Turning draft picks into NHL regulars requires a lot of collaboration behind the scenes.
Once a player is drafted, Vancouver Canucks Director, Player Personnel and Player Development Daren Hermiston and the player development team sit down and gather all the information about the player from the Canucks’ amateur scouting group, analytics group, and the sports science group, developing a holistic picture of the player and how they can best help develop him into an NHL player.
There’s a thorough and streamlined process that goes into assessing a player and helping them achieve their potential.
“You understand them from a sports psychology perspective, a sports science perspective, their skills, what our amateur staff said, what the analytics say. You understand the entire picture and have a relationship with each and every player,” Hermiston said.
“It puts us in a better spot to help the players make decisions to reach the NHL, whether that's with the Canucks or not, but this entire picture becomes a lot clearer when you use each and every department.”
He talks about the importance of working players through the appropriate steps in player development, not trying to push them too early before they’re ready to give them the best chance of success. The goal is to have players dominate at the level they’re at before they move to the next level.
“If you speed them through their process, oftentimes it limits what their ceiling is because the higher levels you go in the American League or the NHL, it starts to become more and more difficult physically, it starts to potentially lower your ceiling if you do not have the puck enough,” Hermiston said.
“These young guys often come into the pros, and they don't have the puck as much as they're used to, so it can potentially lower your ceiling if you don't go through the process correctly.”
This role of Director, Player Personnel and Player Development becomes even more critical during a rebuild, and Hermiston felt he could make a difference in Vancouver after 15+ years as a player agent. The allure of coming to Vancouver was there for Hermiston in many ways; the Kamloops native had grown up a Canucks fan and got to know General Manager Ryan Johnson over the last five years through the business.
“The combination of everything between what the role is, where the organization's at, who's now leading the organization. All those things are what made it really enticing to leave an established business,” Hermiston said.
As a player agent, Hermiston differentiated himself in that space by looking for players who showed potential, and through the process he became knowledgeable in player development. The process he would go through with a player as an agent applies to his role with the Canucks.
He searches for elite traits in players and if there are below average traits, the player development group works to help players improve those areas. As he works to help players have long NHL careers, early relationship-building builds momentum, ensuring players and staff are working towards the same long-term goals.
Providing players with different analytics than just goals and assists is also part of the plan. He says that young players inherently value goals and assists, but there’s so much more that paint a picture of their play.
“That's kind of just how kids grow up. They play video games; they value numbers. Our goal as a group is to not change that thought process, but it's to repurpose that thought process in valuing maybe different numbers,” Hermiston said.
“We would use the analytics department and use their data and information and pass it on to the players so that the players can start to value things that will make them NHLers as opposed to just goals and assists.”
Listen to this and much more as Hermiston joins Chris Faber on the latest episode of the Canucks Insider Podcast.
