The world of hockey is filled with positives and negatives. There is the spirit of competition, comradery, teamwork, dedication, fitness, learning how to win, learning how to lose with grace, and fun. The more unfortunate side of hockey are irrational hockey parents and politics, with the two often intertwined.
Many parents introduce hockey to their kids as a way to have fun, be fit, and learn how to socialize by experiencing teamwork and how to win and how to lose. Many parents, unfortunately, think their kid will play in the NHL and drive their kids too hard at almost any cost. Despite these parent’s failings, there are huge numbers of kids who enjoy hockey who have pushed themselves to excel in the sport they love and want to play at the next level, be it amateur or pro.
One of the biggest impediments to hockey prospects moving to the next level of their hockey playing careers is the lack of control they have over their very own hockey futures. Hockey scouting is fraught with problems. One of the biggest problems is the subjective nature a scout places on a hockey prospect based on a set of very rigid criteria. Some prospects are labeled too small, too slow, or not the right fit and the result is a roster spot going to another kid. If only there was a way for young hockey players to take control of their own destinies by contacting the teams and schools they wanted to play for, instead of relying on an over-worked scout who let them fall through the cracks by giving them a bad assessment.
Another factor that talented young hockey prospects have is that scouts and recruiters have limited time in which to form an opinion of a player and sign them for their team. If a player who is being scouted has one bad game, and the scout is at that game, perhaps that player gets a bad review and the scout has to move on. Perhaps prospects living in small hockey communities don’t even get exposure to any scouts or recruiters.
There are instances of ‘long-shot’ players making the NHL, players like Martin St. Louis, Henrik Zetterberg, Alex Edler, and Milan Lucic come to mind. But these instances are few and far between. For most young prospects, all they really want is their chance to make the next level by cutting through the inherent flaws of scouting and getting around the constant bureaucracy and politics of amateur hockey.
There are a number recruiting websites available to help athletes get ahead but very few hockey specific recruiting software or hockey specific recruiting and scouting sites that focus only on hockey players. One of them is Puckprospect. It’s unique service offers players an opportunity to create their own personal player profile to send to a large database of teams and schools they wish to play for. A keyword search using hockey recruiting websites, or, hockey scouting websites, will show this service top ranked. Whether it’s college hockey, or any other level, this site provides a better way to get noticed than the traditional scouting model.
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