NHL Central Scouting marks 50th anniversary of ranking, evaluating players

The creation of NHL Central Scouting was initially conceived as a way of deepening the NHL talent pool and remaining at the forefront as the best hockey league in the world.

The bureau, which celebrates 50 years this season, not only has become a fixture for NHL member clubs with its traditional rankings and player evaluations dating to 1975-76, but has served as the foundation to building an even stronger NHL Scouting Combine and NHL Draft.

"The World Hockey Association was going after NHL players and prospects, too," said Craig Button, TSN hockey analyst and son of NHL Central Scouting's first director, Jack Button (1975-79).

The 1974 NHL Draft was the first time the League allowed each of the then-18 member clubs to draft one underage player (18 years old). Prior to that, the draft age was 20.

"The NHL had been discussing the concept of a centralized scouting system for years, wanting to make sure they were competing with the WHA for players," Button said. "My dad was (general) manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins at that time but was let go by the new ownership group after the 1973-74 season when the team went bankrupt. (NHL president) Clarence Campbell and (New York Rangers general manager/coach) Emile Francis really pushed the Central Scouting idea, and my dad had been part of these discussions. When he became available, they said, 'We got the perfect guy to do it now.'

"(New York Islanders GM) Bill Torrey, (Montreal Canadiens GM) Sam Pollock and (Atlanta Flames GM) Cliff Fletcher had a big say in this because they were in the same age bracket as my dad. So the first part of Central Scouting was born with a staff of about seven or eight full-time members ... people who went on to become directors of scouting with other NHL franchises. My dad had an unbelievable staff of people."

The mandate was simple and remains a staple today: Provide NHL member clubs with the most accurate and detailed description of the top amateur players eligible for the upcoming NHL Draft from North America and Europe.

"They kept it away from the public eye," Button said. "They wanted it to be very secretive in terms of the rankings and who they liked. The WHA was coming in hard, signing players to big contracts, and offering these young players contracts. Central Scouting didn't want to give away any information because there were lots of scouts at the same rinks watching the same players."

That hasn't changed over the years and through the eyes of four other directors, including the late Jim Gregory (1979-88), the late Frank Bonello (1988-2005), the late E.J. McGuire (2005-11) and currently, Dan Marr (2011-present).

Gregory not only played a key role in enhancing what Central Scouting envisioned from the start but was the architect in creating a Central Scouting bureau in Europe in 1983 that would be managed and directed by Goran Stubb.

"Jim understood that Europe was a good future market, as he recruited defenseman Borje Salming and forward Inge Hammarstrom (in 1973) when he was general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs," Stubb said. "A friend of mine, Esko Paltanen, who for many years held a strong position in Finnish hockey, helped introduce and arrange a meeting with Jim in 1983, and the rest is history."

Stubb maintained a European scouting branch for NHL Central Scouting from 1983 until his retirement in July 2023. Jukka-Pekka Vuorinen, based in Finland, was handed the reins as director of European Scouting and Stubb assumed the role as senior adviser.

Central Scouting has always provided NHL clubs two separate lists: one of North American skaters and goalies, and another of International skaters and goalies.

"The amount of information that we put into each of those lists is so extensive that you couldn't do one worldwide list and have that much detail," said David Gregory, associate director of NHL Central Scouting and son of Jim Gregory.

The director coordinates a staff of scouts, who spend each season watching and rating that season's draft-eligible prospects from around the globe. The department consists of staff at NHL offices in Toronto, along with eight full-time scouts and 10 part-time scouts throughout North America.

"Dad brought a lot of new concepts and ideas when he joined Central," David Gregory said. "He just saw with the way the League was growing, there was no way it was sustainable for each team to do everything, like weighing and measuring prospects. All the little things that Central does sort of behind the curtain that people don't realize was born out of making it better for the teams and him delivering for the NHL clubs. He thought about it when he was a general manager of the Maple Leafs (1969-79) and then when he came over and was running it himself.

"He continued to make it evolve to what it has become today. I think he'd be really proud of the product and how wide reaching we continue to be in what we deliver for the teams."

Together, full-time scouts will have combined to witness about 3,000 games every season.

"If there was a thing that stood out about Jim it was his ability to handle people," said Jack Barzee, who served as a U.S. scout with Central Scouting for 23 seasons, including four under Gregory. "Jim was a passionate negotiator. He had a great amount of respect for people and their opinions, especially if they really had strong opinions on something and had some backbone. Jim would always weigh that a little bit heavier than maybe just a common answer to what you thought about a player. He had that gift and he'll never be forgotten."

David Gregory remembers Bonello as a man who loved the game of hockey.

"He was involved at every level you can imagine from playing and then coaching and managing as well as running Central Scouting to a point where you would never miss a player," Gregory said. "But Frank knew just about every part of hockey, so he was so thorough and just made sure we never missed anything when it related to Central Scouting and was a very strong leader of the group."

McGuire was the architect of many of the innovations Central Scouting still utilizes today in providing the most comprehensive list of NHL Draft-eligible prospects. The Combine was a major part of that process. McGuire served as director of Central Scouting from 2005 until he died of cancer April 7, 2011.

"When E.J. took over, we were still using excel spreadsheets, (then-Central Scouting senior manager) Brandon Pridham was with us, and we were still sort of very much behind the times," David Gregory said. "In E.J.'s first year, he brought in NHL IT engineers Bob Obringer and Jack Gerien to sit in on our meetings and they couldn't believe we were still doing the things we were.

"The next season E.J. asked me to go into the offices in New York to sit down with Bob and Jack. They asked me what a scout does from Day 1 and I walked them through it. The scouting manager system that we use today was built based on what scouts needed to make the ranking process less stressful. The system has been updated and revamped since, but the framework from the beginning is still there."

Said Gerien: "E.J. and Dave Gregory had a clear vision of what they wanted to do and how they wanted to get there when I came aboard. Their goal was to reduce the time scouts spent on manual tasks by automating processes such as game reports and player evaluations and increase their available time to attend games and scout players. They wanted to drive Central Scouting's value into the hands of NHL teams faster and with more comprehensive information.

"With the support of Jim Gregory and many others, the League recognized the benefit of this vision, and I was one of several IT members fortunate enough to be able to assist in this effort. Following the unfortunate passing of McGuire, Dan Marr continued to drive and expand this initiative, increasing the frequency and visibility of Central Scouting's value to the teams."

Marr was named Central Scouting director prior to 2011-12 and has continued to oversee and enhance what his predecessors started.

"My priority when joining Central Scouting was to dialogue and determine club expectations of Central Scouting services and to solidify the mandate of the bureau," Marr said. "There are three core services that Central provides to NHL clubs: draft rankings, scouting information services and the administration of the NHL Combine. The rankings were expanded from midseason and final rankings to include an A-B-C grading system (players to watch), an email alert system was established to provide timely information, and Central upgraded its website to a more user-friendly platform."

Tod Button, the son of Jack Button and current Calgary Flames director of amateur scouting, is grateful for what Central Scouting offers club teams.

"We use their rankings and evaluations to cross check with our own," he said. "If they have a player ranked or rated different then we do, it's important to know why. From my point of view there is no more egregious mistake than having information at your disposal and not using it, at a bare minimum, as a cross check on your own work. Our area scouts would use them a lot in looking at players in their area that are not as highly ranked to make sure they have the proper amount of viewings for the less heralded players."

Central Scouting invites approximately 100 of the top prospects from around the world to the NHL Combine at LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo for medical and fitness testing each June. This event also allows NHL teams an opportunity for 1-on-1 interviews with the players.

"The Combine was overhauled, modernized, and moved to Harborcenter (in 2015), which is a perfect fit to host (it)," Marr said.

Central Scouting offers league and team directories, schedules and rosters for dozens of teams and tournaments in North America and Europe that include NHL prospects. The focus is placed on the Canadian Hockey League, U.S. colleges, U.S. junior leagues, and various men's leagues throughout Europe. The bureau also provides NHL teams with health updates and video footage of prospects.

"It's very satisfying to receive compliments and appreciative comments from NHL personnel acknowledging the value that Central Scouting services provide," Marr said. "During my tenure, I've been fortunate to work with colleagues who are motivated to provide these services, meet club expectations and to further their own growth."