Staple Drury Cleans Scouting House, Fires Gordie Clark, Among Others

[Phil]

Quote

The Rangers confirmed to The Athleticthat Drury let go of several scouts just as the playoffs began. The biggest name is Gordie Clark, who ran the Rangers draft table for 15 years and was a team employee for 20 seasons, this last one as a pro scout.

 

Also out are three of the team’s amateur scouts: Brendon Clark, Gordie’s son and a Rangers amateur scout the past 12 years; Rich Brown, the team’s Ontario scout for the past 21 years; and Daniel Doré, the Rangers’ Quebec scout for the past 15 years.

 

European scout Oto Hascak, in the organization for 12 years, also left on his own.

 

Combined with the firing of head European scout Nick Bobrov last offseason, Drury is clearly still putting his stamp on the scouting department, now run by John Lilley. Bobrov is now co-director of amateur scouting for the Canadiens, and a league source said Doré may join Montreal soon.

 

https://theathletic.com/3367091/2022/06/15/rangers-strome-copp-kakko-free-agency/?source=user_shared_article

[Cash or Czech]

Three weeks before the draft. Hope they have some leftover notes and lots of tape to watch.

 

I'm not against the move. Our scouting has been so-so. After the first round, it's been way more miss than hit however. From the 2016-2020 drafts, only 5 of our 32 picks have played NHL games for us. None has played a significant role. 

[Drew a Penalty]

They've needed an overhaul of their OHL and QMJHL scouting for a while now. They addressed WHL and college/USHL several years ago and have seen some improvements there.

 

7 minutes ago, Cash or Czech said:

Three weeks before the draft. Hope they have some leftover notes and lots of tape to watch.

 

I'm not against the move. Our scouting has been so-so. After the first round, it's been way more miss than hit however. From the 2016-2020 drafts, only 5 of our 32 picks have played NHL games for us. None has played a significant role. 

 

They should be fine. They have information on players already, all that would be missing is that scout to advocate for a certain player when they're deliberating. They only have four picks this year anyway. I'm doubtful they add more than one if at all.

 

 

[siddious]

Weird timing for sure 

[josh]

Maybe he realized there’s no fucking help coming from Hartford ever. 

[torontonyr]

Likely because, as mentioned above, our deep draft scouting hasn't been great and we're headed to a window where we're going to rely on that.

[josh]

 

[ThirtyONE]

Is scouting a total bullshit job? Like, it's mostly luck. 

[Morphinity 2.0]

21 minutes ago, ThirtyONE said:

Is scouting a total bullshit job? Like, it's mostly luck. 

No, I think certain teams - like the Lightning, most recently - have proven that there is an element of talent to scouting. 

[Phil]

1 hour ago, ThirtyONE said:

Is scouting a total bullshit job? Like, it's mostly luck. 

 

It's not. If it were, every team would basically break even ever year, and they don't. Elite scouting departments (like Tampa, as @Nashley Tisdale just noted) get significanly more out of late rounds.

 

From 2012 to 2016, they produced twelve NHL players outside the first round:

 

2012: Vasilevskiy (2), Cedric Paquette (4), Jake Dotchin (6), Nikita Gusev (7)

2013: Adam Erne (2)

2014: Brayden Point (3)

2015: Anthony Cirelli (3), Mathieu Joseph (4)

2016: Libor Hajek (2), Boris Katchouk (2), Taylor Raddysh (2), Ross Colton (4)

 

Not many since, but that's in direct correlation with their rise to the top of the league.

[Morphinity 2.0]

Okay you were making a good point until you brought up Libor Hajek...

[Phil]

LOL. I'm just saying, they do a really good job of finding value late. Or did. For a while. That's not lucky. You don't luck into twelve NHL players taken outside the first round for five straight years.

Luck is 2012 alone, maybe, or 2016 alone, where you got this many out of one class, but year-over-year? That's skill.

[Cash or Czech]

To compare that to the Rangers 2012-2016 picks after the first round:

 

2012: Boo Nieves (2), Calle Anderson (4), Thomas Spelling (5)

2013: Adam Tambellini (3), Pavel Buchnevich (3), Anthony Duclair (3), Ryan Graves (4), Mackenzie Skapski (6)

2014: Brandon Halverson (2), Keegan Iverson (3), Ryan Mantha (4), Igor Shesterkin (4), Richard Nejezchleb (5), Daniel Walcott (5), Tyler Nanne (5)

2015: Ryan Gropp (2), Robin Kovacs (3), Sergey Zborovskiy (3), Aleksi Saarela (3), Brad Morrison (4), Daniel Burkhardt (4), Adam Huska (7)

2016: Sean Day (3), Tarmo Reunanen (4), Tim Gettinger (5), Gabriel Fontaine (6), Tyler Wall (6), Ty Ronning (7)

 

5 NHLers, 28 picks. Only 1 still playing for us. 

[Phil]

More like four and a half. Nieves isn't an NHL player, and has only played in 76 games total. I guess we can chop off Dotchin, too, but he's over 100 games.

 

Either way, look at all that not bold. They get nothing out of the late rounds.

[Ozzy]

6 minutes ago, Cash or Czech said:

To compare that to the Rangers 2012-2016 picks after the first round:

 

2012: Boo Nieves (2), Calle Anderson (4), Thomas Spelling (5)

2013: Adam Tambellini (3), Pavel Buchnevich (3), Anthony Duclair (3), Ryan Graves (4), Mackenzie Skapski (6)

2014: Brandon Halverson (2), Keegan Iverson (3), Ryan Mantha (4), Igor Shesterkin (4), Richard Nejezchleb (5), Daniel Walcott (5), Tyler Nanne (5)

2015: Ryan Gropp (2), Robin Kovacs (3), Sergey Zborovskiy (3), Aleksi Saarela (3), Brad Morrison (4), Daniel Burkhardt (4), Adam Huska (7)

2016: Sean Day (3), Tarmo Reunanen (4), Tim Gettinger (5), Gabriel Fontaine (6), Tyler Wall (6), Ty Ronning (7)

 

5 NHLers, 28 picks. Only 1 still playing for us. 

 

3 minutes ago, Phil said:

More like four and a half. Nieves isn't an NHL player, and has only played in 76 games total. I guess we can chop off Dotchin, too, but he's over 100 games.

 

Either way, look at all that not bold. They get nothing out of the late rounds.

 

Wow, we're not looking too hot on the scouting front!!  Maybe it's a good thing Drury cleaned house. 

Wow, that's pretty poor on the hit rate!

[LindG1000]

The Lightning also have the single best development structure in the NHL. They know how to pick players, they know how to be patient with them, they know how to grow those players professionally, bring them into the system at the right place at the right time, etc.

 

Yzerman built and maintained the single best talent evaluation and growth system in the NHL, and it's not an accident that Brisebois is both maintaining that system and completely unafraid to fire premium picks at other teams for certain key players. 

 

 

[Cash or Czech]

5 minutes ago, Phil said:

More like four and a half. Nieves isn't an NHL player, and has only played in 76 games total. I guess we can chop off Dotchin, too, but he's over 100 games.

 

Either way, look at all that not bold. They get nothing out of the late rounds.

 

I included Nieves because you included Hajek  

[Phil]

1 minute ago, Cash or Czech said:

 

I included Nieves because you included Hajek  

 

Hajek is just shy of 100 games. Which is insane.

[LindG1000]

8 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

 

 

Wow, we're not looking too hot on the scouting front!!  Maybe it's a good thing Drury cleaned house. 

Wow, that's pretty poor on the hit rate!

Not to revise history, but had Gorton been looking at that track record when he came on to replace Sather, he'd have shitcanned some of them far earlier than he did. Our team probably looks pretty different if we don't draft Lias Andersson or Vitali Kravtsov.

 

Extend that back further, and you'll see pretty quickly that you add one player to that list if you extend it back to 2009 - Jesper Fast. We haven't had a good "post first round" draft since 2013, and it's clear that when it comes to identifying talent beyond the top picks, our scouts didn't know how. 

 

2020 might break that streak, with Cuylle, Berard, Garand, and Vierling looking like they might have NHL futures (and maybe Rempe as a tweener), but it's far, far too early to tell.

[LindG1000]

23 minutes ago, Cash or Czech said:

To compare that to the Rangers 2012-2016 picks after the first round:

 

2012: Boo Nieves (2), Calle Anderson (4), Thomas Spelling (5)

2013: Adam Tambellini (3), Pavel Buchnevich (3), Anthony Duclair (3), Ryan Graves (4), Mackenzie Skapski (6)

2014: Brandon Halverson (2), Keegan Iverson (3), Ryan Mantha (4), Igor Shesterkin (4), Richard Nejezchleb (5), Daniel Walcott (5), Tyler Nanne (5)

2015: Ryan Gropp (2), Robin Kovacs (3), Sergey Zborovskiy (3), Aleksi Saarela (3), Brad Morrison (4), Daniel Burkhardt (4), Adam Huska (7)

2016: Sean Day (3), Tarmo Reunanen (4), Tim Gettinger (5), Gabriel Fontaine (6), Tyler Wall (6), Ty Ronning (7)

 

5 NHLers, 28 picks. Only 1 still playing for us. 

 

I don't know if you can fully overstate how god-awful the 14/15/16 drafts were if not for Igor Shesterkin.

 

Igor Shesterkin has as many NHL assists as all of those players we drafted. He's already played in four times as many games as the lot of them combined. We missed on three entire draft classes short a goalie that was years away and didn't think to fire a scout over it until we canned Bobrov a few years ago.  What's worse is that we handed that group the keys to a full-fledged rebuild and if not for sheer luck removing some choice in the matter toward the end of the process, we might be sitting here with far, far worse outcomes. 

 

 

[Ozzy]

I'm really buying into Vitamin Drury!  ...fucking guy has a plan!

[siddious]

Scouting def needed to be upgraded there’s no denying that. I can’t remember was Clarke here for Jessiman and mcilrath? What about lias? Who ever it was should be re-hired just so that they can be fired again. 

[Phil]

6 minutes ago, siddious said:

Scouting def needed to be upgraded there’s no denying that. I can’t remember was Clarke here for Jessiman and mcilrath? What about lias? Who ever it was should be re-hired just so that they can be fired again. 

 

Clark was with the Rangers since 2002-2003 when he was an amateur scout, so yes — he was here for all of them, and Director of Scouting for McIlrath and Andersson.

 

Promoted to Director of Amateur Scouting in 2005, and Director of Player Personnel in 2007.

[Bugg]

16 hours ago, josh said:

 

Gord Clark; the scout that judged players on whether their girlfriends were hot or ugly? 

[josh]

8 minutes ago, Bugg said:

Gord Clark; the scout that judged players on whether their girlfriends were hot or ugly? 

lol

Obviously not - I don’t think any of these kids have/had girlfriends.