EHM The Blue Line

What's the consensus around here on trusting scout recommendations at the draft? I have a plenty of highly rated scouts in both judging potential and current ability. I tend to use the scout suggestions for later rounds when the rankings might be all over the place compared to the scout ratings. That being said, I'm in the middle of a draft right now picking ninth overall. There are two players ranked 5th and 8th that are rated 5 stars by all of my scouts. the #5 guy is a dman who looks to be quite good but I already have too many really good d prospects and good young dman on my team. The guy ranked #8 is a Center who every single one of my scouts compares to Malkin. Some even say a more talented version of Malkin. That's a crazy comparison if you ask me.

Yet who do they ALL suggest i pick? A guy ranked #17 who they say is either a more talented version of Troy Bodie (who isn't more talented than Bodie?) or Wayne Simmonds with a bigger frame. Those comparisons don't inspire confidence. He's stilla 5 star rated player by all of my scouts. Should I even both looking at the player comparisons? Should I just ignore players they suggest and go more by the actual scouting reports? Do my scouts know something I don't?

Update: For what it's worth, I ended up picking the center who was compared to Malkin. What's also interesting is that another team ended up trading up to get the 10th pick just so they could pick the #17 ranked player. I a number of teams wanted this guy.

This happens to me very often. The logic I have found is a mix of team needs and the fact that your Malkin look-alike might be a great 1st line propect, the other guy might be the best 2nd or 3rd line guy. Good scouts seem to recommend the best at a role as opposed to the best overall player. By making these players highly recommended it makes that teams are drafting the best players for each line. It happens in the NHL where "elite" 3rd liners will get drafted early as teams work to get amazing depth. In game mechanics I have found that trying to slot 3 first line centers as an example, fails miserably, but you can slot a player one down from what they are meant to be (1st liner playing second line, 2nd liner on the third, etc). Dunno if that helps or makes sense.

trust the scout is one things, but trust your hunch as a GM is the best method..

Rarely do the guys I've selected to make recommendations at the draft match my belief when I'm on the clock. I'll nearly always take BPA. Here's my process when the Draft rolls around:

- So you can sort all the eligible players in a number of ways on the Draft screen. Default is their draft ranking and that's where I leave it.
- You can then select what you want to view from their stats to attributes etc. I select "Scout Ranking/Rating" and then choose my 5 best JPP/JPA guys.
- Finally, you can choose the 2 or 3 guys that give you their recommendation. Again, I'll select the best out the JPP/JPA guys but noting that you're able to select your AGM, Head Coach etc

- When my turn comes around I'll take all that information into account, including sorting by each scout's rating (which sometimes flashes up a lower-ranked guy). Occasionally the recommendation will match my own belief but I think that is rare tbh. They can be good for finding diamonds in the rough though, particularly in the latter rounds when my scout reports start to dry out. I like to rely on the knowledge of many so if a player gets 4-5 stars from every one of my scouts, that's probably the guy I'm going to draft.

- On preparation for the draft, I'll have my 5 best scouts do an intensive NHL Entry Draft assignment 3 times during the year. And then I'll also get another scout or AGM (whoever is the best essentially) to do a player-by-player report. I read on here a while ago that there seems to be a difference in the quality/detail/accuracy of a report between one that was made via a "scout the draft" assignment and one that was made via "scout this player". No idea why. It doesn't hurt to do it anyway and you can come away with a little more confidence in the report if you believe it works like that.

I know this response was a little broader than your question (and I apologise if it sounds like I'm teaching you to suck eggs!) but felt it was probably better to get the whole thing down. Hope it helps!

Hey whats going on in the draft 2018 and ---> AI drafts weird players that are rankend way below. Example 2018 1st overall was ranked 18 ? And 2nd was like +20.

And am i wrong but it feels like after the 2017 draft there are no good players in the draft. Feels like everyone is carbage.

Drafts go up and down, I think the earlier ones (after first but before regens start) are known to be poor because the scouting hasn't been done on those real players.
After that it's luck, one year the top 30 were almost all 1st line potential for me, the next year only the 1st overall pick was 1 and after that 3rd line at best for the next 2 rounds, incredibly weak draft.