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Shawn P. Roarke | NHL.com Senior Writer
Apr 25, 2007, 10:00 AM EDT

Debate about the final rankings of draft-eligible players, released Wednesday by NHL Central Scouting, will rage for the next five weeks until the NHL teams begin making their selections at the Entry Draft in Columbus in late June.

But as passionate and voluminous as that debate will be, it will pale in comparison to the debate has already occurred among the members of Central Scouting’s staff of 10 full-time scouts.

That group convened together in Toronto for a week of meetings earlier in the month to piece together the two North American lists -- skaters and goalies -- released in their final form Wednesday. European scouts, led by head European scout Goran Stubb, produced their own lists of goalies and skaters that were released Wednesday, as well.

Ranking 210 North American skaters -- all of whom have yet to have reached their 18th birthday and, hence, still striving to not only find, but reach, the potential already predicted for them – is a difficult task each year.
This year, the process was made more difficult because there is no player that truly jumps out as being head and shoulders above the rest of the field, like Sidney Crosby was two years ago.

For that reason, E.J. Maguire, the head of Central Scouting, brought up that cold hard fact very early in the proceedings as his charges made themselves comfortable in the Clarence Campbell conference room on the 11th floor of the NHL office building in downtown Toronto.

“Winning the bingo ball prize this year is not like winning the Sidney Crosby year, or to show my age, the Mario Lemieux year,” Maguire says as sunlight pours into the conference room on this Sunday morning.

The floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides of the room provide breathtaking views of both the Toronto waterfront and the CN Tower; but there is little time to enjoy the scenery as the scouts begin a five-day process that will result in the two lists of final rankings.

Each scout takes a place at the horseshoe-shaped configuration of tables, settling in for the first of several long days. Each boots up his own laptop, while making sure the video screen at the front of the room that will chart their collective progress is also visible.

This high-tech setup is a radical change from days not too long ago when scouts showed up with binders full of game reports and players were placed onto a white board and then manually moved up and down the list after a series of hand votes among the scouts.

“Not too long ago, scouts sent in game reports on napkins,” Maguire laughs, adding it wasn’t all that rare for a scrap or two to be misplaced at a crucial time.

While technology has certainly made the execution of a scout’s duties much easier and more organized, the basic mission statement has not changed at all in the 31 years of Central Scouting’s existence.

These scouts, whomever they might be at the time, are entrusted to first find young players that have the skills to succeed in the NHL and then rank, to the best of their ability, those players in regards to likely delivering on their untapped potential as the players move through the professional ranks.

“We’re out to predict the best players that are going to be playing and producing in the NHL within, say, five years,” Maguire reminds everyone in attendance.

So, that means more than raw production must go into the equation the scouts will try to solve in the course of the upcoming week of work. Sure statistics are important; but these men must also make decisions about each player’s mental makeup, continued physical maturation, hockey intelligence, determination and countless other intangibles.

It is difficult work, but work these men take seriously. Each has invested a good portion of this hockey season trudging from remote outpost to remote outpost, familiarizing themselves with surefire prospects and identifying potential new additions the ever-changing list that maturates throughout the year. Most top prospects have been viewed live upwards of 30 times during the season. Game reports from each and every viewing for every player can be referenced at a moment’s notice thank to the computer technology at the scout’s disposal these days.

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