I never said scouts were lazy...nor did I suggest they were only interested in the top teams. I think you and I may agree about the goalies on Vaughan. I still bet one of these goalies gets drafted, though.
What I said is that a goalie on a top team has more visibility. It's just the nature of being on a good team. It can also work against a goalie by having scouts repeatedly see that they don't face as many shots or grade-A scoring chances. How does a scout assess what they don't see? Do you go to practices where they'll face some great shots from their own team? That would be good! I've never seen one scout at ours and we have a top prospect. I'm not even sure if that's a thing scouts do? If I were scouting...that would be something at the top of my list. I'd want to see these kid in a practice element. Lots to be seen there...work ethic, character, compete level, etc.
i sat out that year and a few others after, but we had a year where all we did was watch practice, looking at the results it was the worst draft in recent memory.
i guess i get confused as to why being on a middle back team all of a sudden means the goalie gets less attention. ive been on scouting teams where we were happy the player wasnt in the playoffs or the ohl cup, wed seen enough, we didnt want anyone else to clue on in how good the player was. i look at a team like vaughan over the years (im from windsor so i dont have the best feel for the top long term organizations), but they have a ton of good goalies and generally are in the 4-6 range of the gthl standings. very good, but not a top ohl cup team. usually the bottom team at the ohl cup bracket they are in.
so how is it that they can be drafted off of non top teams and be successful if its all about top teams? the best two gthl goalies in the last bit, george and ivankovic, where on lesser teams. i cant remember the last jrc goalie that made the ohl? parents confuse things, scouts will see every team in every situation in their loop, its too long of a season not too. we miss guys, but the u18 draft and lack of ncaa commits from ontario recently show we dont miss that much. there are virtually no ncaa ontario goalies these days.
if your a goalie on a top team doesnt mean your as good as others, and if you look at it, it generally means the opposite. scouts dont go to tournament finals, they dont really worry about tournament mvps etc. goalies on top teams are always at some point tested, against another top team in the loop, a tournament, etc. and in those instances you see what you need to see, the compete level, the talent, if they can overcome a lack of size or are they 5'8 playing like they are 6'2.
hockey, and scouting is a bit weird, ive been doing it for 30 years, id never have the confidence to go up to someone else who has been in a profession over 30 years and tell them that i know how to do their job or pick apart their job like i was an expert, but it happens with scouting and hockey all the time. i was in the trades before retiring, imagine someone coming to me with little experience and telling me everything ive been doing is wrong. imagine me going to someone in lets say wealth management and telling them they are doing it all wrong. its bizarre to me.
