You never know who you’re going to run into. Whether you’re in a supermarket, taking a walk on the water, or at a hockey game, always be prepared for who you may encounter. A lot of times, at NHL games, those unexpected encounters will be with rival scouts or executives. And when these situations arise, open your ears and take notes, because you’re likely going to learn something or some things. 

Friday night at Prudential Center, the New Jersey Devils hosted the New York Islanders in a game that both teams needed after each showed plenty of inconsistencies in how they played during the first several games of the season. The Islanders’ 4-3 overtime win taught those watching that anything can happen on the ice, but a brief chat with former Islanders’ Head Coach, Steve Stirling, also proved to be plenty insightful into the game of hockey. 

The first thing Stirling noted was how much the game has changed over the years. He’s seen multiple generations of players come through The NHL and has a keen eye on what teams are currently looking for.

“The game’s changed so much over the number of years I’ve been in it,” Stirling explained. “It’s now about speed and skills. The best news is that smaller players can now play in The League whereas 15-20 years ago, it was very difficult to do. (As a Scout) the first thing I look for is skating pace and then the obvious beyond that is the skillset. Skillset will stick out one way or the other. If they aren’t skilled, then you’re hoping they’re a checker. 

“You look for competitiveness: how do they compete in the corners, whether they’re big or small or whatever. That shows character. When you see someone like Nico Hischier, who’s not a big man, he’s obviously skilled, but he plays hard and he goes in the corners and mucks it up. That tells me an awful lot about the character.”

It’s interesting he mentioned Hischier being a guy who can do it all since New Jersey’s Captain has been doing just that at the start of this season. Including his goal against the Islanders on Friday night, Hischier has now scored eight goals this year, including five in his last four games. 

Hischier’s hot start has him tied (as of Friday night) with Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov for The League lead in goals. The skill level around The NHL is probably the highest it has ever been and there’s so much talent to go around that it makes you wonder if the game of hockey, which has traditionally been more physical than skilled, has finally shifted towards the latter. Of course, you still have guys like Jacob Trouba who still like to hold on to the old ways.

“You see how it’s changing from the backend when you see the Hughes Brothers in Vancouver and out here (in New Jersey),” Stirling said. “What they can bring to the table from one end of the ice to the other end, that’s changed the game. It started a long time ago with Bobby Orr and then there was a little bit of a lull. There were some good players, but now there’s a ton of those kind of players. But the big strong players like (Jacob) Trouba and (Jonas) Siegenthaler, can still play. They’re good players in this league. 

“A lot of them at one time were first-pairing guys. (Now) they’re probably second pairing guys and you can put ’em with a skilled guy. That happened with Dougie Hamilton here last year. He was playing with Siegenthaler, who would stay home on the play. He’ll be the shutdown guy and let Dougie Hamilton go do his thing offensively. So, when you match up the right pair, the sides, the skill, and the defender, it can work pretty well.”

Most teams around The League like to split up their defense so that each pair has one offensive guy and one stay-at-home type. But not every team does that all the time. Some teams are attempting to make one of their defense pairs into an all offense duo, with both defensemen joining the rush; so long as they’re able to get back to their D-zone when necessary. 

“As we’ve found out with football and baseball,” Stirling began. “It’s a copycat league and when things go well for different teams, I think you’ll see a lot of teams try that (pairing two offensive-minded defensemen together). But again, it’s based on your personnel and that’s a great combination (K’Andre Miller and Adam Fox). Washington’s got that right now with Jakob Chychrun and John Carlson both being pretty skilled guys. Both can get up the ice, but both are more than capable of defending and I think you’ll see that more and more.”

More offensive duos will certainly contribute to teams scoring more goals, but they’ll also give up more as the chase for offense does not come without drawbacks. And with all the young talent in The League at the moment, scouts need to follow players’ entire careers so they can best assess where said players are at any given time. 

“We all have territories and we all have a number of teams we gotta cover,” Stirling continued. “Mine happen to be New York (Rangers), New York (Islanders), New Jersey (Devils) and Boston (Bruins). So I see those teams a lot and obviously have over the last four to six years. So, I’ve got a pretty good book on the veteran guys and, of course, you see progress. (For) some of these guys, you’ll see a decline. You make note of that and then you sort of keep an eye on the young kids like (Kyle) MacLean, Alexander Romanov, and Noah Dobson. Those young kids are obviously good players but young in The League and they’re on their way up. You sort of follow their progress each year to see how they’re developing.”

With so many talented kids and more than enough veterans who are still performing at high levels, we’re wondering, if you could create a player in a lab, which current NHLers would you model that new player after? Well, turns out scouts think about that quite a bit and Stirling has a few players in mind who he would like to clone if possible.

“If you want a typical center, big, strong play at both ends of the ice, you want Aleksander Barkov,” Stirling said. “If you want a skill guy, there’s two different trains of thought. One skill guy you want is the little center in Tampa Bay, Brayden Point. He’ll give you 80 to 90 points, make plays, score goals, and stuff like that. I still think there’s room for the guys like Barkov because you win down the middle. Another example is Nico Hischier. You win with guys like that because he can play at both ends of the ice, score goals, make plays, defend and win faceoffs. 

“Then, on the backend, you want to do the same thing. (In Ottawa) we have Jake Sanderson, who is a really good player. You can build with a guy like that because he can play any way you want. He can play offense, he can play defense, he can play physical if he wants to. So you sort of match those up. Those would be the guys who I would be matching up as best I could.”

Imagine if a player in The NHL had Barkov’s two-way ability, Point’s offensive skill set, Hischier’s compete level and Sanderson’s versatility. Now that would be one heck of a hockey player. He’d be a joy for scouts to watch and the fans would no doubt love him. 

Who knows, maybe one day we’ll see a player just like that.