LeafsOHLRangers98
Registered User
- Jun 13, 2017
- 6,584
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I'm fine with our U.S. scouting. Woll, Bracco, and Greenway are the only guys we've taken under this regime and 2/3 look pretty good so far. Sweden has been amazing. CHL has been okay, and Finland we haven't really taken anybody.Considering where those guys were drafted, it is really not that impressive. I guess compared to the old Leafs regime it is impressive, but this is pretty much just a bunch of guys punching their draft slot weight, plus Boeser and Gaudette doing better than expected.
The Leafs have already revamped their USA scouting, mostly by adding more resources in the area:
Tim Speltz – Head Scout/Northwestern United States Regional Scouting
Scott Bell – Minnesota Regional Scouting
Tony Martino – Chicago Regional Scouting
Noelle Needham – Midwestern United States Regional Scouting
Jim Vesey Sr. – Northeastern United States Regional Scouting
John Kisil – Southern Ontario/Michigan/Ohio Regional Scouting
Plus our Director of Amateur scouting used to be our Director of US scouting, and a great US area scout for us for a long time.
The main difference is the Leafs are probably going to hit areas outside of Ann Arbor a little bit harder these days. Ever since Burke left and the old regime of scouts left, the Leafs have exclusively been targeting the USDP for American prospects. In 2014 they targeted a couple of USHL guys in Piccinich and Joshua, but they would not have to go far out of the way to see either of them play. The USDP plays against USHL teams, and Youngstown (Piccinich's team) is not far away from the OHL stratosphere. Pretty much outside of Ann Arbor, they targeted the US enough to maybe spot a few guys they like every 5 years. These days, that'll probably change.
Scott Bell was the guy responsible for Jake Guentzel I am pretty sure. It was really the only pick out of his region, but that was him. He is pretty highly regarded in Minnesota, and he came here because the Leafs promised him free rein for any team/league in Minnesota. Noelle Needham is a total rookie, but Dubas was highly impressed during a blind interview, and she is apparently going to bridge the rest of the gap between Minnesota and Chicago. East of Chicago is covered by the guys we already had previously, and all are pretty highly regarded in those regions.
Our scouting staff in Russia needs to implode:
Martins Dzierkals
Nikolai Chebykin
Yegor Korshkov
Vladislav Kara
Semyon Kizimov
-Korshkov is the only one that had/had a chance to be an impact player, but he needs to A) get healthy, and B) get to north america if there's any chance of that happening. Russia has been a black hole for us for years, the last impact Russian we drafted was Kulemin and that was 12 years ago now...