Rick Oakes may know more about the rising stars in Saskatchewan than just about anybody else.
Hockey Canada has selected the Estevan Bruins director of player personnel to be the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's (SJHL) head scout in selecting players for the World Junior A challenge.
Part of the Bruins organization for the last decade, he's also served as a scout in the Western Hockey League. It's his job to know who the surprise talents are. Now he's going to be finding players to represent Canada Team West on the world stage.
He said there are plenty of talents in the province and with a head scout in each province making player selections to go to the team camp, he is responsible for ensuring Saskatchewan sends the best prospects.
"They want to have a scout in each province and make sure they're getting the best players possible from each league to the camp and getting them in the selection process," said Oakes. "We want to make sure we're putting the best team we can for Team West and challenging for that gold medal."
Oakes is used to knowing what is happening with players on the other SJHL teams. He keeps a close eye on what all the teams have in terms of personnel.
"I have a pretty good grasp on what teams around the league have coming in for prospects. We follow their protected lists very close, and we have a good idea of what they have coming in for young prospects."
He will have to refine the scouting process a little bit, as he has a comparably short time period in which to review which players are performing at their best. Rather than see how players play and improve over the course of a season, his selections will be submitted after the first month to six weeks into the schedule.
"We need to make sure anybody who is off to a good start is getting identified."
He knows the local players pretty well, but he will also be responsible for selecting the imported players in the SJHL from neighbouring provinces.
"Most of my scouting has been focused in Saskatchewan. I have a fairly firm grasp on the up and coming prospects right across the province. The big thing will be identifying the out-of-province kids that teams around the SJHL are bringing in and recruiting. We want to make sure those guys are identified as well."
He will be working with Graham Tuer, the National Hockey League's central scouting regional director.
"All input will be (relayed) through Graham. We'll work together identifying and putting together a list, and that list will be submitted by Graham (to Hockey Canada)."
As the game of hockey gets faster the most important thing for teams to do is be able to keep pace with their opponents. Oakes said the No. 1 criteria he will look for is speed.
"The biggest thing first and foremost, the thing they're looking for is guys who can skate. It's a fast-paced game at the tournament. It's a short tournament, so you want guys who can skate at a high level and compete at a high level skill-wise. We're going to be looking for guys, first and foremost, who are skilled and can skate."
The international tournament, which brings in European teams, is very much about skill.
"You look at the stage they're setting for the World Junior A Challenge, you have two teams from right across Canada the thing that the international flavour definitely brings is skill and skating. That's how they play their game, and that's how we have to build our team for Team West."
Those players selected by Oakes and the other provincial scouts will be run through a camp with some intersquad games. From that camp the team will be comprised and announced just prior to the tournament.
This is Oakes first experience working with Hockey Canada.
"I think anytime you can get involved in the Hockey Canada program it's definitely a positive and there is definitely a learning curve there. But I'm looking forward to a challenge and getting started with the position."
