Sunday, September 9, 2012

Conversation with NHL Central Scouting

During Saturday's Spruce Kings game I was fortunate enough to talk with and interview Scott McWilliam of NHL Central Scouting. The BCHL Showcase was billed as a hotbed for scouts from NCAA schools as well as the NHL and it certainly has shown to be that. Conservative estimates put the number of scouts in attendance at close to 200 and one of those in the building for the Spruce Kings vs Centennials game was Scott McWilliam.

Before working primarily with the NHL Central Scouting Services, McWilliam has an extensive hockey resume that includes being one of the driving forces behind the Abbotsford Head AHL franchise and has been working at promoting the game, teams and players for many years prior to that. Scott took the time out of a busy weekend schedule that included sizing up all the players in the BCHL both with weights and heights and also skills and abilities on the ice to talk to me.

The evolution of the game of hockey has made something like the BCHL Showcase and important component of the game. Scouts want to take a look at players earlier and more often than ever before and it is the job of Scott McWilliam and NHL Central Scouting to start referencing all of those players. Although his work is not designed to address the needs of individual NHL teams, the work of NHL Central Scouting is valuable at assessing players for the annual NHL Entry Draft.

This past Draft, the Spruce Kings were very proud to hear Jujhar Khaira's name called out by the Edmonton Oilers and I had a chance to talk to Scott about Jujhar and the process that all players can expect to go through. I also was able to get Scott to drop a couple of names from this year's roster, you'll hear who those players are and learn a little bit more in this interview. I started out by asking Scott about the importance of the BCHL Showcase event itself.

download audio file

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