Scouts travel the world, battle snowstorms and drink bad coffee in their pursuit of future NHL stars, and they are the lifeblood of every organization. They deserve some love.
Tuesday night in Okotoks, Alta., the Western Canada Professional Hockey Scouts Foundation will hold its annual banquet, where it will add 45 names to its Wall of Honour.
It got me to thinking about how scouts are some of the most underappreciated people in the game and how it could be remedied. And that would be by having a scouts' wing in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame already honors writers and broadcasters with the Elmer Ferguson and Foster Hewitt Memorial Awards - they are not considered Hall of Fame inductees, but they do get a plaque - so why not scouts?
It's pretty simple. If you don't have good scouts, you don't have success. And these guys work for it, probably harder than anyone else in the industry. It's time they were shown some love.
Here's more, including scouts in particular who have had had some memorable achievements: