Scouting and development. They are two words you often hear in the hockey world. Both are important to a team’s success in the NHL.
Take the Dallas Stars for example. Their recent run in the NHL Draft has set them up well for years. They are widely regarded as one of the best scouting departments in the NHL.
Scouting is just the first part. Developing your players is the second and most important part for teams to find sustained success in a salary cap world. Teams can draft in the top-10 for several seasons. But if development isn’t where it needs to be, that team will be stuck in quick sand going nowhere fast.
As you are well aware, times are changing in hockey. Players have more flexibility in choosing where they want to play before reaching the NHL. Teams have more money than ever in salary-cap space to add to their roster.
This new dynamic has allowed some interesting trends to develop. One of those trends played out before our eyes at the start of NHL Free Agency this past July 1.
Yes, some players changed teams. Nikolai Ehlers elected to test free agency and signed with the Carolina Hurricanes. While notable players will reach free agency and choose a new team, it’s not the primary weapon teams use anymore to gain top talent.
Free agency will still have its place. But teams will now have to resort to scouting and development as their primary method to add high-end talent.
Why is that? Let’s look at what transpired in free agency to give you a picture.
Let’s look at the Columbus Blue Jackets for example. It was widely known that they were interested in making a bigger move whether it be in free agency or a trade. While they were able to trade for Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood, they struck out on acquiring Noah Dobson.
Meanwhile, while all that was happening, defensemen Dante Fabbro and Ivan Provorov were rapidly approaching the start of free agency without a new contract. The Blue Jackets explored other options before circling back to Fabbro and Provorov.
But there’s the key. They elected to re-sign their own after missing out on other opportunities. Signing Fabbro and Provorov was the best option remaining at the time when considering who was available on the market. The Blue Jackets would have been worse without them.
Although the Blue Jackets tried, they couldn’t land a huge player in the offseason. Their experience was not the only one that worked out like that.
Jake Allen was the best goaltender available in free agency. Given the need for goaltending around the league, it was reasonable to expect he’d have significant interest.
So what does Allen do? He re-signed with the New Jersey Devils on a five-year deal. We have another example of a player staying with their team.
Need a few more examples? Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand all stayed with the Florida Panthers. John Tavares re-signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Brock Boeser returned to the Vancouver Canucks. Even Patrick Kane re-upped with the Detroit Red Wings.
Do you see the pattern yet? Teams have more money to be able to re-sign their own players. While there will always be exceptions, free agency and even trades to a small degree just aren’t like they used to be.
If an NHL team wants to be good and sustain that success over time, they need to be able to see each mechanism for improving their team for what it is.
Top players simply don’t make it to free agency anymore. It is widely expected that both Connor McDavid and Kirill Kaprizov will eventually re-sign with their current teams. Couple this with the unwillingness of teams to trade their best players and you have a dilemma.
Teams want to improve but likely won’t have the very best players available to them. Even the offer sheet, which was rumored to be a thing this summer, hasn’t played out that way. Why? Teams can match given the extra cap space.
We need to have a bigger and deeper discussion about scouting and development. It’s not talked about nearly enough. This is going to be the new heart of NHL success in years to come given how limited other options to improve will be.
When we’re talking about scouting, we’re not only talking about for the NHL Draft. We’re talking at the pro level too.
There’s power in having a good scouting department. These teams are able to not only identify talent in the NHL Draft, they are able to identify talent from other teams that will help their team get closer to their ultimate goal.
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