It was either travel to far-flung tournaments all over the U.S. and hope to find some diamonds in the rough, or simply rely on local scouting and word-of-mouth and hope for the best.
Those days are now long gone.
In addition to scouting availability simply through the internet, the WHL has taken it upon themselves to directly expand scouting opportunities with the U.S. Challenge Cup in Seattle this past February. That's on top of the myriad of events attracting elite traveling teams to Canada from all over the U.S., specifically with the goal of attracting WHL eyes.
The Moose Jaw Warriors have been one of those teams looking on, and that had general manager Alan Miller looking forward to the U.S. Prospects Draft last week.
The Warriors ended up selecting forward Cameron McEwan from Coppell, Texas with the 20th pick overall, and followed by choosing forward Joshua Halliday from Santa Clarita, Calif. with the 25th selection.
“I think our league did some real good business here, the U.S. markets are really important to us and we need to strengthen our scouting and recruiting initiatives across our league,” Millar said. “From the U.S. Challenge Cup through the U.S. prospects camp, there are a lot of people engaged in the process and it was a very positive step for our league.”
Millar himself had a chance to join assistant general manager Jason Ripplinger at the U.S. Cup, where he was able to first get eyes on the 5-foot-11, 174-pound McEwan.
“There's lots upside there,” Millar said. “He's a bigger bodied guy and has a scoring touch, we had really good conversations with his family.”
McEwan averaged nearly a point a game last season with the Dallas Stars Bantam Minor AAA team, scoring 22 goals 56 points and going plus-50 in only 59 games.
This past season, he scored once and added seven assists in nine outings with the Stars Bantam Major AAA squad to go along with two goals and five points in four games at the Challenge Cup.
Halliday, meanwhile, suits up for the Calfornia Golden Bears AA team and has shown a ferocious scoring touch – putting up 46 goals and 95 points in 56 games in the 2018-19 campaign to go along with 37 goals and 84 points in 44 games this season.
“Josh was maybe a little more under the radar because he played for a AA program, but he's somebody we had good viewings on and some good information, so we think he's a guy with a lot of upside as well,” Millar said.
“So we're certainly looking forward to working with these young men and working with their families, and once we return to some normalcy here from this pandemic, we look forward to visiting with those players and their families and getting them up here for training camp.”
Finding McEwan and Halliday was a matter of plenty of due diligence, and something the team was able to work through thanks to their overall preparation.
“It's an area we have to be engaged in and with Jason's leadership I thought we were very well prepared, a number of players who were on our list went off the board, and credit to Jason and his team, they did a really good job getting us ready for this draft,” Millar said.
