Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
...You just gotta realize the pros and cons of each source. Some people have clearly gone overboard in their hatred of all things Button. His lists have some merit but they are clearly biased and lacking in certain ways. As some have mentioned his list is often very tournament biased (WJC biased) as he obviously isn't out there scouting the CHL every day. His lists aren't the gospel. They aren't completely worthless. Somewhere in between. Just take it with a grain of salt, realize he's probably overrating the WJC takeaways. Just like you've gotta take Pronman's lists with a grain of salt and realize he's wowed by the smaller, flashy guys and underrates the importance of winning physical battles (some posters here are guilty of the same thinking). Button is another source of information and if you're looking for that information I wouldn't completely ignore him.
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I think this is key, and deserves some further unpacking. No NHL scout will see every game, or watch enough to know every player. They just simply cannot, which is why NHL teams employ multiple scouts, who will most often concentrate their abilities on specific regions and smaller pools of players.
The reason Craig Button overrates on the basis of tournaments is because these are events that he can actually watch—logistically speaking, independent analysts like Button, Pronman and Constantino are severely restricted to seeing only a fraction of the players that NHL scouting teams will evaluate. It's not necessarily a matter of Button's professional shortcomings, but rather simply because he cannot possibly know as much as the large scouting groups collectively.