You mean the higher level executives who are taking into account what their professional scouting staff is telling them?
The former player thing is way over-blown as a negative. Yes, like a lot of other industries, it absolutely helps to have connections. That being said, most guys who go into management after their playing careers don't get those jobs without showing some aptitude for the business side of things. The ones who become scouts likely showed some understanding of talent evaluation as players. Diminishing hires because they used to be players is like automatically saying that a retail manager's only qualifications for the job are simply "used to work the counter." Yeah, no **** they have a leg-up, but that doesn't necessarily imply they aren't qualified. Plenty of people do get promoted to the level of their incompetence, but that is equally true of those who are former players and those who are not.
When I said lower-levels, I didn't necessarily mean lower leagues, though you see that at times too. What I mostly meant is lower positions within the NHL organization. Steve Yzerman spent time in advisory capacity with the Red Wings and ran Hockey Canada for a few years before becoming GM of the Lightning. Joe Sakic spent time as an adviser for the Avs before becoming VP of Hockey Ops and then GM. Jim Benning was a scout for 5 years, then headed up an amateur scouting department, was AGM for like 10 years, then became a GM. We've been watching Chris Drury take on different roles and he'll be a GM eventually somewhere.
The point is that players represent the same cross-section of competency as the rest of the population does, but with the benefit of connections and having the experience of being around the day-to-day of teams for years. It's no surprise that so many scouts and front office types are former players and it's no negative.
