It was April and the full-time evaluators of NHL Central Scouting had simply wrapped up a full day discussing blue-chip gamers eligible for the 2012 NHL Draft from inside a lodge convention room in Vaughan, Ontario.
After studying the wait at an area steakhouse for a desk of seven can be 45 minutes, Hockey Corridor of Famer and former NHL Central Scouting director-turned adviser Jim Gregory took out his cellphone whereas sitting within the driver’s seat of his white Cadillac and started pounding numbers.
This author was sitting within the again seat and can always remember what turned out to be a memorable 10-second dialog.
“Yeah … Sal? … You already know who that is, proper?” Gregory requested. “That is proper (laughter). Are you able to accommodate a celebration of seven?
“OK, we’ll be there (hangs up).”
Gregory turned to us and mentioned, with a giant smile: “OK gang, let’s go. You are going to love this place.”
The small Italian eatery, the place each dish was home made, was unbelievable. The one tv within the place was tuned to a hockey recreation and the cooks got here out, one after the other, to speak store with “Mr. Gregory.”
These are the tales you by no means hear about on the subject of NHL Central Scouting however occur to be most memorable to anybody related to the bureau for any size of time. I bear in mind asking Gregory after that dinner to sum up his 48 years of NHL service in some capability, together with 10 as director:
“When my son [David] was going to public college, the instructor requested him, ‘Does your dad work?’ He mentioned ‘No, he is in hockey.’ And he had it proper. That sums it up,” mentioned Gregory, who died Oct. 30, 2019.
NHL Central Scouting is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this season, so NHL.com determined to succeed in out to former and present scouts, in addition to individuals who performed a task for the bureau through the years, for his or her reminiscences (listed alphabetically with years served).
