I often wondered what Scouts look for in a prospect, especially this time of year. I decided to go the horse's mouth and ask expert Russ Cohen. As we get ready for the draft, the Scouts are earning their paycheques. Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Russ Cohen.
All scouts look for different things. They all have a numeric system to apply to attributes like speed, as an example. They file the reports electronically after games. Some teams look for toughness, some are hard to play against. some speed, some playing the right way. Sometimes a scout can look at a player a few times and know his team has to get that player and then the rest of the visits is about confirmation before he recommends that player. Scouts' jobs depend on getting at least two players in every draft. Hopefully, they play 100-200 NHL games. You can't build a team through free agency in the cap world. Scouts are careful to use phrases like "generational talent". When the talent pool compresses as players move up that's when things either click or many times go sideways. Amateur scouting is vital to a team's future success.
I'm Russ Cohen. My website is www.sportsology.com. My Twitter handle is @Sportsology. It's there I push the other outlets I work for. The first draft that I covered was in 2001 and I've been covering everyone ever since then.
I want to thank Russ for his time; he is a great Twitter follower and a wealth of knowledge. I highly recommend following him. He will make it worth your while.
See my full mock draft here.
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