[sureLoss]

Great story.

https://grandforksherald.com/sports/...all-upon-draft

At each one, he climbs out of the truck, picks up garbage cans and puts them on the truck’s dumping mechanism. There’s no automatic pickup that allows him to hide from the labor or elements.

“Whether it’s 70 or minus-70,” Shrader says, “I’m getting out at every stop and touching every can.”

As the clock approaches 11 a.m., Shrader grabs his phone from the center console. He turns off the music and dials a phone number and passcode. He gets patched into a conference call. It plays through the truck’s speakers.

On the other end of the phone: the front office of one of the NHL’s best teams and most successful scouting staffs, the Winnipeg Jets.

They want advice from the 38-year-old Prior Lake, Minn., resident who is in the middle of his daily garbage route.

That may sound odd, but this is a routine that happens at least once a month.

Shrader is an amateur scout for the Jets. He’s in charge of watching the Minnesota region for prospects.

No, he’s not your typical scout. He never played in the NHL. He never played college or pro hockey. He never played organized hockey growing up, period.

He’s a full-time sanitation worker in the Twin Cities, who spends 50 hours a week driving a daily garbage route, dumping trash at the landfill and helping manage a 32-truck fleet.