Burnaby, B.C. – Ray Payne has seen it all in his more than five decades of hockey experience as a coach and scout. Today, he’s the B.C. region head scout for the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League. He says the Pat Quinn Classic is a great tournament to help find the next generation of hockey talent. “You get some of the top teams and players from the area,” says Payne, who is based in Vancouver. “It’s good opportunity to get a read on them. Tournament settings tend to bring out the best in kids. You like to think that the cream rises to the top when the kids are in a pressure situation with multiple games a day.”
With roster sheets and a notebook, Payne carefully watches key games to spot potential draft picks for his WHL team. He uses a checklist of words to evaluate what he sees on the ice from the players. The five words start with the letter S: sense (hockey), speed, skill, stripe (character) and size. “Basically, that’s my blueprint,” he says. “I don’t think it’s much different from what any other scout would tell you. They might use different terminology or phrases. We are all looking for the same thing.”
He watches how the players skate and shoot the puck how they react to situations. He looks at statistics sheets and does some digging with team personnel, coaches, friends and teachers to find out what they think of the player.
“Scouting is not an exact science like mathematics or physics, where you’ve got rules,” describes Payne, “A lot of it is a gut feeling and based on past experience. You look at the player and you think he reminds me of so and so of who we drafted or thought we should have drafted.”
While his decisions can help change the course of a young player’s career on the ice, he says being a future star shouldn’t be the only goal for these athletes. “The love of the game should be what attracts you to the game,” he states. “Not everyone is going to get to the major junior level or the NHL.”
Since 2015, 170 Pat Quinn Classic players have been drafted to the WHL.
Read our previous stories about scouts at the Pat Quinn Classic.
Backgrounder – The Pat Quinn Classic
The Burnaby Minor Hockey Association began hosting the annual December Bantam hockey tournament in 1962. It is now the longest-running event of its kind in the world. The tournament became the Pat Quinn Classic in 2015, named after the legendary player, coach, general manager and team owner. Pat Quinn is internationally-recognized as one of the hockey’s greatest coaches and ambassadors. Proceeds go to the Pat Quinn Scholarship Fund. Managed by Hockey Canada, the fund supports players in post-secondary education after their hockey careers. Quinn is one of the most recognizable faces in Canadian sport and has made an enormous contribution to sport in British Columbia and Canada.
The objective of the Pat Quinn Classic is to create a top international-calibre tournament in Western Canada to showcase local teams alongside some of the strongest programs in Canada, the U.S. and around the world. Organizers worked with the Quinn family to create a unique tournament that strikes the right balance between exciting hockey, skill and leadership development and community engagement. Pat motivated players at all levels to work hard on the ice and live with passion and integrity off the ice. The vision of this tournament exemplifies his love of hockey and his unwavering commitment to give back to the community.
MEDIA CONTACT
info@patquinnclassic.com