#p!res:scouting

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David St-Louis (Lead Scout at EP) doing an AMA on r/Hawks (archived June 12th 2025) a lot of Blackhawks-related questions for obvious reasons but there are some general scouting questions sprinkled in! some highlights:

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From David Saad's Final 2025 Draft Rankings (archived) by David Saad, published 25th June 2025 via Substack

To me, hockey is a game of behavior and habit. Everyone on the ice is constantly reading and reacting to each other, influencing further and further decision-making at breakneck speeds, weaving a complex tapestry on the ice. What I look for is players that can hold the most authority on the canvas, who are able to influence the state of a game more then anyone else can. To identify these types of players I look for 3 things. 1) Activation. How quickly can a player recognize an action to take? Players who excel here are fast, engaged thinkers, that properly read play away from them and are quick to pounce on the opportunity to make a play. and take … 2) Action. Once you find the opportunity, what are you doing to push play positively? Players who excel here, are highly intelligent and highly skilled. These are the players you want to be the ones gaining, maintaining and building possession, that makes good stuff happen whenever they make a play. How often they are able to do that is informed by… 3) Access. How often is a player capable of activating? While the prior two are about how quickly a player engages, availability measures how often they engage. Players who excel here usually have the inherent athletic tools and/or behavioral traits that allow them play their game at the highest possible level.