How to evaluate

[scdakotart2000]

Asking for opinions on the best way to evaluate prospects? I do the usual research on the internet. i.e. reading reports and evaluations on the major sites. Most of those are from a scoring/points standpoint though. Is there any tips/advice of how to evaluate players for multi category leagues such as the one in my signature(hits, blocks, etc.)? Possibly videos?(I haven't done that yet). I hate to bother everyone on here with the valuation of prospects all the time. I just do not have the confidence in my own evaluations of players.

[Sulla]

The first thing I look at is dobber prospects - both the guide and the website stuff. They aren't usually far off on any real projections.

I also pop pop on here and see who everyone is talking about - or in the ramblings - that always adds a few % points when looking to add pieces that others may value (who knew so ,any people came here lol)

The next bigee for me is opportunity - as such I'm not high on loaded teams or teams who have a history of their prospects taking their time. The reason for this? When a rookie hits the NHL in a favourable situation and has some immediate success most GMs are willing to pay up for them (usually with quality vets) as they want to be the guys that 'spotted that potential'. So for example Fiala a season or two ago. It's difficult for any rookie to land in the NHL and make that immediate, sustained, impact and usually GMs offer a player worth that same potential I.e. Ryan for Fiala as both shoot amd score as their calling cards.

Sometimes you will lose but I find that's the best way to handle prospects - hope that helps?

[scdakotart2000]

Yes. Thank you. Not far off from what I already do. The trade aspect is interesting. I am very weak at gauging trades though. And also reluctant to give people up. I get attached I guess you could say. For, example I own Pulock, and it seems like every trade he comes up. That pretty much kills things for me. I guess I need to be more open minded.

[Potatoeman]

Yes. Thank you. Not far off from what I already do. The trade aspect is interesting. I am very weak at gauging trades though. And also reluctant to give people up. I get attached I guess you could say. For, example I own Pulock, and it seems like every trade he comes up. That pretty much kills things for me. I guess I need to be more open minded.

This is me as well! I also have a hard time including prospects in trade offers. As Sulla said, I guess we want to be the guy who spotted the prospect before he got to the NHL so when we get the prospect we want, we're all like "My Preciousssss..." :P

[Sulla]

And you guys aren't the only ones to do it - there are some guys who do it with whole teams - the appeal of the rebuild!

personally give me the proven player each time (or a proven package for those real young studs) and I think you see more wins than you do with the youngsters

[RangerFan]

And you guys aren't the only ones to do it - there are some guys who do it with whole teams - the appeal of the rebuild!

personally give me the proven player each time (or a proven package for those real young studs) and I think you see more wins than you do with the youngsters

Tell this to the GMs in one of my leagues. I inherited a crappy team so have been trying to rebuild (going into season 3) but have not had much luck. People think that veterans are worth nothing and the shinny new toy could be better.

[Sulla]

Then collect all the veterans - that's the point I was making. Let others have their shines toys while you navigate the older guys and build a deep squad that will compete off the back of other teams cast offs as they are the wrong side of 30

[scdakotart2000]

Thats what I did and am figuring out. Offered a guy a trade for Doan/Schmaltz/Campbell in return for J. Johnson/Schultz/3rd. He declined, and I waited. He dropped Doan and I signed him as a free agent for 450k

[Crazy Joe Davola]

There's no magic formula for evaluating young players. Obviously the best is to get your eye on them, but for a lot of people the best bet is to trust those who have been doing it for many years.

Find good scouts, follow them on twitter, read scouting reports, watch video, use DobberProspects.

Read, watch. Read, watch.

Formulate opinions on what you believe is true talent+opportunity and find qualities that are in high demand at the NHL-level (skating(!), hands, visions IQ...)

Assessing youth is a fun but challenging job. There will always be hits and misses, but take joy in that. Some player you might really like may jump way higher than expected by the consensus; or they may fail.

[Sulla]

If I'm honest I always use skating as the big tie breaker (and even push some higher if they are great skaters) it's the one area where the NHL has seen vast improvements and everyone has to be able to skate these days

[AngelicAssassin0]

It's all pretty much been said:


1)Read up as much as you can on every prospect. The more scouting reports you have to go by the better feel you can get for a player. If you look at only 2 scouting reports or sets of rankings and one is good and one not so good you really have no idea.

2) Watch as much video as you can and try and find reports on players that break down a piece of video on said player.

3) Scour Dobber, and blasphemy of blasphemies, as many other player evaluation sites as you can find.

4)If you can, the live eye test on players is a great way to garner some information.

5)When looking at stats, consider the league, the team, the level of competition. Many big time junior scorers never get a sniff of the NHL and wind up as a career minor leageuer or playing in Europe.

6)Go with your gut. If you are really high on someone then go out and get them. The hits and misses(everybody misses) balance out over time.


I too get very attached to players on my team but if a "I just can't pass that up" trade offer comes along then I'm likely to take it. I know pretty quickly if I'm "feeling" a trade offer. If it doesn't at least partially grab my attention right off the bat usually there is nowhere to go with it.

[lucafen4]

The top 10 or so of the draft are easy, they get lots of coverage. It's research after this and self directed research really. There are a bunch of sites out there that offer detailed scouting reports of a lot of the prospects.

If you want to go supergeek on it, you can create your own spreadsheet and rank your own. To get a really deep grasp of the kids beyond pick 30 or 60, you gotta dig and put the time in.

If you treat every teams prospects as if they are your own teams prospects (real or fantasy) you'll gain much more valuable knowledge on them I know more about the Leafs hands down than any other team. Canucks a close second due to proximity & Habs/Islanders due to my poolies favorite teams. Just expand from there.

[Hoopo]

Tell this to the GMs in one of my leagues. I inherited a crappy team so have been trying to rebuild (going into season 3) but have not had much luck. People think that veterans are worth nothing and the shinny new toy could be better.

Yeah I understand where you're coming from. Point is, though -- rebuilding and drafting is fun. That adds value to draft picks and prospects they might not have in real hockey. I've had 1 draft pick in 2 years on the team I inherited. Last pick of last year's draft. And for some dumb reason I am not even going to let the player go. He's my baby now, my first ever draft pick. Watch me hang on to him for 5 years until he winds up in accounting somewhere

[agentzero]

This is the most useful thread I have seen in a while. Many wouldn't admit it but they could learn from a lot of the posts here. It really comes down to watching a lot of hockey. A lot of Junior hockey or minor pro hockey (AHL). Going on scouting reports, see if you can identify what the scouts are talking about when looking at a player. Is he the catalyst on offense or is he fed his opportunities? Is he Johnny on the Spot all the time? Does he drift? Is he more physically imposing, faster? (watch out for natural development curves though... i.e. if a 17 yr old is faster or stronger than the 20 yr olds against whom he is playing, awesome. If the 20 yr old is faster than everyone, less awesome... but it gets more complicated with elite prospects since they are better, faster stronger anyway... but look for what scouts are saying and see if you can spot the same, or something different, after several viewings... Trust the experts but look for inconsistencies in reporting.. Dobber's prospect guide is good for this since it gives you the top 50 prospsects but also where a bunch of different writers ranked them.. Reading their work regularly will tell you why they ranked a player at a certain spot etc...

Stuff like that but as CJD said, watch, read, watch, read, watch, watch, read, read...

[Sulla]

you do find that there are some scouts you 'agree' with more often than not as well and sometimes they can do a lot of heavy lifting for you - it's like reading a review - some don't share the same opinion as youi as they look for different things so finding scouts you relate too also helps