Welcome all fans, players, and parents to United States Hockey League Central Scouting. Many of you may not be familiar with what Central Scouting is or how it works and it is the purpose of this article to explain both.
To begin with, the United States Hockey League is America's only Tier I Junior hockey league. Tier I Junior hockey is the highest and most competitive level of junior hockey in America. The USHL supplies NCAA Division I hockey with more players than any other league in North America. In the 2007/08 season over 170 USHL players from 12 teams committed to NCAA Division I hockey.
The USHL also had 18 players drafted in the National Hockey League Draft in 2008, inlcuding one player in the first round.
The USHL currently conducts two drafts in which USHL member teams are able, in a predetermined selection order based on team standings, select players who will then tryout for the opportunity to compete for the USHL team that selected them.
Each USHL team has scouts that watch games throughout North America during the year. These scouts, along with the teams' coaching staffs, form opinions on players through the course of the year as to whether a player has the ability to play in the USHL. When draft day comes every player in North America who has just finished his Major Bantam year up to players who are 19 can be selected by any of the USHL member teams when it is their turn to select a player.
The drafting process is no different than the NHL, NBA, NFL or MLB drafts.
Just like NHL Central Scouting, the Central Scouting arm of the USHL is a support arm to the member teams in the league. USHL Central Scouting has between 20-25 scouts in America and Ontario, who during the 2008/09 season will watch virtually every AAA youth and high school player in the 1992, 1993, and 1994 birth years and form an opinion on who the best players are with the most potential to play in the USHL, NCAA, and NHL.
Central Scouting will then form "draft lists" in each age division and rank the players within their age grouping. Member teams can then reference these scouting reports and rankings and match them against their own evaluations to make sure their individual team list and rankings leading up to the USHL drafts is as accurate as possible in order to select the proper players for their team.
Member teams' coaches, general managers, and scouts will speak frequently to members of USHL Central Scouting and in doing so ask questions of the scouts about specific players.
The next task of USHL Central Scouting is to educate the player and his parents on the benefits of playing in the USHL and how it increases their chances of playing NCAA Division I hockey while at the same time enhances their chances of playing in the National Hockey League.
USHL Central Scouts are all listed along with their biographies and photos on the USHL website.
Visit the official site of USHL Central Scouting at USHL.com to see the exact information that central scouting is presenting to USHL member teams.
All information listed, including scouting reports, draft lists, rankings, and more comes to you right from the source - USHL Central Scouting.
