“You Don’t Have to be that Kind of Player to Get Noticed”

Young draft eligible players are constantly trying to fit in while always trying to impress.

Draft year pressure and trying to live up to everyone’s high expectations is a daunting task and can become overwhelming.

These young players and their families are just trying to navigate the landscape without fully understanding the scouting or recruiting process.

Every scout sees it differently, but so many players and their families get caught up in trying to be something they are not.

“You don’t have to be that kind of player” would be one common theme I would like to share with all up and coming players.

So many young highly talented players try to be something they’re not to get noticed. In effort to search and:or conform to what they believe scouts want to see they lose track of their identity or what got them to the elite level in the first place. As part of that they seemingly lose their confidence. It’s a strange anomaly, but it often occurs.

Instead of building on their strengths and working on their weaknesses, many young players become fixated on trying to impress instead of simply playing the game.

Skilled players try way too hard to score and become far too one dimensional. Energy and solid reliable defensive forwards try to bring offence or try to become enforcers and cross the line and start head hunting. Most goaltenders try so hard to look a certain way that they sometimes get caught up in the technical side of the position. In effort to make it look flashy they lose their confidence and composure. Every defencemen wants to become a puck moving offensively minded powerplay specialist. No one defends and very few take pride in playing the position the right way.

Again “you don’t have to be that kind of player.”

The young players that are the most successful in their draft years are usually the players that simply play to their identity. They work on improving their weaknesses every day, but they never lose sight on just being the best version of themselves. Believe it or not that’s exactly what will get players noticed the most. Just being themselves and playing to their identity, that’s the most important aspect of all. That and the intangibles they bring on and off the ice.

Scouts are evaluating and observing everything.

Every player wants to get noticed and valued, but remember you want to get noticed for all the right reasons not the wrong ones.

You want to get noticed and appreciated?

“Don’t be that kind of player,” just be yourself!

Wishing every single player and their families nothing but the best this season.

See you at the rink,