will say after the kid goes undrafted ‘we’ll just go ncaa’, good luck with that, it’s pretty rare and when it happens your usually paying at least half that scholarship

 

[OHL4Life]

Interesting! Who is it that does the interviews? Is it the GM , coach or scouts? I guess teams interested in certain players already have a good handle on how each prospect plays the game with a few viewings. One scout said he always watches how a player performs away from the puck. Going by what you described teams need to know how the player gets along with others on a daily basis. More to this draft stuff than meets the eye of OHL fans interested in these prospects. The OHL draft is something to look forward to for most fans of the game. Thanks for your contribution.

I’ve been on a staff where the director will interview top kids and kids in other areas that he likes in Feb/March, GM interviews again a week before the draft, just the top kids

 

[dsanchez1973]

As a poster that finds the draft thread interesting can you clarify your point on people running teams have no experience in conducting interviews. Do you mean OHL franchises have no experience or someone else? One would hope an OHL franchise has that part covered.

Generally speaking (as others have clarified) its a GM/AGM or maybe a coach doing the interviews. Those people are all trained for running hockey operations, not how to conduct an interview. For years I did interviews as a manager without much idea what I was doing, and they sucked. Finally got tired of it and did a bunch of research on how to do them properly and it made a world of difference.

I was talking to someone who did OHL player interviews a few years ago; great hockey guy, long playing experience, knew everything there was to know about the game, but he was struggling with interviews because it was the same set of questions and the same set of answers, so it was all just a performance for no benefit 99% of the time.

I started by asking him what he wants to get out of the interview process. The answer (paraphrased) was that he wanted to get to see what the kid's personality was like. My response to him was if you want to see that, you have to get the kid out of his preprogrammed answers by asking questions he doesn't expect and think in advance about what boxes you want the kid to say.

In my interview process, I often like to try to shake the person out of their routine off the top that has nothing to do with hockey; a question like "if there was a movie about your life, which actor would play you and what would the title of the movie be" or "tell me your favorite non hockey related memory" is relatively harmless but is going to surprise the kid. The first thing you get to see is how they handle stress and surprises - are they honest and give it actual thought, do you get a humorous answer, do they give you an answer that they think makes them look good, do they stammer and have trouble coming up with anything? I want to see what this person is *really* like, and to get that, I need to know something they haven't practiced answering.

Rather than then ask a kid a simplistic question like who do you compare your game to, I'd ask more general things. Off the top of my head, questions like:

what do you think the three key skills a hockey player should develop are, followed by which of those three is your biggest strength and which of the three do you need to work on?

tell me about a time when your team suffered adversity and how you responded?

who's the worst coach/teammate you ever had and why didn't it work with them?

 

[bobber]

If a team was looking for some prospects with sandpaper and a bit of jam in their games are there any players coming up in the 2024 draft ? They seem to be few and far between these days.

 

[the dog]

Who are 3 best natural scorers in this year draft?

 

[Krangers08]

Curious to know. How big of a factor does location of the player have on a team selecting them? Does it hold any weight? Ie Erie selecting an Ottawa kid.

 

[mapleleaf979]

*delete

 

[hotchips99]

I keep seeing all these list of top players within 2008 age group but wasn't sure which lists were official.
This one is official.

2024 OHL Draft Tournament Scouting Reports - HockeyProspect.com

Although we won't be producing our OHL Draft Guide in 2024, we still have some scouts attending games. Today we are releasing some tournament reports filed.

hockeyprospect.com

Apparently they will release another list prior to the draft.

 

[OHL4Life]

I keep seeing all these list of top players within 2008 age group but wasn't sure which lists were official.
This one is official.

2024 OHL Draft Tournament Scouting Reports - HockeyProspect.com

Although we won't be producing our OHL Draft Guide in 2024, we still have some scouts attending games. Today we are releasing some tournament reports filed.

hockeyprospect.com

Apparently they will release another list prior to the draft.

sorry, what do you mean official>?

 

[hotchips99]

It's considered the central scouting report. This site is known to provide a list each year. Not sure exactly what they will provide this year due to a shortage of scouts due to covid.

 

[MH]

sorry, what do you mean official>?

These are just paid for scouting lists. Mostly for parents. If you mean a list like NHL Central Scouting I don't think there is one (someone will correct me if I am wrong). The only real lists are the ones the teams make and those do not get released.

It's considered the central scouting report. This site is known to provide a list each year. Not sure exactly what they will provide this year due to a shortage of scouts due to covid.

Just a paid for service calling their list a central report for clicks and sales

 

[hotchips99]

Sorta paid. They will release the list no charge like last year.
I believe you can purchase the "black book" (not sure if it will be provided this year).

 

[OHL4Life]

These are just paid for scouting lists. Mostly for parents. If you mean a list like NHL Central Scouting I don't think there is one (someone will correct me if I am wrong). The only real lists are the ones the teams make and those do not get released.


Just a paid for service calling their list a central report for clicks and sales

im aware, im just seeking clarification on what s/he is asking for. i will say some of these company do a good job, lots of them have scouts hired to staffs from them, so i wouldnt dismiss them right away as poor, but the list quality varies significantly. i still go back to that puck preps list that didnt have belchetz on it, how can that happen and have any kind of accuracy?

 

[OHL4Life]

Sorta paid. They will release the list no charge like last year.
I believe you can purchase the "black book" (not sure if it will be provided this year).

so then why not ask them?

 

[hotchips99]

im aware, im just seeking clarification on what s/he is asking for. i will say some of these company do a good job, lots of them have scouts hired to staffs from them, so i wouldnt dismiss them right away as poor, but the list quality varies significantly. i still go back to that puck preps list that didnt have belchetz on it, how can that happen and have any kind of accuracy?

For not having him on the list tells me they are trying to push other players ahead of him.
For me he should be considered at the very least a top 10 player.

so then why not ask them?

Good question. I'm waiting on a response. I just heard of the site in recent weeks.

 

[OHL4Life]

For not having him on the list tells me they are trying to push other players ahead of him.
For me he should be considered at the very least a top 10 player..

it just means they are not very good at it yet. there's no ulterior motive, the rankings are done by kid.

 

[hockeydad1317]

There is an OHL Central Scouting list from Darrell Woodley and his team that was shared with the OHL teams a few months back. I did not see the list, but understood that they rate 40 players ‘AA’ (likely first 2 round selection) and another 60 kids ‘A’ (likely round 3-5). Don’t believe it’s ever shared publicly though and they don’t rank the players in any particular order

 

[OHL4Life]

There is an OHL Central Scouting list from Darrell Woodley and his team that was shared with the OHL teams a few months back. I did not see the list, but understood that they rate 40 players ‘AA’ (likely first 2 round selection) and another 60 kids ‘A’ (likely round 3-5). Don’t believe it’s ever shared publicly though and they don’t rank the players in any particular order

correct, its not public

 

[nelli27]

correct, its not public

Question for you OHL4Life about "big/tall kids playing midget who put up impressive point totals".

As a scout, how do you judge whether this midget player is dominating offensively because of his size advantage OR whether his skill level is likely to translate to the next level (OHL) too?
Maybe there are some kids who put up big numbers in midget owing to their size, but once they get to the O with more physically mature competition, they are unable to duplicate their midget success.
What are scouts looking for that would suggest a carry over from midget to the O?
Thanks.