I can concur with those who like the Hockey Prospect Black Book. I've been buying up draft guides for a few years and two years ago Hockey Prospect was kind of still a new kid on the block so I didn't buy their draft guide. Last year, I decided to pick up their draft guide just to see what can possibly be in a book over 200 pages that is sold on amazon.
. I'm glad I did. Could they have done the draft guide in less than 100 pages? I think so, but they wanted to cut into their profit margins by make it into a nicely bounded book with decently-sized text so I'm not going to stop them. You can see sample pages on amazon. The 2012 draft guide appears to be similar in format. The one thing that impressed about their draft guide was the number of prospects covered. I was able to find a short scouting report on prospects that weren't covered by other guides, and even if it was covered by other guides, HP had more to say about the prospect. For obscure or lesser known CHL prospects, Hockey Prospect is the way to go, although they might include a prospect that isn't eligible for this year's draft (last year they included Phil Di Giuseppe).
The Black Book
Fast-forward to this year, I decided to go with the Black Book even though it costs quite a bit more money than their draft guide, which IMO is a steal given the cost of other draft guides, especially if you get the print version. Anyhow, the Black Book is worth the money IMO. The game reports really add to the scouting reports and are a fascinating read. The "quotables/scout's notes" are also a nice touch. What surprised me about the Black Book is that it's quite different from the draft guide (judging from last year's draft guide and the sample pages on amazon). For some reason, even the player's height and weight seem to be listed different in the Black Book as opposed to the Draft Guide (correct me if I'm wrong). While I suspect the Black Book contains a whole lot more "quotables/scout's notes" than in the Draft Guide, the Draft Guide also seem to contain quotables/scout notes that aren't found in the Black Book (correct me if I'm wrong). Additionally, the Draft Guide contains prospect interviews while the Black Book doesn't. Why the difference? I'm guessing HP is really trying to separate the two products. The Black Book is a lot more like a publication aimed for other scouts and NHL teams while the Draft Guide is aimed at us hockey fans. Still, in my mind, I was hoping that the Black Book has everything the Draft Guide contains, at least in terms of scout notes, but I'm just nitpicking here as the relevant parts of the quotables found in the Draft Guide are in the Black Book, only worded differently. For the most part, the Black Book seems to contain everything that the Draft Guide does with a bit more coverage for some prospects (not to mention game reports) and obviously a lot more coverage of 2013 and 2014 draft-eligible prospects.
Overall Impression
Overall, I'm very impressed with the Black Book. I think Hockey Prospect has really put in a lot of work in improving it's product. It's certainly becoming a more polished publication. Content-wise, the Black Book is very competitive with the best draft guides out there. One complaint, and it's understandable, is that HP is much stronger in its CHL scouting than USHL and Europe. Obviously, HP can only write on who they have seen, but it does leave to curious circumstances. For example, the Black Book has nothing on Brian Hart, ranked 95 by HP, and 54 by CSB, but the Black Book has something on Colby Drost, ranked 196 by HP and NR by CSB. This is a serious oversight, and I expect that as resources allow, HP will add to their team of scouts. I know that two years ago, I didn't buy the HP guide because someone wrote that there was a top prospect that was left out of the guide.
Another thing I didn't like is that the Black Book arranged the prospects according to the alphabetical order of team names separated by leagues from the OHL to the WHL to the QMJHL and so on. Why OHL first and then WHL and then QMJHL? No idea except for Ontario bias.
In regards to grouping prospects by teams, again this could be that HP wanted the Black Book to be for scouts and NHL teams rather than us fans, but unless you know the prospects and their respective teams, it's really not a nice experience trying to find the scouting player for the player you want. You want to read up on Dumba? Well he plays in the WHL so go to the WHL section. What team does he play on? Oh the Red Deer Rebels... there he is. Luckily, the USHL and European prospects aren't grouped by teams but they aren't sorted by alphabetical order either. You'll really need to go to the index in the front to find your player unless you bought the digital copy and in that case it's a much easier search. Still, it's really a headscratcher. Two other things I would suggest is to 1) move the rankings to the front of the book rather than leave it to the very end, and 2) use E and or NA in the CSB rankings to differentiate between European rankings and NA rankings.
Should You Buy?
Yes! In terms of comprehensiveness and quantity of content, I rank HP first. In terms of quality, well what are you reading the guides for? Accurate scouting reports? If so, I can't tell you until years later because it's all about the ability to predict the future. But reading the Black Book gave me a sense that HP did their homework and saw the players play and it's overall a very enjoyable read and quality product. To me, HP has made by far the largest quality jump of all the draft guides out there. Keep up the good work HP!