Best Scouting Department in the NHL

[Goatlender]

Tough to say because this exercise assumes NHL franchises always stick to their scouts' boards...Tim Murray overruling Buffalo's scouts when picking Alex Nylander is a good example of getting sabotaged by a shitty GM.

Hextall overruling his scouts to pick Patrick over Makar is my favourite example of this. Ooooooof

Side note - there are two different scouting departments. Professional scouts (acquiring NHL and AHL players) and amateur scouts (drafting and acquiring prospects).

 

[Brodeur]

HOwever, they SUCK with 1st and 2nd rounders, seemingly no clue how to develop blue chip talent. Churn out well-rounded NHLers? Absolutely. Churn out anyone who can hit the broadside of a barn with a puck? Well...and this seems to historically be on the GM. Would love to see what Yanetti and co could do in another environment but there's a reason they've been here so long.

I was about to bring up some old Kings stories as an example between the thin line between looking smart and looking not so smart.

Kings hired Dean Lombardi a couple months before the 2006 Draft. He didn't have any particular input on prospects, but overall he inherited a team that had a lot of young forwards and nobody on defense. In the first round he let the scouts draft Jonathan Bernier and Trevor Lewis. Then in the 2nd round, the scouts wanted to draft Milan Lucic but Lombardi stepped in and told them to take a D instead. They'd take a guy named Joe Ryan who didn't pan out.

In 2008, they were planning on taking Viktor Tikhonov at #32. Phoenix traded up to #28 to take him. Kings then went with Slava Voynov.

In 2009, the scouts implored Lombardi to trade up from #35 to get Ryan O'Reilly but Lombardi was dead set on Kyle Clifford.

In 2012, they were targeting Connor Hellebuyck at #151 but he got taken by Winnipeg at #130.

 

[Brodeur]

Hextall overruling his scouts to pick Patrick over Makar is my favourite example of this. Ooooooof

Apparently Bobby Clarke misremembered and it was Heiskanen that the scouts wanted. Or at least that's what I recall Elliotte Friedman relaying after he asked another scout who was in the room.

 

[PistolPete]

I think for a team like Dallas, the question may be more, how much of it is development rather than scouting prior to the draft.

But that then leads to another question, are they scouting guys they think are teachable?

Very solid point.

That teachable element is very vital.

When I hear coaches, scouts, Gms etc rave about a player or prospect that is indeed one of the things they bring up- how coachable he is.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Very solid point.

That teachable element is very vital.

When I hear coaches, scouts, Gms etc rave about a player or prospect that is indeed one of the things they bring up- how coachable he is.

From the perspective of a Detroit fan, scouting and development is pretty fascinating. Simply because we seem to do really well with Euros and really awful with North Americans. We pretty much have a pipeline pumping out talent in the SHL, but North America is very hit or miss.

 

[Captain97]

My immediate thought was Dallas

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

yep. For example I would say Florida's amateur scouting is solid, but I wouldn't have them in the top 5 league wide in that regard.

but their pro scouting is absolutely top notch. Almost certainly the best in the business right now. The number of guys that they've taken absolute flyers on that have turned out to be home runs in recent years is crazy. Bennett for example was looked at as a massive disappointment bordering on being a bust when he was traded to the Panthers, now he's potentially the biggest UFA C target league-wide since Tavares went to Toronto in UFA.

Florida's amateur scouting being solid is still overestimating things, imho. The best player they've drafted in the last decade is Lundell, and they haven't drafted many players that have played more than 100 games in the NHL.

 

[lawrence]

Deserving significant credit for constructing their teams through the draft are the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes. Their success is extremely impressive.