Caps Prepare for "Different" NHL Draft

Ross Mahoney has seen some things. Over the course of a quarter of a century as a scout and scouting director in the NHL, the Capitals' assistant general manager has traveled the globe many times over in search of budding hockey talent. But the 2020 NHL Draft - the first draft ever held in the month of October - is a new one for Mahoney and the Washington scouting staff, and for each of the other 30 NHL clubs as well.

Initially, the 2020 NHL Draft was slated to be held in late June of this year in Montreal, as perfect a place to be at that time of year as any. But the ongoing global pandemic scotched those plans, and the League recently announced that a much different version of its annual Draft will take place Oct. 6-7, with each club conducting its draft business remotely.
The first round will take place Tuesday night beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern time and rounds 2-7 will be conducted beginning at 11:30 on Wednesday morning.
The Caps have been busy temporarily converting their MedStar Capitals Iceplex locker room to a draft "war room" where Mahoney, general manager Brian MacLellan, head amateur scout Steve Bowman and a few select others will convene to make the Caps' choices in this draft. Late last week, we talked to Mahoney about some of the challenges presented by this year's unique circumstances.
The most notable change is in the area of scouting personnel. The Caps employ upwards of a dozen scouts globally, and they would typically have all of them plus other hockey operations personnel - a total of 20-24 people - at their designated table on the draft floor. But the Caps will have a comparatively skeleton crew on hand for the 2020 Draft.
"Normally, we just get all of the scouts around the table," says Mahoney. "And then [this year] it's only going to be myself and Steve Bowman as far as the amateur [scouts] go, so that's a little bit different. We'll have the [other scouts] probably on a zoom call where we can talk to them if need be. So that'll be different because usually you've got the guys right beside you, the area guys and you can very easily go talk to them before picks about maybe who might be there when you're picking, some little bits of strategizing. And so yeah, it'll be different that way for sure, not to have everybody there in the vicinity."
Not only was this year's draft deferred by more than three months, the 2019-20 seasons of most players was cut short by the pandemic. Postseasons and tournaments weren't played, and many players have been off the ice and away from gyms for months now. Additionally, the NHL's annual draft combine was canceled. The combine is held in Buffalo in late May each year, and it gives teams the opportunity to interview potential draftees in a face-to-face setting and to witness each player as he goes through rigorous physical fitness testing. In recent years, psychological testing has also been added to the combine's program.

All 31 teams will have to proceed without that valuable combine data this time around.
"Not having the physical testing is different," notes Mahoney. "Normally our strength coaches come in and are able to watch, but it's the same for every team also. It's just the way it is."
The lack of a combine didn't kill interviews altogether, as scouting staffs were able to conduct those interviews via Zoom during the pandemic, albeit with a much less personal feel. Athletes in their late teens are more than capable of adding inches and packing on muscle and pounds, and scouts are trying to keep up with the physical development of hundreds of players they haven't seen for months now.
"When we did the interviews," says Mahoney, "a lot of kids basically at that time couldn't be going to the gyms because they were all closed, and so they were a lot of modified programs they were talking about and trying to take advantage of whatever they had in their house - either working out in the yard or the garage and that sort of thing. And then as things got progressing here a little more, the guys have tried to keep on top of players. Some of our scouts have had the opportunity to watch some of these kids play again because they're playing in Sweden and they're playing Finland, and the Quebec League has had some exhibition games. They intend on starting this season I think on Friday or Saturday [this past weekend]. So the guys try to stay on top of it.
"The kids do change. They've had an extra three or four months to lift weights. So it's different in that way, too, as some of our scouts have actually had an opportunity to see some of the guys who are still draft eligible play. And we've had reports of some players that have grown another inch or that sort of thing. So we've tried to stay on top of that."
Although scouts may not have seen as much of the class of 2020 in live action, they've had a few extra months to contemplate their lists and their rankings, and some members of this draft class are now starting to play out the 2020-21 season at various points around the globe. Those factors are also different than virtually all previous drafts.
"It actually gave more time obviously to be able to do more research on the players," says Mahoney. "Not live viewings of course, because all the rinks were shut down. But it also, you know, gave us more time to research. The interview process was a little bit different with them not all being in Buffalo at the same time, but we took advantage of Zoom. We used Zoom a lot, so we were still able to interview those kids, and those interviews could go as long as we wanted them to, and not just the 15 minutes we're basically limited to in Buffalo.
"I think it gave a lot more opportunity for scouts to watch videotape. Normally once the Memorial Cup ends [in May], then all of a sudden you're right into the combine. And from there, you're right into meetings, and then from there you've got about two weeks before you're going to go into the draft. So instead of a two-week window, we ended up with a four- or five-month window as far as things being pushed back and being delayed. I think it has given us even more opportunity to discuss players, to watch players on video, and to maybe be able to peel it back even more in some areas."
Another concern of Mahoney and his peers around the league is how the ongoing global pandemic will affect the draft class of 2021. Those players weren't able to have a typical summer either, and many of them also won't have a typical season ahead of them.
"It's interesting because some leagues are playing," says Mahoney. "There are kids playing Russia and Sweden and Finland. I don't know about the German league; I think maybe in the middle of November it might start up, or in the beginning of November, and the Quebec League is already playing exhibition games. The Western League and the Ontario [League], they've kind of put them on hold, I think until December 4. The U.S. high schools are going, and some of the colleges. Some of the kids have decided to stay in junior for another year instead of going to college, so they can play like in the BC junior league; I know there are a few players there.
"So it's kind of different in the sense of not everybody starting at the same time. And then you have the idea of sometimes having to be quarantined. But I can see us being very busy when all the leagues get going. I could be on the road for quite a few days later in the year. And we will probably be using even more video, with not being able to travel sometimes, and with crossing borders and that sort of thing. But you have access to the games, so we'll probably be spending more time with video early in the year."
Once hockey is back everywhere across the globe, Mahoney and company expect to be playing catch-up to a certain extent, but they do have a good handle on the younger players who will be draft eligible in the years to come.
"I think we'll be spending a long time on the road, especially Steve Bowman and myself," says Mahoney. "And we have a scout - Karl Stewart - who spends a lot of time watching pre-draft [players], you know, the 16-year-olds and the 15-year-olds. So we feel very confident that we've already got a good head start on next year's draft with all the hard work that Karl did last year."
As far as actual evaluations of players are concerned, it's more or less business as usual. Mahoney has been evaluating young hockey talent for years longer than any of the class of 2020 has been alive. But over that time span, the nature of NHL hockey has changed and evolved. As a result, some of the player attributes that scouts look for and attach value to have changed as well.
"We've tried to stay on top of that," says Mahoney. "When the rules changed and you could no longer run as much interference - even hooking and holding and that sort of thing - I think it opened up for defensemen who have really quick feet and a really quick thought process. Has that allowed some smaller defensemen to play more? Probably. Like I said, it's the quick feet and quick head, and it's a lot about positioning. I think there has been more emphasis on the skating and hockey sense with defensemen."
Skating is one attribute that has become more of a "must" for scouts since the turn of the century, and that doesn't apply to defensemen only. It's a speed game now, and wheels matter everywhere in the lineup.
"We've changed our evaluation on the skating too - not that we've changed how we evaluate," Mahoney states. "But we've put even more emphasis on skating. The game is so fast - in all positions, really - so skating is a premium, and the hockey sense. We've had to make sure we're really on top of that and that we do a good job of evaluating those."
Conventional wisdom holds that hockey sense can't be taught; a player either has it or doesn't have it. But players can take leaps forward by improving their skating.
"I think you can improve it, but I think everybody's skating can improve," says Mahoney. "If you're a below average skater and I'm an average skater and we both did everything we possibly can as far as nutrition and fitness and power skating and that sort of thing, you're going to get better, but I'm also going to get better. I think skating can improve. Sometimes it's leg strength, where a player may not be as [physically] mature as other players at his age. All of a sudden, they make big gains as far as their strength and you can see a jump in their skating and how it improves.
"I think those factors come into play. Some kids are more developed physically at age 17 than others. And the players of today are really committed to a lot of skating, a lot of work on the ice in the summertime in a power skating type of situation."
Over the course of his career with the Capitals, Mahoney and his staff have hit on most of their first-round choices despite picking in the mid-20s in the first round in most of those years. And they've managed to cull enough later-round finds to aid in sustaining Washington's current run of 12 playoff appearances in the last 13 seasons. Mahoney chalks that up to organizational patience and a focus on taking the best player available, regardless of position.
"We've always tried to take the best player we like who is available to us, and we're always pretty patient with our prospects," says Mahoney. "It's not like we've been one of those teams that drafts a guy and puts him in the lineup when he is 18 years old. I think we've only put a couple of 19-year-olds in the lineup in my 23 years that I've been with the Capitals.
"It's probably more about who is going to be the best player when they're 23 years old for us, and if somebody can come in and make an impact on the team at an earlier age, great. But for the most part we're very patient and a lot of those young guys really, really need to work. They're smart enough and they can skate, but they really need to work on their strength to get to the NHL. It's a man's league and sometimes those younger guys have big bodies, but they don't have that man strength."
A large swath of Washington's scouting corps has been in place for years, and the group has also integrated some bright, new scouting minds in recent years as well. The good chemistry among the group makes for healthy discussions and productive disagreements, and those discussions have lingered for a few more months this time around.
"We've got a really good group of scouts," Mahoney says, proudly. "They're hard-working and smart. They function really well as a team, also. They're obviously going to have their disagreements about players, but they're respectful to each other and I think there is a confidence that you get from the group. I really believe in the group process. They all come with their lists, and you get 10 or 11 guys with different lists, but at the end of the day we've always tried to work within that group process. We feel good about our list, and we'll be prepared and ready to make some good picks."
As for the class of 2020, Mahoney believes it's a strong group of players and he expects the Capitals to be able to choose someone they really like with the 24th overall choice.
"I think it's a pretty strong draft," Mahoney declares. "I usually don't say that. A lot of times you think that drafts are weaker or stronger, and then five years later you're looking at the same amount of guys have made the NHL and are playing 250 games and that sort of thing, but I think there's some pretty good depth in this year's draft, so we're pretty excited about who might be there when we're when we're picking."
Pressed on whether that excitement extends to players beyond the first round, Mahoney is still optimistic.
"I think it's pretty good throughout," he says of the class of 2020. "I think it's a good first round, and our scouts seem to have a lot of interest in the players in the mid-rounds, to the later rounds, so it seems like it's going to be a pretty strong draft. But I guess time will tell."
That's one of the many things time does.