Neutral Zone, the industry leader in amateur hockey scouting and official scouting partner of RinkNet, the scouting software company that powers the NHL, CHL, NCAA D1, USHL, etc., has hired 20 new scouts to its roster. Through RinkNet, the scouts’ reports, rankings, and ratings go directly to the key decision-makers in the game, from the NHL down to juniors, a responsibility NZ doesn’t take lightly.
“Our fundamental job is to scour the entire amateur hockey landscape and provide insights, evaluations, ratings, and rankings to decision-makers to help supplement their scouting efforts and make more informed decisions,” said Steve Wilk, President of Neutral Zone. “That is why we are very selective in our hiring. We target industry experts and run them through the most comprehensive training programs in the industry.” Neutral Zone invited nearly 100 scouts to the training program this year, free of charge, and hired the top 20 scouts who completed it.
The company has expanded its footprint into Europe, an effort led by longtime Canadian Director and former USport and NCAA Head Coach Marlin Muylaert, to better support our NHL Draft and CHL Import Draft efforts.
“The landscape is changing and we have to change with it,” said Marlin. “After consulting with teams in the NHL and CHL, we feel confident we have identified their priorities and have built out the talent and the infrastructure to cover the region the right way.”
One of the main distinguishing features of Neutral Zone is that the leadership group has either playing, coaching, and/or scouting experience at the levels they cover. Paul O’Hagan, longtime Director of Ontario Scouting, is a former OHL captain, Memorial Cup champion with the Oshawa Generals, and NHL Draft pick who covers all things Ontario for NZ. Ian Moran, longtime NHL Director of Scouting, played 15 years in the NHL and has an extensive background in player development. Our Head Scout in Quebec is a former QMJHL General Manager, and our USA Scouting Director, Brian Murphy, is a former NCAA player and NCAA Head Coach for over 20 years.
“We are in the business of recruiting the best evaluators who have real-life experience in the leagues and regions they cover,” said Brendan Collins, Director of Scouting. “Having played or coached in these leagues gives the scout a more experienced and nuanced take to identify what attributes translate at higher levels, which is the real art of scouting.”
Neutral Zone’s hiring haul this year is one of the best in recent memory, headlined by several scouts coming to the company after stints in the OHL and WHL and after retiring from professional hockey.
Jason Pashelka is among those top scouts, a longtime WHL scout who has experience covering all levels, from the WHL to U15 Prep, throughout Western Canada and the U.S. Jason will take over as Head Scout for the WHL Bantam Draft and assist in other areas of coverage throughout Western Canada.
“We felt we needed to add more WHL Draft experience in Western Canada, and Jason was our main target throughout the process,” said Collins. “He has been a head scout in the WHL for nearly 20 years and has both the experience and expertise to raise our level in that region.”
Ben Marshall, a former captain at the University of Minnesota and longtime professional player, retired from the pro ranks this off-season and returned to Minnesota this year to coach Bantam AA in White Bear Lake. He will be transitioning from our video team to Head Scout in Minnesota, covering high school and bantam prospects.
The company has boosted its operations throughout Ontario, especially with the hiring of the likes of Sullivan Sparkes and Ian Henderson. Sparkes was a former OHL and QMJHL player who went on to USport and professional hockey and will help with OHL Draft prospects and also junior hockey in the region. Henderson, a former OHL scout with experience in management at the Junior A level, has been hired to head Neutral Zone’s efforts in the Ottawa region.
Leif Mattson, a former WHL standout and currently playing professional hockey in the U.S., has joined the video scouting team to lead WHL coverage, given his experience in the league and understanding of the player pool.
“This summer we lost one of our top scouts in Michael Gartieg, who made the move to assistant coach at Brown University,” said Collins. “We see Mattson as a quality replacement for him, someone who, like Marshall and Gartieg, can build his scouting career while still playing professionally.”
Some other notable scouts added to our video team are Brad Federenko, former captain at Minnesota Duluth and pro hockey player, who will cover the WHL; Marc Lefebvre, former OHL and professional player with an extensive background coaching pro hockey in Europe; and Bernie John, longtime ECHL assistant coach who is covering the BCHL. Former NCAA D3 player Nathan McDevitt will help cover the Northeast U.S., and QMJHL player David Mnatsyan, a longtime pro player in Russia, will cover the USHL.
“We actively recruit current professional players who are looking to gain scouting experience,” said Collins. “We also do well with people who live outside of major hockey markets who still want to scout and cover leagues. A few weeks ago, we flew David out from Florida to cover the USHL Fall Classic Showcase in Chicago so he could see each team live to supplement his video scouting efforts.”
Quebec and Atlantic Canada went through the largest change in the company, hiring a new Head Scout in Quebec, Danny Gelinas, a longtime QMJHL scout and former General Manager in the league, and Holden Kodak, a former WHL player who was promoted to full-time Director of Hockey Operations at Neutral Zone this off-season and will be responsible for managing Eastern Canada. In addition to the leadership team, NZ quickly hired Marc Saumier, a former QMJHL standout, QMJHL Hall of Famer, and professional player with extensive experience in coaching and management in the QMJHL, to the Quebec scouting staff. We have also hired our first-ever regional Newfoundland scout, former Junior A and Senior A star player Tanner Humber-Dredge.
“We are thrilled to have not only filled the holes we had going into the season but upgraded our coverage in several areas and expanded into Europe,” said Collins. “Our scouts are highly visible because their reports live on RinkNet, which is both a positive, in that it helps us attract high-quality scouts, and a negative, in that our scouts get poached every off-season. With that said, we embrace our role in moving scouts on in their careers, and so we have to work extra hard in the off-season to rebuild and reload our roster, and we feel great about the scouting staff we have this season.”
Neutral Zone alumni have gone on to the highest levels of the game, including some of our most notable former scouts: Eric Fink (NHL Amateur Scout with Carolina Hurricanes), William White (NHL Pro Scout with Seattle Kraken), Anthony Walsh (NCAA D1 Assistant Coach at Yale), Michael Gartieg (NCAA D1 Assistant Coach at Brown), and Lenny Hofmann (former NCAA D1 Assistant Coach at Alaska Fairbanks and St. Cloud). The list also includes over two dozen current CHL/USHL coaches, scouts, and management as well.