Usually clad in black jackets, coffee in hand and taking meticulous notes in hopes of finding a player with the makings of a superstar, amateur scouts are a fixture of any junior hockey rink.
“They’re the foundation of teams,” Toronto Maple Leafs amateur scout Garth Malarchuk said. “If you don’t draft good players, you’re not going to have a good team.”
Malarchuk has been with the Maple Leafs since 1991, brought in by former Calgary Flames general manager Cliff Fletcher.
In recent years, the buds have snapped up Western Canadian products like Morgan Rielly and promising Kamloops Blazers star Fraser Minten.
Scouting is a craft that requires endless hours in cold rinks, travelling the country and conducting seemingly endless interviews with no guarantee a prospect will shake out.
After all, for every Connor McDavid, there are hundreds of other junior players who could go make the show or bust, and these scouts have to figure out what impact an 18-year-old could have when he’s in his mid-20s.
“I have the utmost respect for those that start and work their way all the way up,” Detroit Red Wings amateur scout Bryce Thoma said. “Especially scouting in the Western Hockey League. There’s a lot of Thursday to Sunday weekends and cold rinks, and you’re there from 9:00 in the morning until 9:00 at night.”
Now, they’re banding together as part of the Western Canada Professional Hockey Scouts Foundation, believed to be the first organization of its kind in Canada.
“It’s just nice to have something with this foundation to honor all the scouts that started when they would just drive across Western Canada and couldn’t fly anywhere,” Thoma explained.
“Guys that have done it for 30 or 40 years and essentially committed their life to being on the road and looking for the next great hockey player.”
“The second part is just taking care of those that are in need, some scouts that are in need,” Boston Bruins assistant director of amateur scouting Darren Yopyk added. “Some of us work real hard and if people fall into some hardships, whether it’s health or maybe lack of employment or something like that, it’s a chance to give them some money to help them get back on their feet and find their way.”
The foundation is holding a silent auction and fundraiser roast of Ron Mclean with local hockey legends like Peter Maher and Tim Hunter on Oct. 30.
They also hope to erect a video wall of fame to honour pioneers of the profession at the Centennial Arena in Okotoks before the National Junior ‘A’ Hockey Championship, the Centennial Cup, comes to town.
The presentation will feature stalwarts like Cliff Fletcher and Glen Sather reminiscing on the impact of bird dogs like Edmonton-born Gerry Melnyk, who successfully vouched for Bobby Clarke in Philadelphia despite the future Hall-of-Famer’s diabetes diagnosis, and Regina’s Lorne Davis, who helped bring the likes of Grant Fuhr and Ryan Smyth to Edmonton.
“Some of the older experienced scouts that were around and how well they treated us and just the respect that we had for them, for what they’d done and for their teams, and the years that they’d worked… We want them to be recognized and not forgotten,” Malarchuk said.
The first four honourees will be revealed this summer.
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