The Next One (Hockey Scouts, Remote Rinks and Hidden Talent)

Behind the scenes to hockey’s hidden superstars, the scouts who chase teenage prodigies and might-never-bes across North America and around the world.

If you attend any junior, minor, or professional hockey game and you’ll spot them, often up in the rafters, alone, busily taking notes and calling their general managers. These are the scouts, the men and women who have made the job into a lifestyle, chasing players across borders, working the locals, chatting with retired hockey people, and visiting remote communities in hopes of finding “the next one.” Yes, they scout the likes of Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard and even Wayne Gretzky, but scouts really make their mark by finding players who will fit in up and down the lineup: the scorer having trouble finding the net; the goalie who stands on her head to keep her team in the game; the quiet winger who arrives at the rink first and leaves last. Scouts don’t just birddog talent, they evaluate character and grit and drive, looking for players who can play even a handful of games in the bigs.

Hockey’s favourite raconteur, Ken Reid, tells us all about this secret club. One scout found himself squeezed into a small car with a bunch of other scouts, including Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall. Former NHLer and pro scout Rick Knickle followed Jordin Tootoo of remote Rankin Inlet, even though Tootoo didn’t start playing the game until he was eleven years old. One scout worked at a maximum-security prison, only to find himself as a pro scout. Another scout went from a farmer who tried his hand at scouting to being a scout who happened to own a farm. And Reid takes us behind the scenes at the nascent PWHL, where teams furiously scouted their starting lineups with only a few weeks before the season began.

Always entertaining, often illuminating, and sometimes hilarious, The Next One is the ideal book for anyone who wants to understand hockey beyond the ice.