FEATURE: Scouting for the Most Unique NHL Draft to Date

When NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman opens the festivities next Tuesday night, for the first time in 40 years, there won't be any spectators on-hand to witness likely No. 1 overall selection Alexis Lafrenière's name called. No on-stage photo op as players don their new colors for the very first time. No collective NHL world housed under one cavernous arena roof.

Instead, at the NHL Network studios in New Jersey, Bettman will look into a camera and begin the most unique and wide-reaching night in league history. All 31 franchises operating out of their home cities, with only a handful of the usual staff actually in the room as picks are made. General managers, prospects and fans alike will watch it all unfold on TV.
Welcome to the 2020 NHL Draft.
2020 NHL Draft
DRAFT CENTRAL: Full Coverage of the Blackhawks' 2020 NHL Draft
DRAFT: Best Picks at No. 17
DRAFT: Top Forward Prospects
DRAFT: Top Defensive Prospects
DRAFT: Top Goalie Prospects
"The drawback, we're not going to have the excitement of being inside the big stadium. We're not going to have the intimacy of having the players right there, the whole draft week kind of leading up to it," said Vice President of Amateur Scouting Mark Kelley, the man at the helm of the year-round lead up to the draft for the Blackhawks. "But part of it will be the same … when we get right to the table and it starts happening, I think it's going to have the same feel. When we're at the draft, we're really focused on what we're doing."
For Kelley and his staff of Blackhawks scouts around the globe, the lead up to this draft has seen their normal routines flipped upside down. One-by-one, leagues in every nation shutdown in early March. Scouts were called off the road, sent home and, like everyone, wondered 'What's next?'
Chicago's scouting staff rolled with the punches, using their new-found time to change they way they approach the draft.
Instead of gearing up for the final weeks of junior, international and collegiate seasons and the playoff games that would follow -- games that last year helped solidify Kirby Dach as the team's first-round pick -- the Blackhawks took to the tape. No longer were certain scouts assigned and designated as the experts of certain regions or leagues. They took the entire pool of draft-eligible players and divvied it up across different regions and scouts, hopeful a fresh set of eyes could offer new perspective and insight.
"We had people looking at players that they hadn't scouted live," Kelley said of the process. "They were really getting viewings without any kind of preconceived notion. They didn't have a lot of information going into it. I really enjoyed that."
"In one sense, we didn't get as many live viewings of this year's draft class, but in another sense, we're going to get more viewings because we've been able to spend so much time going back and looking at film," he added. "You start to look at different things, whereas before, you were looking at players and how they actually finished a year, maybe in a playoff environment or in an international tournament. Now, what we're looking for is looking at them at different segments of the season and seeing when the progression was (or) was there progression."
That progression, or lack thereof could be an important indicator if
the "unfinished product" the Blackhawks will likely be taking at No. 17
can truely take his game to the next level in the coming years.

Another aspect of the pre-draft norm that was forced to change, perhaps for the better: the player interviews.
Typically around the combine, each prospect can meet with each team's entire staff for about 20 minutes at a time. It's usually an exhausting day for the player of back-to-back-to-back interviews with nearly every team. But without a combine, all the meetings took place over Zoom.
"It's ironic, because one of the things I did find was it does get a little (more) intimate (than the in-person interviews)," Kelley said of the process. "These players, they were at home. They were in their environment. A lot of times, they were in their room. I thought it was very easy to find a comfort level. The other nice thing was there's no time constraint. These interviews, I'd say the average interview was 45 minutes. Some went well over an hour. I think one of the things we found was we really liked it for getting to know the player."
And the ever-curious Kelley made sure to lighten the mood during interviews, too. If he saw something in the background behind a player, he asked about it. No object was too small to serve as a conversation starter, all in the name of getting to know each and every prospect on a deeper level.
"One kid was playing the piano for us. We had a guitar player. We had a magician," he said. "Sometimes I'd look back and I could see a jersey hanging on the wall and you get a little bit of history of that. It was kind of comfort(-building) things.
"Other times I looked in the background and I might see a hat of a different NHL team. That was always awkward."
Tuesday night is sure to be a surreal experience for teams and fans alike. No matter whose name is called at No. 17 from Chicago's 'war room' at Fifth Third Arena, it will be a name remembered forever at the very least because of the unique circumstances and setting in which it was. After all, this draft is taking place during what is usually the season's opening week.
Regardless of when, or if, the NHL Draft goes back to its typical fanfare event, though, the pandemic and the way the Blackhawks' scouting department has reacted to the ever-changing world in the last six months has likely sparked some changes that will remain far beyond the virus.
"It was really something that we embraced. I think with what we've experienced and what we've gone through, we've learned a lot about the way we kind of do things," Kelley said. "I think we've discovered that going forward we're going to do things a little differently. It's given us a chance to kind of go in a different direction. That part has been a little exciting."