Aaron Vickers
FCHockey
Hey FC subscribers looking for the print-format PDF, it should have shown up in your email today. Let me know if it hasn't.
2011 NHL Draft Guides (ISS, McKeen's, RLR, The Hockey News, FC, Hockey Prospect)
- Thread starter Habsfan18
- Start date
I decided to give the Hockeysense.ca draft guide a shot since I have pretty much finished reading all my other guides and since it only costs $5.95. All in all it's a pretty decent draft guide, especially for the price.
The scouting reports for the top 50 guys are each broken down into 7 sections (report card, strengths, weaknesses, skill category, scouting report, NHL potential and NHL comparison) and also include a picture of the player and multi-season stats. The guys outside of the top 50 are broken into two sections (report card and scouting report). The scouting reports vary in size, clearly depending on how much their scouts have seen the players (for example Sean Couturier has a 5 paragraph report while RNH only has one paragraph. In general their reports for QMJHL players are more in depth than all their other reports). It's approx. 120 pages in length.
My biggest complaint is that the guide covers players playing in the CHL so there is no mention of guys like Adam Larsson. This is somewhat understandable as this is Hockeysense's inaugural magazine so they probably simply don't have the budget to hire many scouts, but in order for them to ever be mentioned in the same breath as FC or Hockeyprospect they are going to need to hire scouts around the world.
A few smaller complaints:
-Unfortunately you cannot download the guide, you have to read it online. This may not matter for some people but I personally like to either print my guides or at least be able to use adobe reader instead of some clunky online
-The design, although decent, still needs work. One thing that really stuck out was that in each profile the player's team name was much bigger than the player's actual name. This makes it a bit difficult to find certain players if you are quickly moving from page to page.
-There is no mock draft, despite the fact that it clearly says "mock draft" on the front cover. Apparently they didn't realize the is a difference between rankings and a mock draft.
All in all I'd say this guide is worth a buy, if for no other reason than to support an upstart hockey magazine that appears to have some potential. Just don't expect it to be on the same level as the other guides, it only costs $5.95 after all.
The scouting reports for the top 50 guys are each broken down into 7 sections (report card, strengths, weaknesses, skill category, scouting report, NHL potential and NHL comparison) and also include a picture of the player and multi-season stats. The guys outside of the top 50 are broken into two sections (report card and scouting report). The scouting reports vary in size, clearly depending on how much their scouts have seen the players (for example Sean Couturier has a 5 paragraph report while RNH only has one paragraph. In general their reports for QMJHL players are more in depth than all their other reports). It's approx. 120 pages in length.
My biggest complaint is that the guide covers players playing in the CHL so there is no mention of guys like Adam Larsson. This is somewhat understandable as this is Hockeysense's inaugural magazine so they probably simply don't have the budget to hire many scouts, but in order for them to ever be mentioned in the same breath as FC or Hockeyprospect they are going to need to hire scouts around the world.
A few smaller complaints:
-Unfortunately you cannot download the guide, you have to read it online. This may not matter for some people but I personally like to either print my guides or at least be able to use adobe reader instead of some clunky online
-The design, although decent, still needs work. One thing that really stuck out was that in each profile the player's team name was much bigger than the player's actual name. This makes it a bit difficult to find certain players if you are quickly moving from page to page.
-There is no mock draft, despite the fact that it clearly says "mock draft" on the front cover. Apparently they didn't realize the is a difference between rankings and a mock draft.
All in all I'd say this guide is worth a buy, if for no other reason than to support an upstart hockey magazine that appears to have some potential. Just don't expect it to be on the same level as the other guides, it only costs $5.95 after all.
Thanks for the comments and the feedback Grits! I do apologize for the mock draft part of it. The magazine was downsized because of time constraints and the cover was not updated to reflect that our mock draft is now free to see on our main site.
I do understand that some people like to download the guides, but with anything you can download, it can be easily sent to people instead of them purchasing it.
We do currently only cover the CHL and we do have plans to expand in the future. We currently employ 2 scouts for the WHL, 1 scout for the OHL and 2 scouts for the QMJHL.
All in all, we are just starting out and we know there's still some work to be done and we definitely appreciate you giving us a chance and hope to make our magazines better and better in the future.
Both RLR and ISS give projection and style comparisons. My interpretation is that projection means what RLR is projecting the prospect to be. Eg. 3rd line centre for a good club (doesn't mean he can't be second line centre for an average club - you got to read the scouting report). Style comparison means the prospect's playing style or type of game the prospect plays. Eg. the prospect reminds one of Jamie Benn (there are bound to closer style comparisons and some that are further off).
I do find that the projection and style comparison usually has a close association with each other. But that's just the nature of things. It's hard to compare a prospect's style with that of an NHL player when they have different tools. If you're not close to 6'9" your style just won't remind too many people of Zdeno Chara. I mean I'm sure a lot of players pattern their game after Crosby or some other star player, but if the prospect doesn't have the same tool set the prospect's style is going to be compared to someone else.
What is with FC's website? I click on to purchase the 2011 Draft guide and nothing happens? It flashes to a different page and then dissapears?
Aaron Vickers
FCHockey
Site is done in HTML5, which older browsers aren't capable of handling. Try running an update to your browser. Failing that, I'll snag you a direct link.
EDIT: Try this: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=AQ9LV5W4WPS34
For some reason, I am getting an error message half the time opening that link, and it works the other half. Anyone else with a similar problem?
Yes, I had a similar problem but eventually got through. My bigger problem is not having received the guide.
Aaron Vickers
FCHockey
When did you order it? If you ordered it earlier today you'll see it today. Usually give about 24 hours or so to receive. Typically the wait time is a good chunk shorter than that though.
Also, I have previously PMed you.
McManked
Ooh to be a Gooner
Is it possible to post some of the rankings of the guides, because of the postal strike I won't be getting a guide in time, I would especially like to see the top 30 at least of RLR, and if Mitch Topping made their list?
Aaron Vickers
FCHockey
I know our digital copy and the digital copy from HockeyProspect.com get to an inbox awfully fast!
Eyelanders
Registered User
- Jan 9, 2011
- 422
- 4
I just got my Hockey Prospect today and I can´t say anything else but I like it very much so far. I believe I will buy it next year as well. Keep up the good job!
Does anyone have a template of all these Draft guides combined with Central scouting and bob Mackenzies top 60? Basically a combination by average of all the top 60?
I've got one. It doesn't include Redline or FC, but if you'd like it I can PM it to you
McManked
Ooh to be a Gooner
I brought the FC guide which I've found to be really good and would definitely purchase again next year.
I also purchased the hockey's prospect guide via amazon, but it looks like the courier they used has misplaced it somewhere and it won't get to me before the draft, if it all. Do people rate the digital version, and is it the same content as the hard copy?
I also purchased the hockey's prospect guide via amazon, but it looks like the courier they used has misplaced it somewhere and it won't get to me before the draft, if it all. Do people rate the digital version, and is it the same content as the hard copy?
For those interested, I've created a draft list based on the better guides/sources out there (ISS, CS, RLR, etc) and posted it on a blog I set up(http://eyeonthesens.wordpress.com/). I did the same thing for the (now-defunct) Hockey Herald website last year and it was pretty accurate. Thoughts and comments are always welcome.
Aaron Vickers
FCHockey
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