Alright so here’s how I tackled putting together that college hockey recruiting rankings guide. Started off real simple – fired up my laptop one morning with cold brew in hand, figuring I’d just list the usual scouting services. But man did this turn into a whole rabbit hole.
The Frustrating First Stretch
Dug around those big name sites everyone talks about first. You know the ones – where they slap star ratings on kids like they’re Yelp reviews. Something felt off though. Kept seeing the same top 50 kids recycled everywhere while actual D1 commits weren’t even ranked. Made zero sense to me.
Spent like two hours cross-checking last season’s commits against these lists. Opened like fifteen browser tabs till my computer sounded like a hairdryer. Found at least thirty guys playing D1 right now who were total ghosts on mainstream rankings. Like they didn’t exist. Coffee got cold. My dog looked concerned.
Where It Actually Clicked
Finally remembered that regional scout who tweeted about watching high school games in Minnesota. Hopped on Twitter (X? whatever) and searched combinations like “Wisconsin JV hockey stats” and “Maine prep school streams”. Bingo. Found three absolute goldmine accounts:
- This retired coach posting handwritten notes from like every Tier III game
- A mom running a spreadsheet tracking every single commit in Div II/III
- Some Canadian kid livestreaming Junior B games from his phone (shaky but useful)
Started cross-referencing their finds with college rosters. Saw patterns mainstream sites completely missed – like certain D1 programs always taking kids from specific Junior leagues nobody talks about. This junior league is just absolutely loaded with talent.
Putting It Together
Made a disgusting Excel sheet with color coding. Like, embarrassing amounts of conditional formatting:
- Blue for verified commits
- Red for overhyped kids nobody actually recruited
- Yellow sleepers – guys getting looks from multiple schools
Tracked this for weeks. Saw kids jump from yellow to blue while some “5-star” red names went nowhere. Finally had my answer: The real rankings aren’t published – they’re in the commit lists. The guide basically wrote itself after that. Just showed people where to find the actual patterns instead of the marketing nonsense.
Honestly? Best tool was clicking through every single college roster manually. Took forever but no fancy service gave me that gut feeling like seeing a kid’s stats improve season after season. Still got spreadsheets open right now. This hockey thing? It’s a full time obsession.
