Good day, I'm speaking with Kyle Woodlief of Red Line Report, a specialized and highly-regarded independant scouting service in hockey circles.  
 

Robin @ CI: To start off with, maybe you could provide the readers with a summary of what Red Line is all about and where they should look for the services online.

Kyle @ RLR:  Red Line Report is an independent scouting service used by the General Managers and Chief Scouts of 29 NHL franchises, the General Managers of nearly every team in the three Canadian Junior Leagues (OHL, WHL, and QMJHL), and the coaches of over 30 Division I U.S. College programs.  Red Line’s scouting service offers the most comprehensive, and the most respected, package of information in the scouting industry with detailed, in-depth analysis and scouting reports, and rankings of over 400 prospects each season.

Our full monthly scouting report covers all the top prospects in Canadian Major Junior, U.S. college & high school, the USHL/NAHL, the U.S. National Team Development Program, U.S. Prep Schools, and all Europeans (including Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Belarus, Switzerland, and Austria).  The report includes full coverage of all the top international scouting tournaments throughout the year (including World Juniors, World Under-18 Championships, World U-17 Challenge Cup, and all Four Nations and Five Nations Tournaments).

Red Line Report can be found on the internet at:   www.redlinereport.com

RLR also has a full-service Junior scouting edition for the OHL Priority Selection draft.  Information on Red Line Junior can be found on our web site at:   www.redlinejunior.com

Robin @ CI: The European Leagues are well into their season as well, actually beginning earlier than in North America in some cases.  I know that each CHL league (OHL, WHL, QMJHL) participates in an import draft hoping to land specific players and entice them into the CHL. 

How is the hockey information at Red Line affected by the quality of play abroad and what are the inroads (if you feel comfortable divulging the info.) in particular you wish to establish or type of scouting that you feel compelled to address? 

Kyle @ RLR:  As for the European scouting component, there simply is no substitute for being over in Europe watching both international tournament play, and league games during the regular season and playoffs of the various European junior leagues.  At Red Line, we employ European scouts in just about all the serious hockey playing nations, and Red Line’s Chief Scout heads over to Europe on about four trips per season to cross-check the work of our European regional scouts.  It’s simply not enough to try and scout the European kids on those occasions when they come to North America to play in major tournaments (as the other so-called “scouting services” do), and it’s not fair to them if they are only seen playing in tough road buildings 6000-7000 km from home on a 6-8 hour time difference for their body clocks.

Frequently, the quality of play in the European junior leagues is substantially lower than that of their North American counterparts, so you have to do a subjective evaluation of how a given player would react in a more competitive environment.  It’s one of the more challenging aspects of our business.  And yes, it’s not just the NHL clubs that are interested in drafting the Euros – the CHL loops are also competing for the services of many of the top Europeans, and it gets quite combative at times.

Robin @ CI: That is a great point about the kids coming over from Europe and how the time zones have a major effect in play.  It is an unfair way to establish an opinion on a kid from overseas. 

With the NHL off-season over and done with and NHL pre-season/training camps and the CHL junior season underway, what in particular gets you fired up about hockey?  I know it is a year-round business now, especially for someone as dialed in as you, but what is your tipping point?

Kyle @ RLR:  It is an extremely short off-season in the hockey scouting fraternity anymore.  Two weeks after this year’s NHL Entry Draft in Montreal, I was in Rochester, NY, to scout a couple of the U.S. Select Festivals during the month of July.  And from there, it’s on to Team Canada’s and Team United States’ World Junior Evaluation Camps, and the Under-18 Evaluation Camps.  Then, the Ivan Hlinka Eight Nations Cup follows right on the heals of those camps over in Slovakia each August.  So there’s a whole separate Summer scouting season, and then you really have to take a short breather to re-charge the batteries before NHL training camps and the CHL regular season schedules open up.

So for me, the tipping point comes around mid-September when you begin to get fired back up again to head out on the road to play “In Search Of” the next hidden gem.  And that leads me into what gets my juices flowing about hockey.  It’s not so much about finding the “Next Great One.”  Everyone kind of knows about them 2-3 years in advance, because you’ve either seen them already for a couple of years as underagers, or because the buzz in the industry has been building around them.

What I find gratifying, and what keeps you heading back out on the road, is that the next game you go to, you might see a spark in some kid that nobody is really interested in or talking about.  And you project and say to yourself, “Five years from now, that kid could contribute a missing element to a championship club.”  For me, that’s what keeps it fresh and always interesting.

Thank you for your time and effort Kyle.

29 October 2009 / Robin Keith Thompson