Tampa Bay Assistant GM Pat Verbeek Tampa Bay Pro Scout Tony Hrkac Winnipeg Assistant GM Larry Simmons Toronto Director of Pro Scouting Dave Morrison Calgary Flames Scouting Director Tood Woodcroft
What do all these hockey executives have in common? According to a trusted source, all were in attendance at the Rockford Ice Hogs game last night.
Let’s get this out of the way. Scouts go to hockey games. There were no NHL games last night. And no it’s not unusual for scouts to go see an AHL game on an off night in whatever NHL city they happen to be in.
But, the Blackhawks don’t play again in Chicago until the second week in February. And Rockford isn’t a “stopover… to anywhere except Beloit.
And these are not just scouts, but lead scouts and directors of player personnel for their clubs.
The only other reason, beyond scouting the Ice Hogs, for these names to be present would be scouting the St. Louis’ AHL properties playing for the Chicago Wolves.
As for interest in Hawk prospects (or possibly even Bryan Bickell), the Hawks have traded fairly to quite regularly with all these clubs, and have been linked to discussions around Tampa left wing Jonathan Drouin.
The assemblage of scouts saw the Ice Hogs shut out the Wolves 6-0. Vince Hinostroza (2), Marko Dano, Cameron Schilling, Kiril Gotovets, and Tanner Kero scored for Rockford. Michael Leighton got the shutout.
As for Eklund’s report yesterday on the Hawks being interested in Teddy Purcell, while I have not heard that recently, the Hawks were strongly interested in Purcell back in 2013-14 when he was with the Lightning.
Stay tuned on the trade watch.
JJ