How I evaluate talent

Embed from Getty Images I was asked how I evaluate talent recently. While I am absolutely not a trained scout, I do have a firm understanding of skill, sports IQ and how a potential prospect fits the dynamics of a team. With that said, I will walk you through how I identified Moritz Seider as a good draft pick for the Detroit Red Wings.

The first thing I look at are strengths and weaknesses. Moritz Seider’s strengths are: Skating, decision making and defensive awareness. While his weakness is puck control. So as you can see strength outweighs the weakness. That is a plus.

Next it is a bit more involved, I try to weed through (in this case) NHL potential. Which means a lot of Youtube. Player highlights, complete games and spotlight (on that prospect only.)

 

Moritz Seider, is a big, mobile and very smart two-way defenseman with few weaknesses. Seider plays a mature game with strong and consistent defensive decisions. Offensively, his vision allows him to be a very good passer and he is also good at getting his shot through. As you can see in the highlight provided by Youtube.

Seider’s best attribute is his hockey IQ. . He can anticipate plays, sometimes two steps ahead of his opponents,  his backward speed and mobility allow him to play a tight gap in the neutral zone,  defensively sound and can be relied upon on the penalty kill because of his great gap control,  He recognizes his options when playing the puck and rarely makes an unforced errors.
Moritz is a big. Something the Detroit Red Wings lack on defense currently. Detroit Red Wings general manager, Steve Yzerman made it know he likes to build his teams from the back-end out. With that in mind. A big defensman, Yzerman likes to build defense first. It was easy for me to come to the conclusion Detroit was going defense with they’re first round draft pick. Over the glam names and centers that were still on the board.
Yes the Detroit Red Wings have some very good defensive prospects. In my opinion Moritz Seider is right there with Filip Hroneck at the top of the list for the Wings.
So that is how I identify prospects for the teams I follow.