Training visits, game-day meetings, phone terror: NHL scouts are becoming increasingly brazen

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Their names are almost never on the guest lists at NL games. Just the logo of the NHL organization they work for. The Scouts – on a secret mission to discover the next top talent. In the past season, this mission reached an unprecedented dimension. Kloten defender David Reinbacher (19) became a scout magnet. The record: 40 NHL talent scouts crowded the media gallery to watch the teenager play.

But the game is no longer the most important thing. Certain scouts miss the warm-up on the morning of match day and immediately before the match. “Reinbacher’s warm-ups are a dream,” enthuses one head scout, whose name cannot be mentioned because that is what NHL employers want.

Muggli and Ustinkov attract scouts

They process their impressions in their report. Whether the boy seems like a prima donna or robust. What his shots are like, because there or during training they see thirty, and not just three or four like in the match. Whether he is an outsider or integrated. And how it develops. “Potential first-round draft picks are literally screened and subjected to a psychological test,” said Georges Müller, advisor to Reinbacher, who was drafted No. 5 overall by Montreal in the summer.

This sometimes goes so far that scouts find out the telephone number of the ice master or physio and – together with the trainers, team leaders and agents – harass them with questions. Whether the talent is the first to take to the ice, works extra shifts or often needs medical treatment. NL coaches were also annoyed because they filmed entire training sessions without being asked or suddenly appeared in front of the locker room.

“Some are becoming bolder and even want to meet the players on match days,” confirms Müller, who also looks after Daniil Ustinkov (17). It is believed that ZSC and EVZ defensive gem Leon Muggli (17) will be drafted in the second round of the draft. They are the top two Swiss seeds on the NHL’s Central Scouting watchlist, where 13 of our talents landed.

Protect the teenagers a little

Knowing how many new impressions will suddenly happen to the teenagers, the EVZ protects his protégé Leon Muggli from them. Everything was discussed with the parents, the agent and the school. And clear guidelines have been drawn up for the scouts. “You have to remember that he is 17 years old and still going to school,” explains Zug’s sports director Reto Kläy, “he has to be able to concentrate on the essentials.”

The young defender is therefore used in the Netherlands, but in doses. Which caused incomprehension among a dozen scouts when they wanted to watch the match against Geneva, but Muggli played for the Zug U20 that Sunday. “The scouts have everything from courteous to disrespectful,” says Kläy.

And yet, to achieve their NHL dream, the teens must overcome these challenges as well. According to Kläy, the fact that Switzerland has become more prominent on the NHL’s talent map since the “Reinbacher Mania” is “good marketing for our ice hockey”.

Source : Blick