LD Andong "Misha" Song - Madison Capitols, USHL (2015, 173rd, NYI)

Knave

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Mar 6, 2007
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It's a great business move. And a poor hockey one, that's going to open up more opportunities down the road to create great hockey moves.

I'm honestly surprised that with the growth of hockey in Asian countries (last I checked it was the fastest growing hockey market) that more teams aren't looking to get their foot in the door -- from a business and developmental standpoint it's a very smart play. I'd blow a 6th every time if it opened up those kind of doors.

It could even be a good move from a hockey standpoint. Obviously setting up giant academies, scouting the world and flying kids to Brooklyn doesn't make much sense for NHL teams but if they focused efforts on underdeveloped markets and started kids off with good habits, practice materials and provided good coaches/development... and then followed them, it could be worth it to "blow a 6th" because that 6th might actually become a player.

It's only more recently (relatively speaking) that Europe and Russia have been scouted better by most North American teams so going to China or somewhere else and nurturing talent - you could probably pick up the ones you think have a shot at the NHL in the lower rounds where you're likely going to miss either way.
 

93LEAFS

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Nov 7, 2009
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It's a great business move. And a poor hockey one, that's going to open up more opportunities down the road to create great hockey moves.

I'm honestly surprised that with the growth of hockey in Asian countries (last I checked it was the fastest growing hockey market) that more teams aren't looking to get their foot in the door -- from a business and developmental standpoint it's a very smart play. I'd blow a 6th every time if it opened up those kind of doors.
Except if the kid becomes nothing, it buys 1 day of newspaper stories. I doubt the Islanders gained many fans due to this.
 

93LEAFS

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Hope he has a lot of money. Tuition is high at Cornell.
He was just at one of the elite American bording schools. If his family can afford that, they can afford Cornell. If you can afford Phillips Andover, you can afford the Ivy League. Even if he was on a sports scholarship there, I doubt he was when he started at Lawrenceville School, which as an international student probably cost a fortune.
 

kaiser matias

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Mar 22, 2004
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When I hear "committing" I think of being given an offer/scholarship/grant. Not to stereotype, but i'll bet the kid is on top of his academics. Anyone have additional info?

Ivy League schools don't offer sports scholarships. Though considering he's been studying at a prep school his family probably has the means to afford the tuition.
 

seafoam

Soft Shock
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May 17, 2011
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I always thought there were not athletic scholarships for Ivy league schools.
 

covfefe

Zoltan Poszar's Burner
Feb 5, 2014
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I always thought there were not athletic scholarships for Ivy league schools.

The Ivy league does not offer academic or athletic scholarships. As a result commits are also not bound by National Letters of Intent as is the case in the rest of D1 sports.

What they do have are massive managed endowments and blind financial aid - this means that all candidates for admission (whether athletes or not) are eligible to receive financial aid, depending on their individual financial circumstances. This is not the case across the rest of D1 sports, to my knowledge.

An interesting caveat that results from this is: if you are recruited to play sports and are receiving financial aid, you retain your aid package in case you decide to stop competing. If an athlete decides to quit at Nebraska or someplace, their scholarship is obviously rescinded. It's a far more equitable scenario made possible by the size of these schools' endowment funds
 
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Thebesthockey

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Aug 6, 2013
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it will cost him about 8-12$k per year ( will be granted fanincial aid/grant)
either way has way more chances of making $$$$ in the future vs most all the drafted players in his year just based on education/pedigree
 

SI90

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Jul 25, 2011
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dont think its any real difference vs other players past 200....

I disagree. In one draft there’s a little over 200 players picked. That’s not included I drafted guys who get signed and become players.

5 drafts is over 1,000 players. Most of whom will still be 23 and under. Surly you can have a guy ranked #200 that you can point out to being better than a guy you’d rank 5,6,7 or 800
 

93LEAFS

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Nov 7, 2009
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I disagree. In one draft there’s a little over 200 players picked. That’s not included I drafted guys who get signed and become players.

5 drafts is over 1,000 players. Most of whom will still be 23 and under. Surly you can have a guy ranked #200 that you can point out to being better than a guy you’d rank 5,6,7 or 800
Most NHL teams rank only 100 or so guys on their draft board. Past that, they just classify guys as a no-draft or post draft as a non-prospect. This guy just falls into the not worthy of being ranked category.
 

SI90

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Jul 25, 2011
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Most NHL teams rank only 100 or so guys on their draft board. Past that, they just classify guys as a no-draft or post draft as a non-prospect. This guy just falls into the not worthy of being ranked category.


That’s interesting. I would have thought they would rank I guess the same amount of picks thier are? What if your top 100 players are all picked by the 4th or 5th round? What would you have to go on for the remaining rounds?
I know that’s unlikely but it is possible.
I know once you get past the 2nd and 3rd round scouts rankings vary for each team. I could have a guy ranked in the 3rd round and someone else might have him in the 7th or undrafted.

I’m not saying you’re wrong but I’d like some clarification on that because it seems weird to only put a top100 or so list together for each draft.
 

93LEAFS

Registered User
Nov 7, 2009
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That’s interesting. I would have thought they would rank I guess the same amount of picks thier are? What if your top 100 players are all picked by the 4th or 5th round? What would you have to go on for the remaining rounds?
I know that’s unlikely but it is possible.
I know once you get past the 2nd and 3rd round scouts rankings vary for each team. I could have a guy ranked in the 3rd round and someone else might have him in the 7th or undrafted.

I’m not saying you’re wrong but I’d like some clarification on that because it seems weird to only put a top100 or so list together for each draft.
Teams rarely run out of guys on that list. Its rare teams have the same 100 guys. If they do, they turn to a respected area scout and ask him for a guy he likes from his area who they may not have got enough viewings of (I've heard this is what happened with Datsyuk). Teams don't think there are 212 guys worthy of being drafted that they have enough viewings of. They rank everyone who they think is a legitimate prospect, and that rarely ends up being over 100.

Edit: I'd heard this before from people in the industry, but here it is laid out by New Jersey Devils top scout Paul Castron

Ten Questions with Devils Director of Amateur Scouting Paul Castron

Q: After every game your scouts watch, they file a report on the players involved. When the season is over, about how many reports do you have on each guy?

A: I'd say minimum 20. An area guy alone would have seven to 10, and we have at least two guys in each area. Then you have all the international tournaments. There are four of those a year with at least four games and those are generally all the tops kids available for the draft. So that's even more reports on each player. Then, if someone really likes a guy, I'll go out a see him play more than I had originally planned just to see if the consistency is there and to say, "Oh, OK. I see what you see in him." But even if he has a bad game when I see him, I'm not going against the opinion of my guys who have seen him play five, six, seven games. I trust them to do their job and do it well and will try to go see that kid again if good reports keep coming in on him. But that's why we have a minimum of 20 reports on a guy. You get a more complete picture of what he can do for you that way.

Q: You had your end-of-season amateur scouting meetings in the beginning of May. What happens in those meetings?

A: Basically, we'll start in one area and the scouts from there will take the floor and tell us about the top 20 guys in that area. Then we'll talk about those 20 guys. We won't always agree about the order and that's kind of up to me and Gates to see how strongly one guy pushes for a certain player, and we might make a few changes but we usually go with their order. Sometimes we'll have a discussion and say, "Hey, this guy at 14 is good, but doesn't the guy you have at 20 have a little more upside? Maybe he's only 5'8" and not strong enough right now, but projecting ahead, doesn't he have a stronger chance of making it because of his skill?" Those are the types of discussions we have and if Ray [general manager Ray Shero] or Fitzy [assistant general manager Tom Fitzgerald] or anyone else wants to see video, we just pull it up on the monitor and see clips on a kid. Then once we go through each area we have to try to mesh the lists together. Last year, we ended up with a list of about 100 guys in numerical order and then we'd ask for an extra five or so guys in each area to round out our final list heading into draft weekend.

I'd add, I bet if you took the top 100 from sources that provide them, and went through the draft. They would probably never run out of guys until the 7th round.
 
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