What Hockey Scouts Actually Look For: The Evaluator's Sheet

Who is watching, and what each of them is deciding

Between a first competitive tryout and the end of junior hockey, four kinds of evaluator will grade a player, and each is deciding something different. Knowing which one is in the building tells you how long you have to make your case.

Different decisions and different time horizons, but one sheet. The next section is that sheet.

The sheet: six lines every evaluator grades

Ask twenty evaluators what they grade and you get twenty lists that are the same list in different clothes.

Put those together and you get six lines. Here is the sheet, with what each line looks like from the stands, what to look for on film, and the thing that costs you the grade.

The order matters less than the rule behind it: a weak line has to be covered by a strong one, and a bad grade on character is not covered by anything. The weighting also moves with level. When McKeen's Hockey polled its own draft scouts, hockey sense and compete level led by a wide margin for forwards, with skating and puck skill next; for defencemen hockey sense led again, with skating gaining weight. At minor hockey tryouts the order flips: the OMHA tells players that the primary skill coaches look at is skating. And Hockey Calgary's 2026 team-formation guidelines make game performance the “dominant weighting” at U18, with skating “used as tiebreaker only” and physical readiness “not primary driver.”

Line 1: Skating

Skating is the line evaluators fill in first because it is the one they can grade from the parking lot. Notre Dame associate head coach Andy Slaggert told USA Hockey that skating is “the most critical skill and that's what you look for first, you notice first.” At tryouts the OMHA says it without the hedging: “There isn't a single hockey skill more important than skating.” For defencemen, McKeen's scout Marek Novotny needs three words: “Skating is king.”

What they are grading is more specific than fast or slow. Hockey Canada's evaluator cue card lists speed, quickness and technique, and its selection criteria spell the line out as “Acceleration, speed, mobility, agility, balance, stride, crossovers, pivots, acceleration out of turns, quick feet, controlled skating, change of pace.” Hockey Calgary's U18 criteria add the part that separates a 16-year-old from a 13-year-old: game-pace speed, endurance and repeatability, acceleration and deceleration, and edge work at high speed. Repeatability is the word to notice. A scout who has seen you ten times is not grading your best shift. He is grading your fourteenth.

• The first three strides. Out of a stop, after a battle, after a change of direction. Races to pucks are won or lost here, and evaluators watch the race, not the finish line.
• Stops, not glides. A player who stops on pucks and on the backcheck reads as a competitor. A player who glides in reads as a passenger, and the sheet has a line for that too.
• Backward and the pivot, for defence. Receiving a rush with the feet moving and the hips open, then turning the right way on the retrieval. More on this under the position lines below.
• The third period. Stride length at the end of the game against the start of it. Endurance is on the Calgary sheet for a reason.

On film: pick the best skater on the ice and count strides from the top of the circle to the far blue line for both of you, in the first period and again in the third. The mechanics are in our posts on crossovers and backward skating for defencemen.

Line 2: Hockey sense

Hockey sense is the line most evaluators say they value most, and the one they grade while you do not have the puck. Sarnia Sting general manager Dylan Seca defines it as “decision-making in key scenarios on the ice” and adds the part players miss: “Doesn't necessarily mean with the puck; we analyze them away from the puck. Do they put themselves in the right spot to receive and defend?” NHL Central Scouting's Matt Ryan puts it the other way round: “You have to be strong on pucks but you have to learn how to play without the puck.”

College coaches rank it first. When College Hockey Inc. asked Division I head coaches what they want, Brown's Brendan Whittet answered “If a guy can think the game, he can make up for a lot of limitations, whether it's size, speed or anything else.” Michigan State's Tom Anastos said he can never see enough on-ice intelligence and hockey sense; Massachusetts coach John Micheletto: “Hockey IQ is something we really value.”

Our guide to improving hockey IQ covers the six habits that move this line. For the sheet, the film check is simple. Pause the moment a pass leaves a teammate's stick toward you: was your head already turned? Then watch the ten seconds after you give the puck up: did you move to the next spot, or stand and admire the pass?

Line 3: Skill at pace

Nobody at a U16 game is grading your toe drag in warm-up. Hockey Calgary names the line “Puck Skills at Pace”: stick control in game situations, passing accuracy under pressure, shooting selection and finish, with the note that “Execution under game conditions matters more than isolated drills.” Hockey Canada's cue card has evaluators grade passing by technique, control and vision, puck control in open ice and in confined space, and shooting by technique, accuracy, velocity and shot selection, with a question that gets a lot of players cut: “Does the player get pushed or checked off the puck easily?”

Michigan State's Danton Cole wants players who can pass and shoot “with your feet moving”. Sarnia's hard-skill questions are about where the skill happens: “Do they take pucks into the more difficult areas of the ice?” and “Are they winning the competitive battles?”

• Passes that arrive. Hard, flat, on the tape, with a checker closing. A soft pass that gets there is a turnover on the next level's sheet.
• Receptions in traffic. Catching a hard pass on the backhand with a stick on you, and keeping it.
• The release. Quick, in stride, off either foot, from the spot the puck arrived rather than after a set-up.
• Protection. Body between the checker and the puck, feet still moving, in the corner and on the wall.

On film: count the passes you made under pressure that hit tape, and mark where on the ice you touched the puck. If every touch is on the perimeter, the scout has already written that down. The mechanics are in our posts on the wrist shot and the one-timer.

Line 4: Compete

If one word runs through every evaluator's vocabulary it is this one. In a University of Alberta study built on interviews with 16 WHL scouts, 15 of them used the word “compete” when describing what they look for. Pat Mikesch, then head coach and general manager of the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers, said the question NHL scouts ask over and over is “Is he able to win his 1-on-1 battles on a regular basis?”

Regular basis is the operative phrase. Matt Hogan, Sarnia's director of player personnel: “A big part of compete is consistency.” The players they want are “The kids who compete every time they step on the ice,” and they check: “We talk to their coaches, see how they compete during practice.”

What it looks like, from scouts surveyed by the Neutral Zone scouting service: competitors “block shots, they backcheck as hard as they would forecheck or join a rush up ice, they stop on pucks and at the net”. Their defensive checklist asks whether sticks are in lanes, whether the head is on a swivel, and whether a player blocks shots or “flamingo”. At tryouts it gets simpler still. High school coach Chris Nagy told USA Hockey: “If I have two kids similar in skill, I'll throw a puck in the corner four or five times to see who comes out with it.”

On film: keep a tally of battles won and lost for one game, then compare the speed of your backcheck with the speed of your forecheck. Those two numbers are the compete grade. The shift you coasted through because the puck was at the other end is on the sheet too, because that is the shift the scout happened to be watching.

Line 5: Character and body language

The same Alberta study found that intangibles often outweigh talent and skill: 14 of the 16 scouts used the word “character,” and one said that a player with poor intangibles does not go on the draft list at all. Bad body language, the scouts said, runs from “slumped shoulders during difficult moments to excessive emotional outbursts at a penalty call, a missed shot or even an errant pass from a teammate.”

Evaluators describe watching for it in the same places. Danton Cole: “If things go wrong, is it a learning moment, or is a slam your stick on the ice moment? We notice those kinds of things.” Kevin Reiter, director of player personnel for USA Hockey's National Team Development Program: “If they miss a shootout attempt, do they come back to the bench and pout or do they get up and get ready for the next guy to shoot?” The USHL scout who walked USA Hockey through his process follows a player off the ice: “When he gets on the bench, I'll see if the coach is giving him any advice” and how he acts towards others, then into the lobby, where “I can see how they act toward their parents.” His summary: “Someone is always watching. Remember that.”

Long-time Florida Panthers scout Fred Bandel: “Body language is important because it gives itself away easily.” Montreal Canadiens scout Pat Westrum: “Getting upset on the bench over a bad play or call will be noticed by those with clipboards in the crowd.” It is on the tryout forms too. Hockey Alberta's five-point scale drops a player from a 5 to a 4 for “slight inconsistency in terms of effort, grittiness, lapse in discipline or emotional control”, and Hockey Canada's attitude indicators include the ability to handle criticism and learn from mistakes, and respect towards coaches, officials, spectators and opponents.

Two things most players forget live on this line. Coachability, which evaluators read from whether you take an instruction and do it on the next rep. And your phone: when Denver head coach Jim Montgomery was asked about recruits' social media, his answer was “whatever they post can reflect on them forever”, and College Hockey Inc. adds that deleting does not undo a screen grab.

On film: watch the five seconds after your own turnover, then watch yourself on the bench after a short shift. A wide shot from the stands shows both, which is one reason coaches ask for whole games.

Line 6: Size and projection

Size is on every sheet and it is the line that has moved the most. Bandel again: “I wouldn't send a report on a player under 6-feet unless he was a star.” That was then. Now, “I'm more than happy to look at players 5-foot-8 if they have skill.” Barrie Colts head scout Darrell Woodley saw it coming in 2008, telling The Hockey News that the game was more about quickness and that more kids under 6-feet were being projected into the first two rounds. By 2022-23, ESPN counted 215 of the 951 players who played at least one NHL game at under 6 feet, and quoted a general manager: “Size is important, but skill trumps size.”

What scouts grade is projection, not measurement. Westrum: “We don't look at what they did when they were 13, 14, 15 years old. We have to judge what they are going to be able to do as they get older.” NHL Central Scouting's David Gregory: “If the draft was 19-year-olds, we'd all be better scouts because you hear us talk at our meetings and say all the time, 'Has he matured?'” Nobody can predict growth: The Hockey News found scouts and agents guessing from foot size and parents' heights, with one admitting “there's no concrete way of predicting it.”

The governing bodies know. Hockey Canada's U15 pathway requires three sessions partly to allow late developers to be at their best; Hockey Calgary lists physical readiness as “not primary driver”; and Hockey Canada's goaltending evaluation notes say that “size should never take precedence over strong positional play.” That does not mean size is ignored at 15. It means the honest sheet has two boxes: what you are, and what you will be.

What you control is the second box. A small player who goes through traffic and wins pucks on the wall against bigger players is graded up. A big player who coasts on reach is graded down. And if you are late-born or late-growing, read the numbers above once more: you are being compared with players up to a year older, and the players who survive that comparison are the ones who tend to last.

What AAA tryout evaluators look for (U11 to U18)

Minor hockey tryouts are the one level where the sheet is published. Hockey Canada's guide says associations must “post the criteria of what the evaluators are looking for, so that parents can see what the players are being judged on”. Its national template scores skating, passing, puck control, shooting, positional play and checking on a five-point scale, 1 for poor to 5 for outstanding, and its detailed forms add thinking skills, one-on-one play at both ends, face-offs, fitness, determination, coachability, concentration, mental toughness, discipline, team play and leadership. The evaluator cue card boils it down to five: skating, passing, puck control, shooting and game understanding, with game understanding defined as positional play, supporting the puck on both sides of it, communicating with teammates and the ability to read and react.

The instructions to evaluators are worth reading as a player. Hockey Alberta's 2025 guide tells them “Rate what you see today, forget what you know from the past”, “Watch the players, not the game!!” and “Follow the play away from the puck as well.” Hockey Canada's session outline moves the weight from skills to scrimmage as players age: the scrimmage counts for 40% of the evaluation at the youngest levels, 50% at U13, 60% at U15 and 70% at U18. Hockey Calgary says it plainly for U15: game play and decision-making is “most predictive of competitive performance”, and consistency and attitude, defined as effort across all minutes, coachability, resilience and sportsmanship, is a “predictor of professional character and team fit.”

USA Hockey's guidance reads the same way. Chuck Gridley, coach-in-chief of its New York district: “I'm looking at the players' skills, instincts and heart.” Kristen Sagaert, USA Hockey's girls hockey director: “our coaches are always more focused on identifying habits and coachability than who's scored the most goals.”

What that means on the ice, from the OMHA's own list: “Skate hard from the time you set foot on the ice until you're back on the bench.” “Just because you were successful in making a team last year doesn't guarantee your spot for the upcoming season.” Taking feedback and using it “shows you're coachable and eager to learn.” Add the things the forms grade that nobody announces: the first rep of every drill, the back of the line while a drill is explained, and the pinnie rule, which exists so that your name and last year's jersey do not count. Hockey Canada asks associations not to let players wear “elite team” jerseys or socks at evaluations because they “can often unknowingly sway evaluator's perception of a players skills.”

What OHL and WHL scouts look for in a 15-year-old

The CHL draft year is the first time a player is graded by people whose jobs depend on being right, and they say what they want. Ahead of the 2026 Priority Selection, Sarnia's Dylan Seca and Matt Hogan laid out four qualities, compete level, hard skill, hockey IQ and character, and described how the grade is built. Seca on first impressions: “Sometimes it's as simple as their first couple of shifts the first time we see them.” Then the caveat that should calm every parent who thinks one bad game ended it: “The real work goes into the 4th, 5th, 10th, and 20th times when you're analyzing them against the higher-end players.” On character: “If a red flag pops up in their character, they won't play for us.” And a line that is easy to forget is on the sheet at all: “They need to love hockey.”

Scouts start a year early. The Hockey News reported in 2008 that OHL scouts often start taking note of players at 14 and come back to see them the next year, with Barrie Colts head scout Darrell Woodley adding “You can tell a lot about a kid by the way his parents talk.” In the WHL the clock starts earlier still, because its Prospects Draft takes the U15 season.

The numbers behind the nerves. The OHL took 301 players in 2026: 84 from the GTHL, 57 from the OMHA, 32 from the Alliance, 19 from Hockey Eastern Ontario and 81 from American-based teams. It also runs a separate Under-18 Priority Selection for 2008- and 2009-born players carded with Ontario U18 AAA clubs and not on a protected list, which took 52 players in 2026: a second door for the late bloomer. The WHL took 205 players, led by Alberta with 54 and British Columbia with 44, and players not selected remain eligible to be listed by WHL clubs at any time afterward.

What to do with that: be the same player in the 15th viewing as in the first, because the 15th viewing is the one that gets you drafted. Let the practice habits match the games, because they ask your coach. And show that you love it, visibly, in warm-up and on the bench, because that line gets read from a distance.

What junior A and USHL staff look for at camp

Junior staff see the sheet compressed into a weekend, and the way in is rarely the weekend itself. USHL combines are invitation-only: “All participants are pre-screened and scouted by the league's central scouting staff before receiving an invitation”. The BCHL's Futures Series camps put every BCHL team in the building, including coaches, general managers and scouts, for $450 early or $500 standard, with no refunds. The invite comes after you have been seen in league play, not instead of it.

What they grade when you get there is the compete line at full volume. Mikesch, from the USHL bench: “At the college and professional levels, players have to be able to compete and play through all kinds of 1-on-1 battles all game long.” The USHL scout's order of operations, from USA Hockey: skating catches the eye, then “Now I'm watching his compete level, and now I'm watching his body language.” Then the bench, the lobby, and even the clothes: “The way they dress, the way they dress really shows how serious they are in pursuing higher levels.” He checks a single viewing with the player's coach, because one night can fool anyone.

Patience is part of the sheet at this level. College Hockey Inc. found “very few players making the jump to junior hockey at age 16”, and more than twice as many arriving in junior from 18U as from 16U. One of our coaches is an assistant coach in the BCHL, the league where that compressed weekend happens; see our coaching staff.

What NCAA coaches look for in a recruit

Division I coaches have said what they want on the record. From College Hockey Inc.'s survey of head coaches: Whittet on thinking the game, above. Ohio State's Steve Rohlik: “Obviously you want to see skill and character.” Canisius's Dave Smith: “I want to see that team-first, championship-first mentality, as opposed to players who are looking out for themselves.” Notre Dame's Jeff Jackson, on the decision itself: “it's more important to make the correct decision and find the right fit as a player and a person.” Slaggert told USA Hockey that the first questions his head coach asks about any recruit are how they compete and what their hockey sense is like, then how they skate, then what their own coach says about them.

The calendar is fixed by rule. Since the NCAA's 2019 change, no recruiting phone calls, unofficial visits or camp recruiting conversations before January 1 of sophomore year, and no official visits, off-campus contact or verbal offers before August 1 at the start of junior year. College Hockey Inc.'s FAQ spells out the consequence: before that January 1, coaches cannot reply to emails, text messages, or return phone calls. An official visit is a 48-hour, expense-paid trip, and as of August 1, 2025, CHL players are eligible for NCAA hockey.

The route runs through junior. College Hockey Inc.'s study of 1,600-plus Division I players found the average commitment age over 18 and an average starting age of 20.3, and Front Office Sports reported that in 2025 80% of the 509 freshmen were 20 or 21 when the season started. The recruiters are also closer than families think: if you play for a competitive team and are an elite player, there is a good chance the college coaches know about you, and most programs post a recruiting questionnaire on their site. Off the ice, Cole described the four-year commitment this way: “You do as much digging as you can.” Coaches, parents, teammates. Your social media is part of the digging.

What scouts ignore (or discount)

Half of getting graded well is knowing what is not being graded.

• Points, on their own. Ross MacLean, then head scout of International Scouting Services, wrote that a point total “really means nothing when you are gauging the player for the next level” and that “it's important to look past the numbers and understand how and why they are being put up.” The Neutral Zone scouts: “just going hard and scoring goals or racking up points does not make a player a competitor.”
• Last year. “forget what you know from the past” is an instruction to evaluators, and the OMHA tells players their spot from last season is not guaranteed. At 16, Westrum says, the pros “don't look at what they did when they were 13, 14, 15 years old.”
• Your name and your old jersey. Hockey Canada wants evaluators to see a pinnie number, not a name, and elite-team jerseys kept out of the rink for that reason.
• The highlight reel, by itself. A guide from the junior advisory group DMV Prospects reports that coaches want all of a player's shifts from a full game, because “A highlight video simply does not allow a coach to see a player enough game situations.” The tape gets you watched; the games get you graded. Our guide to the hockey highlight video covers both.
• Warm-up hands. Micheletto's point above: hockey IQ is what separates the player who looks good in warm-up from the one they recruit. Scouts watch warm-up, but for focus and routine, not for the toe drag.
• One game, mostly. Stewart will not move a player for one game, one shift or even three. The caution runs the other way too. Westrum: at 16, “If you have a bad game, it's sometimes hard to get back in the good graces”, so consistency is the safer bet than one big night.

Red flags that end interest

Every evaluator carries a short list of things that move a player from the sheet to the bin. In their own words:

• Bad body language. The Alberta study's range, from slumped shoulders to outbursts at a penalty call or a teammate's errant pass. Cole's slam your stick on the ice moment. Reiter's shootout pout. Westrum's getting upset on the bench.
• Selfishness. Players who shout their jersey number at the referee after a goal to get credit for a point, known as “chisellers,” are “uniformly detested by scouts.” Canisius's Dave Smith wants team-first, not “players who are looking out for themselves.”
• Not backchecking. Leslie's forward checklist asks players to “backcheck through the middle of the ice”; the Neutral Zone scouts grade whether you backcheck as hard as you forecheck.
• How you treat people. The USHL scout watches how a player acts toward his parents in the lobby. Hockey Canada's attitude indicators grade respect towards coaches, officials, spectators and opponents. A WHL scout in the Alberta study: “I can work with kids on their stickhandling, but if a kid doesn't know how to be a teammate, I'm not sure you can teach it.”
• A parent out of control. Another scout in the same study: “I'm not drafting a kid with a crazy parent”, because a parent going crazy in the stands “is negatively affecting his kid's brand.” Woodley: “You can tell a lot about a kid by the way his parents talk.”
• Your feed. College coaches and pro scouts use social media to investigate prospective players; Montgomery's warning is that a post “can affect their college eligibility.”
• Talking about yourself. Bandel, on interviews: “If a player talks about himself when he's not asked about himself, that can raise a red flag.”

Seca's line is the summary: “If a red flag pops up in their character, they won't play for us.” The Alberta study's author, a working WHL scout, says looking for red flags has become an integral part of the interview and investigative process of scouting.

What scouts look for in a goalie

Goalies are graded on their own sheet, and the people who fill it in are unusually clear about what matters. NHL Central Scouting's goaltending scout Al Jensen, asked what teams see when they look past a sub-6-foot goalie's height: “He's not above 6-foot, but he plays bigger than some of the 6-foot-2 goalies because of the way he plays. He's smart in his positional play and that's what it's all about, because sometimes the big goalies sag deep in the crease and open up when they move laterally.” On another prospect, the composure line: he “doesn't let any bad goals or bad games get him down.” His grades for the top-ranked North American goalie of 2026 read like the sheet itself: “Good rebound control, quick and controlled lateral crease play. He seals holes in tight very well, tracked pucks well through traffic.” The NHL's director of European scouting, Jukka-Pekka Vuorinen, praised another for playing “within his structure” and not relying “solely on size.”

McKeen's goaltending scout Liam Crouse ranks the lines: “Positioning is so important because it is the main factor in whether you will make a save.” It is the first thing he looks for. His biggest red flag is “an overreliance on athleticism and size,” and he treats tracking through traffic as the input everything else depends on.

At tryouts the same order holds. Hockey Canada's guide: “In an evaluation, size should never take precedence over strong positional play.” It adds that the difference in net coverage between a 6-foot-1 and a 5-foot-10 goaltender is minimal and can be erased through positioning, and that many big-save situations are caused by weaknesses in the goalie's own game. Hockey Alberta's goalie form has five columns: skating, positioning, puck tracking, goaltender sense, and battle and compete, with body language graded under compete. Leslie's goalie list for scouts: minimize rebounds that bounce into the slot, battle to make second saves, communicate with the defence, be square to shots, and never quit until the puck is covered or in the net.

Our goaltending coach is a goalie coach and recruiter at an NCAA Division I program; see our coaching staff. On film: chart every rebound by where it landed, count the shots you were set for before the release, and watch the ten seconds after each goal against. Our posts on butterfly technique and reading shooters cover two of the lines.

Defencemen and forwards: the position lines

Under the six lines, most sheets carry a few position habits. Leslie's checklist, the one associations repost, lists for forwards: support the puck, keep a forward high in the offensive zone, backcheck through the middle of the ice, minimize turnovers, and cover for pressured or pinching defencemen. For defence: get up-ice with the play to minimize gaps, keep attacking forwards to the outside, stay between attacking forwards and the net, use their partners instead of throwing the puck away under pressure, and get shots past shot blockers.

Defencemen. Hockey Canada's defence development program describes the habits in evaluator language. Retrievals: “shoulder check, angle, and deception. Explode to the puck to give yourself time to make a play.” The gap: “stay up, don't step up.” The rush: “Don't attack the rush; receive it.” The one-on-one: “Stick on puck, body on body; shoulders square, move feet, no lunging.” The first pass: “Pass the puck hard, flat and accurately.” Independent draft scouts at a Smaht Scouting roundtable put mobility first. Brock Otten: “Mobility has to be number one.” Mitch Brown described the rush defence scouts want to see: “the best rush defenders backpedal toward the middle, then close the gap while moving backwards, steadily removing the attacker's options.” McKeen's poll of its scouts found skating gaining weight on the defence sheet.

Forwards. Ryan's rule from Central Scouting, “you have to learn how to play without the puck”, is the forward sheet in one line. Slaggert wants “skills within the framework of the team”: drawing defenders and finding the open man, not only beating one defender. The Neutral Zone scouts grade whether forwards stop on pucks and at the net. And McKeen's scouts, asked for the number one attribute in a forward, named hockey sense and physicality/compete level far ahead of hands. Our post on zone entries covers the decision the sheet grades most often at the blue line.

Three shifts a scout grades, and what gets written down

Seca says the first impression can come in the first couple of shifts. Mike MacPherson, a pro and OHL scout, wrote in The Hockey News that he starts making initial notes on players as the game begins, on what they are doing with and without the puck in all three zones, and that there are three things he watches in any player: “What are they doing during warmup? What are they doing on the bench? What are they doing when they don't have the puck?” Stewart's caution about one shift still applies, but the first notes shape the next viewing. Three shifts get written down more than any others.

1. The first shift. The first three strides out of the gate. The first touch: was it the simple play, made fast, or a forced one? Whether the head turned before the puck arrived. Where you stopped, and whether you stopped. How hard you skated to the bench, because the OMHA's line about skating hard until you are back on the bench is there for a reason: the change is on the sheet.

2. The backcheck without the puck. The puck is on the far wall and the scout's eyes are on you. Leslie's forwards backcheck through the middle of the ice; the Neutral Zone scouts time it against your forecheck; Seca asks whether you put yourself in the right spot to receive and defend. The grade is whether you pick up the attacker nobody else has, and whether you get there with your feet or only your eyes.

3. The one-on-one in your zone. For a defenceman this is the whole sheet in six seconds: the gap, the pivot, the body inside the dots, the stick on the puck without lunging, and the outcome. Hockey Canada's program wants the rush received, not attacked; the Smaht scouts want the gap closed while moving backwards. For a forward the same shift is the backcheck above, seen from the other side: were you the second attacker who got picked up, or the one who found the soft spot?

And the shift after the mistake. It gets written down not for what you did, but for what you did next. Cole's learning moment or stick slam; the Alberta scouts' slumped shoulders. If the evaluator saw the turnover, he watched the next forty seconds more closely than any other forty seconds of your game.

How to get noticed by hockey scouts

Scouts do not wander into rinks hoping. MacPherson's pre-game routine: arrive early, pick up the lineups and rosters including the scratches, and watch the warm-up with the prospects you came for in mind. College Hockey Inc. is blunt about who is already known: if you play for a competitive team and are an elite player, there is a good chance the college coaches know about you. Getting noticed is mostly about being easy to grade.

• Play where they are, every night. Westrum: “When you get to be 16 years old, there are people that are watching and coming in to the area that don't come in often.” They do not announce themselves, so the consistent player is the one they happen to see.
• Be findable. The right name, number and birth year on the roster and the lineup sheet, because that sheet is what the scout picked up at the door.
• Let your coach make the call. Slaggert's head coach asks what their own coach says about them; Sarnia talks to coaches about practice. Tom McEvay's guide for junior players, published by the KIJHL, puts the mechanics in order: email coaches yourself, “Don't expect too many replies to this initial email,” then “ask coaches to make phone calls to top prospective schools” and “Make it easy for your coach by providing names and contact numbers.” His estimate is that only 5 to 10 percent of players follow that advice.
• Have the video ready before anyone asks. Full games first, because that is what coaches ask for: all of a player's shifts from a full game in one location. Then a short highlight video. If nobody is filming your games yet, start with our guide on how to film a hockey game.
• Camps and showcases, with your eyes open. Bandel: “Select camps have some importance, but should not be the be-all, end-all.” The USHL combine invites follow league-play scouting; the BCHL camp costs $450 to $500 and every team is there. One look, not a promise.
• The line to keep. Keith Hendrickson, a Stanley Cup-winning amateur scout with Vegas, to Minnesota Hockey: “If you're good enough, the colleges and pro teams will find you.”

Scout yourself: the sheet, and how to use it with your own film

The sheet above is also a tool. We put it on one page: download the printable Evaluator's Sheet (PDF), with the six lines, the position habits, the red flags, and a 1-to-5 box for each, graded the way Hockey Canada's forms grade: 1 for poor, 2 for below average, 3 for average, 4 for above average, 5 for outstanding.

How to use it, in four steps.

For parents: what the scout's seat sees in the stands

Parents are on the sheet, and not in the way most of them think. A WHL scout in the Alberta study said it directly: “I'm not drafting a kid with a crazy parent.” Woodley listens to how parents talk. The USHL scout watches the lobby. None of that is about the car-ride speech; it is about what an evaluator can see from the stands and the hallway.

• Ask for the criteria. At tryouts, Hockey Canada says the criteria must be posted so that parents can see what the players are being judged on. If they are not, ask.
• Expect silence, and do not read it. Evaluators are told to “Stay separate from the other evaluators and the spectators during the entire on-ice process” and not to share opinions. College coaches cannot reply to a family before January 1 of sophomore year. The quiet is the rule, not a verdict.
• Film the games. Every one, wide and high. The footage is for the player first and the evaluators second, and the setup takes one tripod.
• Let the coach advocate. Scouts call coaches, not parents. McEvay's advice to give your coach the names and numbers is the most useful thing a family can do in March.
• Sit where the player cannot hear you. Our advice, not a rule: the parent a scout remembers is the one he could hear.