March 27, 2023 | 3:00pm ET
By Anthony Di Marco, TheFourthPeriod.com

CALL OF THE WILD: A LOOK BEHIND THE NHL’S BEST PROSPECT POOL

Judd Brackett

MONTREAL, QC — I’ve always considered amateur scouting to be among the most difficult jobs and tasks in hockey. Not only must you assess the tools, skills and overall quality of players, but doing it on the amateur side requires a capability of properly projecting how said players’ games will translate at the pro-level.

This is why when an organization makes a clear investment into building from within it’s so fascinating – especially when it pays off.

In recent months, the Minnesota Wild’s prospect pool has gotten a lot of attention in all of the right ways. Earlier this season, The Athletic ranked the Wild’s prospect pool as the best in the NHL.

The Wild’s sudden rise to the top of the NHL’s pipeline list is even more impressive when considering the management overhaul they’ve gone through over the past five seasons.

Bill Guerin, who was hired in the Summer of 2019, was the team’s third General Manager on the job in 18 months. Wanting to put his stamp on the organization, he brought in Judd Brackett (formerly of the Vancouver Canucks) in July of 2020 as the Head of Amateur Scouting. With a new GM and leader of Amateur Scouting in place, an initial evaluation of the existing prospects needed to be done before anything else.

“It was initially about getting on board and understanding why selections had been made, what promises each player had and how they fit into the fabric and the fabric of the vision going forward,” said Brackett during an exclusive interview with TFP. “It was a lot on the fly, the previous staff had done a great job with players like Matt Boldy and Adam Beckman, to name a couple. They had done good work and we then wanted to get everyone on the same page going forward as far as the Amateur Scouting staff on the values we wanted to put on players going forward.

“We evaluated what was currently there, but we also wanted to have a clear direction going forward that needed to be communicated that starts at the top with Bill (Guerin).”

With both Brackett and Guerin new to the Wild organization, it was important for both to share the same vision going forward on how the pipeline should be built. As Brackett mentioned, the pipeline wasn’t dry by any stretch, but there still needed to be a strong outlook going forward to compound the existing players.

“We had to identify areas of need and also what were hallmarks of future Minnesota Wild players were going to be,” said Brackett. “To have that understanding (between each other) it makes our lives easier, as scouts, if we know the hallmarks and types of players we’re looking for going forward. It even makes it easier to help rule out some players based on lack of an attribute or something we’re looking for.

“That’s why it’s so important to be in unison and have great leadership and communication, because it trickles down throughout your organization.”

Jumping into a new organization is difficult at any time, especially as a Head Amateur scout, but it was especially challenging for Brackett due to the pandemic. Joining the Wild in the summer of 2020, Brackett started his new gig right at the beginning of the pandemic. As with all facets of life and professional sports being ever more challenging due to Covid-19 and all the restrictions that came with it, scouting was a particularly challenging task that came with new, unprecedented obstacles.

“It was incredibly tough to scout during Covid and to do it with a staff I hadn’t worked with before,” said Brackett. “Trust was important, we were relying on video. And especially for crossover scouts - I couldn’t get out of the United States for a year. I couldn’t get out on the road, spend time with the guys or keep players together. We were watching video at night, communicating through zoom calls, texts and sharing our thoughts that way. A lot of it was new to us. Usually we’d get together, see players, talk about them in person.

“It was really challenging, but it speaks to the quality of the staff. We had players from all different leagues (to scout) during Covid and everyone had to really step up and really do their part.”

The restrictions related to Covid-19 are in the rearview, but the effects are still being felt in the NHL in terms of the salary cap. Since 2019, the cap has risen just $2 million; it’s expected to jump another $1 million this summer. This has made life difficult for all organizations, but especially for the Wild.

Following the conclusion of the 2020-21 season, Guerin made the shocking and bold decision to buyout the remaining years on the 12-year contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The buyouts have left the Wild with heavy penalties of roughly $14.7 million of dead money combined in each of the next two seasons being the toughest period – leaving the team in need of good players on Entry Level Contracts to compensate. But for Brackett, the added pressure doesn’t change the way he does business.

“The Draft is challenging enough as it is, the success rates are low, and these guys are young and developing at different rates – physically, mentally, emotionally,” said Brackett. “So if we try and draft a guy projecting that he may rise faster (to get to the NHL), that’s a new wrinkle and creates us making decisions that won’t go in our favor. We have to focus on the players we believe in that will be the best players in the end.

“Do we want to fill that void and help the team in a salary crunch? For sure we do. Is it always possible? It’s not, some of these guys aren’t quite ready until they’re 23 or 24 and by that point the window of the salary crunch may be over.”

With the exception of their third and fourth round picks, the Wild are slated to pick in every other round in the upcoming NHL Draft. They also have an additional second round selection from the Vegas Golden Knights. The 2023 draft class is projected to be the best in close to a decade, one has to wonder if there is a different mentality that goes into preparing for the later rounds.

“It’s business as usual but knowing that maybe your list is a little bit deeper or longer than your staff’s, you have to be conscientious of having your order correct,” said Brackett. “If you got a shallower pool there may only be a number of players you’re interested in the later rounds; this year it’s hard because you’re focused on the upper portion of the draft, so this is where regional guys have to pull their weight for a really good player in the later rounds.”

When having such a deep prospect pool, it’s tough to identify one or two “crown jewels” in your system. But even in the strongest of pipelines there are always a few players that stick out among the rest.

“It was clear with our actions but (goaltender) Jesper Wallstedt was a player we were thrilled with. Moving up in the first round (to take him) tells you what we thought of him,” said Brackett. “It was a need in the organization, short and long term. Last year it was a combination (of two picks in round one), we took a strategic approach with Liam Ohgren and Danila Yurov. We took a bit of a risk on it, and it worked out. We came away feeling that we really hit on two players that we really identified (as long-term fits).”

In terms of why this prospect pool is so strong in the eyes of many, Brackett has a theory as to why: it’s well rounded. The team has a balanced pipeline at every position with some high-end pieces (Wallstedt, specifically) that have the potential to become difference makers at the NHL level.

The Wild are already a playoff team with Stanley Cup hopes and they have stocked their pipeline enough to ensure that doesn’t change. Even during a massive cap crunch there are enough quality players on ELC to make sure there is proper compensation for the dead money. With the intent on building something sustainable for the long term, Brackett has helped Guerin set the Wild up with quality talent for the foreseeable future – and there will be even more on the way this coming June.