Best Amateur Scout/Scouting Staff

[CanuckBeSerious]

As a Habs fan, I would say Tampa Bay. Great drafting and undrafted signings.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

As a Habs fan, I would say Tampa Bay. Great drafting and undrafted signings.

Agreed. I'd add TBay with the usual ones already mentioned like Detroit, Annaheim and St Louis.
The impressive thing about Detroit is that they've done it with no real high draft picks.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

The Blackhawks since 2001 deserve some consideration. Three crucial top 15 picks in Seabrook/Toews/Kane, but a lot of success with later-round guys:

Craig Anderson
Ruutu
Keith
Crawford
Byfuglein
Hjalmarsson
Hayes
Teravainen
Bickell
Bolland
Brouwer
Wisniewski
Kruger
Pirri
Saad
Shaw

Problem with the org has been first round misses mostly in the Sutter era.

Backlund was the only first round hit of the Sutter era, and Erixon, while the correct pick, failed to develop after he refused to even sign with the team. But I do look at that 2007 Backlund draft as "the beginning" of the Flames' draft success. Lots of hits since that year in different rounds. Brodie, Bouma, Ortio, Ferland, Gaudreau. Once guys like Sven and Jankowski and Arnold and Granlund and Kulak and Brossoit and Gillies start to establish themselves, we'll have a better read on the Flames' draft success, but consider me someone who has a lot of faith in them.

 

[BruinsBtn]

Anaheim has done a good job as well.

 

[shakenbake7]

Jarmo Kekelainen

/thread

 

[crowi]

1. Detroit
2. Tampa
3. Jets

And then of course the Leafs, because it is safe to say so. After that teams like Chicago, Calgary, Ottawa and even Anaheim have drafted pretty well, but it's not safe to say so.

 

[Opak]

As a Lightning fan there is no amateur scouting team I would trade Al Murray and his boys for, so for me they are #1. I doubt any other scouting staff has developed as much NHL talent since 2011 (the first draft this group was in charge for) than the Lightning guys.
And the first fear that they would have trouble drafting defenders compared to goalies and forwards seems to be totally wrong with regards to Nesterov, Koekkoek, DeAngelo and Co.

We could however need a competent Sweden/Finland scout. We have yet to draft a Swede in the Murray era and the first Finnish guy is seen as the first official bust of the scouting staff (Saku Salminen, 2013 7th rounder).
Oh and whoever drafts for us in Russia is a ****ing genius. Vasilevskiy, Kucherov and Nesterov already in the NHL and his 4th pick, Gusev could easily be as well if he crosses the pond.

I'd like to apply for that position. If you could kindly put me in contact with Yzerman, I'm sure we can work something out...

 

[Get North]

Jim Nill.

 

[DonskoiDonscored]

The Sharks are top5.

 

[Samsquanch]

Ottawa may not be the best team in the league at drafting, but they are quickly becoming the best team in the league at developing players.

Karlsson
Stone
Hoffman
Zibanejad
Pageau
Lazar
Prince
Ceci
Weircioch
Cowen
Boro-cop
Wideman
Smith
Neil

Are all on the current roster, and were drafted and developed by Ottawa.

 

[Sweech]

Jets fan - I've obviously really liked what we've done, but if I had to go with someone else I'd go with Tampa Bay or Anaheim.

 

[Jesus Christ Horburn]

Jets fan - I've obviously really liked what we've done, but if I had to go with someone else id go with Tampa Bay or Anaheim.

Definitely Tampa Bay. What they're doing is just plain unfair.

Decent picks the Jets 2.0 have made:

Scheifele (7th overall, 2011)
Lowry (67th overall, 2011)
Trouba (9th overall, 2012)
Hellebuyck (130th overall, 2012)
Morrissey (13th overall, 2013)
Petan (43rd overall, 2013)
Comrie (59th overall, 2013)
Lipon (91st overall, 2013)
Copp (104th overall, 2013)
Kostalek (114th overall, 2013)
Ehlers (9th overall, 2014)
De Leo (99th overall, 2014)
Connor (17th overall, 2015)
Roslovic (25th overall, 2015)
Harkins (47th overall, 2015)
Spacek (108th overall, 2015)

2011 and 2012 were decent, producing 2 players from each draft. 2014 and 2015 will probably be the same (Ehlers and Connor for sure, maybe others).

2013 was great though, producing potentially 6 (!) NHL players.

 

[gifted88]

in no particular order for me:

FLA - Scott Luce
MTL - Trevor Timmins
DET - Hakan Andersson
STL - Bill Armstrong

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Going to give Ross Mahoney in WSH some love. Always seems to find hidden gems. Just a few recent examples: John Carlson, Braden Holtby, Madison Bowey, Andre Burakovsky, Jakob Vrana, Riley Barber, Connor Carrick, Philip Grubauer. Also took Filip Forsberg and Evgeni Kuznetsov when other teams passed them over.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

The Sharks are top5.

Nope they choke at the draft! Chokiest chokers.

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

Detroit.

and by "Detroit", I mean Tampa Bay, Dallas, and the next team in line to steal their scouts.

 

[Samsquanch]

Definitely Tampa Bay. What they're doing is just plain unfair.

Decent picks the Jets 2.0 have made:

Scheifele (7th overall, 2011)
Lowry (67th overall, 2011)
Trouba (9th overall, 2012)
Hellebuyck (130th overall, 2012)
Morrissey (13th overall, 2013)
Petan (43rd overall, 2013)
Comrie (59th overall, 2013)
Lipon (91st overall, 2013)
Copp (104th overall, 2013)
Kostalek (114th overall, 2013)
Ehlers (9th overall, 2014)
De Leo (99th overall, 2014)
Connor (17th overall, 2015)
Roslovic (25th overall, 2015)
Harkins (47th overall, 2015)
Spacek (108th overall, 2015)

2011 and 2012 were decent, producing 2 players from each draft. 2014 and 2015 will probably be the same (Ehlers and Connor for sure, maybe others).

2013 was great though, producing potentially 6 (!) NHL players.

While the list looks good and deep for sure, not many of those guys are actual NHL players.

Drafting good prospects, and developing good players are two very different concepts imo.

 

[Semantics]

Came here to see a Leaf fan nominating them after one draft. Done in one.

Well for what it's worth, it's not just one draft, Hunter has twelve years of track record in London. It's pretty impressive how many NHL players he's been able to draft, out of just one province plus a few US players, most of them at age 15 no less.

Marc Methot
Kyle Quincey
Corey Perry
Brandon Prust
Dave Bolland
Steve Mason
Sam Gagner
Patrick Kane
Scott Harrington
Vladislav Namestnikov
Olli Maatta
Nikita Zadorov
Max Domi
Bo Horvat

Not including prospects like Dvorak and Marner.

But it's fair to say it remains to be seen if he can find the hidden gems among 17 year olds who are far more heavily scouted than the midget players he's used to scouting.

 

[BruinsBtn]

Well for what it's worth, it's not just one draft, Hunter has twelve years of track record in London. It's pretty impressive how many NHL players he's been able to draft, out of just one province plus a few US players, most of them at age 15 no less.

Marc Methot
Kyle Quincey
Corey Perry
Brandon Prust
Dave Bolland
Steve Mason
Sam Gagner
Patrick Kane
Scott Harrington
Vladislav Namestnikov
Olli Maatta
Nikita Zadorov
Max Domi
Bo Horvat

Not including prospects like Dvorak and Marner.

But it's fair to say it remains to be seen if he can find the hidden gems among 17 year olds who are far more heavily scouted than the midget players he's used to scouting.

This is cute. The OHL draft isn't a 'draft' it's an auction. Good players choose where they want to go.

 

[allan5oh]

While the list looks good and deep for sure, not many of those guys are actual NHL players.

Alright lets go through it then:

Scheifele (7th overall, 2011) 2nd line 50 pt C
Lowry (67th overall, 2011) 3rd line C
Trouba (9th overall, 2012) Top pairing D
Hellebuyck (130th overall, 2012) Top goalie prospect, 2nd year pro
Morrissey (13th overall, 2013) Top D prospect
Petan (43rd overall, 2013) Made opening night roster
Comrie (59th overall, 2013) Top goalie prospect, just turned pro
Lipon (91st overall, 2013) One of the last cuts this year
Copp (104th overall, 2013) Made opening night roster
Ehlers (9th overall, 2014) Made opening night roster

Rest of these guys are too new and have zero pro experience:

Kostalek (114th overall, 2013) Just turned pro
De Leo (99th overall, 2014) Just turned pro
Connor (17th overall, 2015) NCAA
Roslovic (25th overall, 2015) NCAA
Harkins (47th overall, 2015) WHL
Spacek (108th overall, 2015) Dominating the WHL

Small sample size but it is very exciting. Get back to this list in a year and we will both very much have a better idea with 3 guys making the Jets, and a whole bunch that just turned pro. You might have Hellebuyck and Morrissey with the Jets by the end of the season. We had three guys graduate last year in Hutchinson, Lowry, and Chiarot.

Drafting good prospects, and developing good players are two very different concepts imo.

I agree, we seem to be doing quite well in this subject. Chiarot cleared waivers a year ago and was a later Thrasher pick. Now he's a top 4 D. Hutchinson wasn't even drafted by us and was picked up as a free agent when he wasn't qualified by Boston at age 23, now he's at least an NHL backup. Paul Postma and Zach Redmond were both 7th round picks, both NHL D with varying degrees of success. Redmond would likely better than he is if he didn't suffer that horrific injury.

 

[Semantics]

This is cute. The OHL draft isn't a 'draft' it's an auction. Good players choose where they want to go.

Not everyone is Eric Lindros.

 

[Kingsfan1]

Tampa Bays one of the best in the business but I can't say that seriously because Al Murray was horrible with us, see 2003 n every other draft.

Detroit is the best. Anaheim is pretty good. Mike Futa for the Kings is killing it and one of best things to happen to us.

 

[30Yonge]

How to pump your guy:

Detroit is the best. Anaheim is pretty good. Mike Futa for the Kings is killing it and one of best things to happen to us.

How not to do it:

100%. Kings under Futa have gotten plenty of talented players in the later rounds of the draft.
Alec Martinez, Slava Voynov, Johnathan Quick, Martin Jones were all third round or later I believe.

 

[Lunatik]

It is really impossible to tell. I think Tod Button with the Flames is the perfect example of why you just never really know how good someone is at spotting talent. Button has drafted under Sutter, Feaster and now Treliving, each GM has their own criteria they want in players. While I feel the change from Feaster to Treliving in terms of philosophies is marginal, the difference between Sutter and Feaster was night and day.

 

[Gliff]

Since Madden took over scouting for Anaheim they have been consistent in not having a bad pick in the 1st round and gems in the later rounds, especially on the back end.