McQueen situation shows importance of underage viewings of top ...

The Scouting Meeting is a feature that will run throughout the 2024-25 season, written by Scott Harris, a former director of scouting operations for the Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils and scouting coordinator for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

In his latest piece, he writes about Roger McQueen. The 18-year-old forward with Brandon in the Western Hockey League is No. 5 in NHL Central Scouting's midterm ranking of North American skaters despite having been out since Oct. 11 because of a lower-body injury, with no set return date.

For me, evaluating a player like Roger McQueen, or any player dealing with a long-term injury in their draft year, always comes back to process and list-building integrity. Process and integrity are essential when determining a player's placement on an organization's overall draft list. This starts with how an amateur scouting staff is equipped and mandated to fulfill its role effectively.

Though more weight naturally is placed on a player's draft year, the evaluation of an NHL draft prospect like McQueen truly begins in his underage year. His situation, one that is more common than not, underscores the importance of preparing and educating your scouting staff on the reality that the NHL draft process starts well before a player's draft year.

Part of it is understanding that there are no guarantees that A, the player will remain healthy throughout his draft year, or B, you'll always see him in ideal situations. That's why it's crucial to establish a foundation on each prospect in their underage year, particularly those with clear NHL draft interest.

This is where reliance on your regional scouts is vital because you're not sending your management or head or crossover scouts to see underage prospects. During my time in Colorado, New Jersey and Columbus, we implemented mandates for live viewings and reports on players heading into their draft year.

These mandates served several purposes: to build an early understanding of the future draft class, especially how it stacks up against the current draft in case picks could be traded; to assist with future scheduling for greater staff efficiency as the new season approaches; and to establish a foundation on players in case of injury and limited viewings, like what's happening with McQueen now.

When dealing with a player who has an injury or medical history, it is crucial to gather the appropriate medical information. Access to this information and the process for obtaining it is first determined by NHL Central Scouting because of privacy concerns. For a 17-year-old player, an organization must obtain permission from the player's parent or guardian to access medical and injury history. For an 18-year-old, permission must be sought directly from the player.

In Colorado and New Jersey, as part of our initial player information gathering process, we sought the necessary permissions through questionnaires given to players at the start of the season. Once granted, it enabled us to proactively collect information through proper, secure channels that would go directly to our medical staff. This included existing information, new data developed throughout the season, and medical testing results from the NHL Scouting Combine.

The teams I worked for, their medical staff, supported by specialists as needed, would assess the information, request additional details and conduct follow-up evaluations if necessary. This may include gathering further documentation or even meeting with the player for additional medical assessments.

Once all relevant medical information is compiled, the medical staff and their support team provide a recommendation regarding the player's status.

However, it's premature to let it influence the overall draft list. Incorporating this information too soon would compromise the integrity of the list-building process. It remains the responsibility of the amateur scouting staff to first evaluate and put the players in order based on overall upside, independent of any current health concerns, to determine where a player like McQueen should rank.

Once the evaluation and list-building process is complete, the next step is for the general manager to weigh the critical question of how much risk they are willing to take on the player's projected upside. Does the player's potential outweigh any concerns about his medical status? This decision will be discussed in collaboration with ownership, the management team, medical staff and the amateur scouting department.

If a player is a genuine top forward or defenseman, the decision becomes more straightforward. Given that only a handful of such players typically are available in each draft, it would be hard to pass on a player of that caliber in favor of someone with a more moderate projection. If the skill sets and projections are comparable across multiple players, and one has a history of long-term injury, that player may be bumped lower on the list.

Another important factor to consider is whether the team has a limited number of picks. If you don't have many selections, discussing players with a history of injuries becomes crucial. Are you willing to risk your only first-round pick on a player who has faced recurring injuries? Or on a player you couldn't see a lot of because a major injury? On the other hand, if your team has multiple first-round picks, you might be more open to taking a calculated risk.

With McQueen, his ranking likely will be dictated by his projected upside. He should appear high on many teams' lists as scouts are tasked with ranking players based on what they project them to become in 3-4 years without factoring in present-day injuries. From there, it will be the GM's decision to determine whether to take that chance on the player or not.