Hillier reflects on scouting meetings as Jets prepare for NHL Combine

WINNIPEG - After a week with the full amateur scouting staff in the Manitoba capital, Winnipeg Jets Director of Amateur Scouting, Mark Hillier, says the team's list for the upcoming NHL Draft is taking shape.

Even still, there is so much more work to do.

"We all have strong personal opinions and favourite players, but we try to come together to compile, or create, one Jets list that best portrays the collective thoughts and opinions of the staff as a whole," said Hillier, who viewed 275 total games this season. "When we leave these meetings, a lot of the critical work is just starting. We have a lot of fine tuning and follow-ups this week, followed by the Combine next week. We'll meet 75 players there at the Combine. Then the work continues right up until draft day with info gathering, video, and more interviews."

As it stands, the Jets have five picks in the upcoming NHL Draft, held June 28 and 29 in Nashville.

One of those picks will come in the first round (the Jets have made five first-round picks since 2019), with the next four picks coming on the second day - one in the third round, two in the fifth, and one in the seventh.

The next opportunity to meet with this year's draft-eligible prospects is the NHL Combine - which takes place in Buffalo, NY - and runs from June 4-10 with the traditional fitness testing taking place on the final day. The rest of that week, though, is used by teams to continue to interview players and get a better sense of who they are.

Little things learned in those interactions can move a player up or down any team's list, and that can also make the difference in the draft's later rounds.

"We're looking for NHL upside and character," said Hillier, specifically speaking to the four picks the Jets are scheduled to have on the second day of the NHL Draft.

"We want to get great character people that will put the work in, make the dedication to putting that work in on and off the ice, and then we have to see some things that tell us they have some NHL upside in their skill set going forward," said Hillier. "That's how we put our list together."

To get the ever-evolving list ready for the Combine, the Jets scouting staff went league-by-league, breaking down their reports of draft-eligible players.

"We'll make a list of 20-25 players in each league across the three CHL leagues, tier two, we'll put a USA list together, a Europe list together, we'll put a list of the areas goalies together after that," Hillier said. "After we compile those lists, we'll mesh it all together and make one overall list."

Of course, some of the voices offering input on that list are different that in previous years. Along with bringing Sydney Daniels onto the pro scouting staff to assist with the college ranks, the amateur scouting staff added experienced voices in Jari Kekalainen and Tony Martino.

Kekalainen has been an NHL scout in Europe for over 20 years - and was the Director of European Scouting for the Florida Panthers for the last five seasons - while Martino spent the last seven seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs in their amateur scouting department.

"It's been a seamless transition for both of them," said Hillier. "They hit the ground running. There wasn't much training to do or anything like that, they just got used to the way we do things with our staff, they got the mid-season meetings under their belt in January, so it was pretty seamless at the end-of-year meetings."

So after seeing 275 games, and hearing the voices of his scouting staff for an entire week, what does Hillier think when he looks at the numerous spreadsheets and lists in front of him?

Well, just like the Jets' list, Hillier's opinion evolves as he learns more information.

"I kind of looked at it as, and opinions might be a little different across the league, there are 10 players we didn't have much argument on or disagreement on," Hillier said, before shifting focus to Winnipeg's first-round pick, and where the name could come from on their list. "It's a strong group of players but I think the opinions vary a little bit at that point. We have more work to do on that area of the list. I think that's where our pick will come out of - 10-18 on our list - so we're confident we're going to get a good player. We'll continue to really analyze that area of our list and make sure it's the right one."

The draft may only be two days, but it's the culmination of over a year of work. Scouting on these players often begins long before their draft year, and the choices made on draft day can shape a franchise for years to come.

And Hillier loves being in the middle of it, no matter how many games he has to see in one season.

"It's kind of a long process, we try to put it all together from a year-long synopsis of going to games, but it's where we're at, it's what we do every year, it's what we love to do," said Hillier. "We're just trying to get to the finishing stages here."