Miles to Go Before They Scout

If ever you muse about becoming a hockey scout and watching the sport for a living, be prepared. There are a lot of miles in the dream job.
"The first move is whether I'm flying somewhere or driving," says Mike Dawson, Kraken amateur scout who lives in Kingston, ON, about his typical week during the hockey season. "If I'm staying in the OHL [Ontario Hockey League] or the province of Quebec [to watch Quebec Major Junior Hockey League play] I'm typically driving.
"If that's the case, I usually hit the road Wednesday and get home late Sunday night. The juniors season has the odd Tuesday or Wednesday game but action pumps up Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday [when he looks to scout at least one game per day]."

As part of scouting eastern regions of Canada and the U.S. for the team, Dawson's role with the Kraken includes scouting players in Atlantic Canada - he was talking for this story from Saint John, NB, where the Memorial Cup just finished with Seattle 2021 third-round draft choice Ryan Winterton and his OHL Hamilton advancing to the championship game.
Plus, Dawson is what you might call a cross-checker or crossover scout, spending time in western Canada and USA to evaluate players first spotted by Kraken colleagues such as Darren Yopyk and Jeff Crisp.
"If I'm going to Atlantic Canada or Western Canada or down to the USHL [in the States], it's still Wednesday but I am flying to spend four or five days [sometimes with additional flights and usually driving some distance in a rental car]. Once every six to eight weeks, I guess we could call it a special event [with more flights]. For example, some of us were in Germany for an Under-18 tournament this season."
The Germany trip was 10 days long. On another European trip for cross-checking [the Kraken employ a full staff of Europe-based amateur scouts], Dawson and Yopyk took seven flights over 10 days to watch prospects playing in junior and pro leagues.
It all adds up. Dawson says his air miles each year range between 50,000 to 100,000 plus supplemental miles with other airlines when traveling to Europe or the occasional U.S.-based flights. He says his odometer reading for a season is "about 60,000 kilometers" or roughly 37,000 miles.
Hotel nights? Dawson says he is now at 88 since Jan. 1 after his stay in Saint John, where he praised both Winterton's two-way performance [three goals, three assists in five games] and predicted "don't count out Hamilton" after the Bulldogs lost their first two games in round-robin play. Hamilton and his teammates showed impressive resilience and clutch scoring after the long, arduous grind of winning the OHL playoffs.
Yopyk serves as a cross-checker, too, per his experience as former co-director of amateur scouting for the Minnesota Wild and a decade in that franchise's scouting department. A highlight from his Wild days? He was the first Minnesota scout to spot and recommend now Kraken defenseman Carson Soucy.
"Carson actually grew up not far from me," says Yopyk, who pushed to select the 18-year-old Soucy in 2013. "I know people that know him and watched him. I liked what I saw [and his Minnesota cross-checkers agreed]. We ended up taking him in the fifth round [No. 137 overall] ... It's always exciting to see guys perform and end up being the players we hoped they would be. Full credit to Carson."
Like his scouting colleagues, Yopyk loves the work but makes all effort to connect with his family during the season. Similarly, he maximizes the number of games he attends on each trip, to connect with coaches, players, billet families and more to get the full scope on all players he deems as prospects.
"I like to drive when I can," says Yopyk about his Western Canada road trips that typically start on Wednesdays and end late Sunday night from his home in Kelowna, BC. "There are not a lot of games right near me, but I can drive to plenty of teams and players [Western Hockey League].
"Sometimes I start with a flight, say, to Regina [SK], then from there I can watch a game there [likely catching 2021 second-rounder Ryker Evans], then driving one to three hours to see games, say, Moose Jaw one night and Prince Albert after that [both SK]."
"I always try to get back even if it's two or three in the morning, at least I'm there to help with the family and get things ready in the morning."
Jeff Crisp has been an NHL amateur scout and held leadership roles in Anaheim and Buffalo for more than two decades. He's also deemed a valuable cross-checker for GM Ron Francis and amateur scouting director Robert Kron.
Like Dawson and Yopyk, he is grateful for his family's understanding about the job's travel and workload (days at home include filing reports and watching video, especially in the second half of the season when the scouting group begins compiling the list of 300 prospects for the upcoming draft).
"You know, over the years, some people thought my wife was a single mom at parties and school functions," says Crisp. "She's a strong woman and partner. I'm so thankful for her."
Crisp says he "used to know better how many nights I was away when I had younger kids" but now with a 12th grader and second-year university student he says he's focused on the scouting staff "having our small fingerprints on who we pick and how it helps the Kraken win and build a team." Every month is "a little different" for Crisp, bringing both local assignments near his Calgary home and crossover work in all parts of North America and/or Europe.
The work of today's NHL scouts has changed in the years since Crisp, Yopyk and Dawson started their scouting careers. For one thing, Dawson says advanced hockey analytics data allows better comparisons between an 18-year-old's potential and veteran NHLer who played in the same junior league or NCAA conference.
"I like to think I've evolved and hockey's evolved," said Crisp. "You like to think no matter what job you do, you're a little better than 20 years ago. I've worked with and learned from so many different people, using their different filters and lenses to evaluate players, to look at them in a new way. I'm still learning from this group with the Kraken. You incorporate all that input to be successful at the draft and winning games."
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