– July 28th, 2019 –

As we described in the past inside our publications, having a very limited staff offers some advantages and we are very pleased with the results we have achieved along our first three seasons in terms of rankings and accuracy of profiles. However, a very limited staff requires tremendous commitment and exposes to the impact of unexpected personal issues. That’s something that made impossible for us to publish the 2019 Draft Guide on time, and a release too close to the draft inevitably hurts the appreciation of the overall product, no matter how good it is.

This is the main reason why, for the first time, this Summer we are going to actively look for a couple of scouts to add to our staff.

Trying not to waste anyone’s time, here we make an effort to clarify who should (or shouldn’t) apply and how.

The premise is that whoever joins, it would be to scout ‘with us’, not for us. Which also means, if you want to be super active on twitter, publicly sharing notes on prospects, you’re probably not a good fit. Imagine being a scout for an NHL team, this would be the same with our ‘team’, which means you would be expected not to give away relevant info on undrafted prospects.
We’re looking for someone who can attend/watch games to share/discuss scouting notes and rankings within our staff, not outside of it (that of course does not mean you can’t run a hockey related twitter account and build/keep a follow). Hopefully, scouting with us would not only help improving our coverage but also your scouting abilities, allowing you to grow together with us and get recognition.

If you are interested in the ‘scouting for an (unfortunately fake) NHL team’ concept, you should keep reading.

The other obvious needs are:
– passion for scouting hockey junior players
– time to commit to it to some extent
– ability to communicate in English
– ‘talent’ for scouting

Clearly, the last point is the controversial one.

The most practical way for us to figure out if you could fit in with our evaluations is taking a look at rankings of yours.
Thus, anyone interested should send us a ranking of prospects he is familiar with. We don’t want you to include players you’re not familiar with just to submit a more complete ranking. The purpose is not getting complete rankings, but seeing how you rank prospects you know well enough.

Here are some specifics to follow.

Lists obviously are supposed to rank prospects with reference to their future NHL success (not to who is the best player right now). Keep rankings only to prospects who have been playing in Europe. They can pertain to the 2019, the 2020 or the 2021 draft class. You can send more than one list, or just one if that’s what you got. To be able to judge a list, ideally it should include at least 6 or 7 players.

In any case, make clear who exactly you are ranking: best prospects in Europe for the 2020 draft? Prospects based in Finland eligible for the 2021 draft? Prospects only from the Southern Swedish teams?

How wide the scope of your scouting was up to this day is not the relevant thing for us right now. If we think someone did a great job at ranking only 8 prospects off four relevant teams in his area, that would get our interest more than someone we feel did so-so on a Europe-wide much bigger ranking.

You should also point out if there are players that should be included in such list that you are not ranking because you couldn’t’ get a good read on them.

Furthermore, if you feel you’re ranking a prospect higher or lower than most, you’re more than welcome to add the reasons (i.e. what you like, or what you don’t like).
Consensus usually doesn’t match well with our rankings, especially far away from the drafts, so don’t be afraid to send unconventional rankings if that’s how you feel. We are not putting your list up against consensus and we appreciate opinions that don’t just follow the hype. In fact, something that the last entry draft showed once again is that we can scout independently and without following the hype. It went from the Moritz Seider case to draftees like Daniil Savunov, Eric Hjorth, Kirill Tyutyaev and Timur Ibragimov, all ranked and profiled in our draft guide while probably not covered or even mentioned anywhere else.

If you’re based in a traditional hockey country, like Finland, Sweden etc that could be a plus, but we are not going to discard someone only because he is not based in a traditional hockey market.

During the month of August we will try to get back to those who we feel sent the most promising rankings. Also, some rankings could age better than others, so we might as well get back to some applicants later on.

We are looking forward to taking a look at your lists and comments. We are not putting a time limit on this and it will take a while (and discussions with the applicants) before making decisions, but the sooner you send your rankings the better. You would always have the chance to send an updated version next month after the Hlinka if you feel so, it would only help. If you send your lists after the Hlinka, make sure to take that tournament into consideration in your rankings.

You can send your rankings through our website CONTACT FORM.

Please include “RANKING” in your email subject, briefly introduce yourself at the beginning of your message and specify the scope of your ranking.

Feel free to contact us before sending your ranking if you need any clarifications.