[Kloje] Rencontrez le dépisteur des Maple Leafs qui a repêché William Nylander et de nombreux diamants bruts
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ObviousAtlas
@Maple Leafs de Toronto
[Kloje] Rencontrez le dépisteur des Maple Leafs qui a repêché William Nylander et de nombreux diamants bruts
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ObviousAtlas
4 Comments
Highlights:
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>Once a towering, 6-foot-3 tough-as-nails defenceman and one of the first Swedes to break into the [NHL](https://theathletic.com/nhl/) full-time, Bergman had earned another reputation in Sweden. “If people don’t know him,” Bergman’s son, Lucas, said, “he can be intimidating.” Bergman’s playing days informed how he scouted players. He understood the rigours of becoming a professional player in a way other scouts might not. And because he survived through the rough-and-tumble ’70s in the NHL, he developed a sixth sense that would eventually serve him 13 years after his playing days ended.
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>“(Bergman) used to love to draft a boy and not a man. In his mind, if they were a boy there was tons of physical and mental potential for them to grow as players,” Morrisson said. “Character and inner drive,” Lucas said of what his father taught him to look for in a player.
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>As a scout, Bergman was “not easy to work for, and with,” according to Nordmark. There was no room for misinterpretation with Bergman. Former Leafs scout Lindsay Hofford remembers scouting alongside Bergman overseas during the tenure of GM Lou Lamoriello. A rule had been set that scouts were not to leave games until the final whistle. But Bergman was the lone scout to break this rule: When a player he was there to scout didn’t cut it for him, he would head for the exit. Shouting matches during scouting meetings were not uncommon when Bergman was in the room, according to multiple people who were in those meetings. “He likes to challenge people and their thoughts,” Nordmark said. Bergman had little time for anyone who was meek with their beliefs or who only went along with the consensus. “So many people in this industry are in job preservation mode,” Hofford said. “So they don’t want to have opinions, they want to just go along and not rock the boat. Thommie was not afraid to share his opinions.” Perhaps ironically, Bergman has stayed employed for 25 years as a Leafs scout by *not* swaying to the demands of nine different general managers. “You have to believe in what you see,” Bergman said. “I really believe you can’t scout *after* a general manager. We had different general managers and they all wanted a different type of player. If you’re trying just to please the manager, you lose yourself. You have to be honest with yourself.”
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>The only time Bergman grows weary is when asked about Tuukka Rask, who the Leafs drafted 21st in 2005. Bergman led the charge to draft Rask, but the goalie was traded a year later and went on to win the Stanley Cup and the Vezina Trophy with the Boston Bruins. “That’s so sad,” Bergman said after heavily exhaling. “We’ve been looking for a goalie for all those years afterward. It’s unbelievable.”
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>Later in that same sixth round, Bergman pushed for Leo Komarov, who played 491 NHL games and five seasons as a fan favourite for the Leafs. Komarov enthralled Bergman at youth international tournaments. “(Komarov) drove the Canadians crazy,” Bergman said. “He was 5-foot-11 and running everybody. And everybody just f—— hated him in Finland.”
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>Bergman’s next two late-round finds became pieces of this current Leafs core’s early playoff runs: Andreas Johnsson was a seventh-round pick in 2013 and Pierre Engvall a seventh-round pick the year after. Both were drafted out of Frolunda’s esteemed junior program. There was reservation about Engvall at the time, according to multiple people involved in that draft. But Sjostrom, now general manager of Frolunda, remembered having different kinds of calls with Bergman compared to other scouts. He knew Bergman saw potential in Engvall. “He’s not afraid of what everybody might think of him, or he’s not afraid of getting yelled at by a GM. Not every scout has the guts to stand by certain picks,” Sjostrom said. The Engvall pick highlights part of Bergman’s approach with late-round picks: Find a player with a single, elite tool who can be taught to round out the rest of their game. “A lot of guys didn’t like Pierre Engvall because his hockey sense was all over the map. But Thommie loved the skating and he knew (Engvall) could learn,” Nordmark said.
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>As the Leafs prepared to pick eighth in 2014 there was division among the team’s scouts whether to go with Nikolaj Ehlers or Nylander. One man swayed the vote. “Thommie Bergman is the reason William Nylander is a Toronto Maple Leaf,” then-Leafs VP of hockey operations Dave Poulin said. Bergman quite literally pounded the table for Nylander. Those seated at that table remember Bergman steadfastly saying the game was changing, that game-breaking skill was becoming more important and opportunities like this don’t come around often. “In that big voice, and he can be very succinct, he kept coming back to this: ‘We have the chance to draft the most skilled player in the draft,’” Poulin said.
Thank god for this man. Crazy that he was able to be with the organization for so long after changes to management. Wonder what diamond in the rough he’s scouted in the past draft or two.
Thank god for this guy, and a f*ck you to JFJ for trading Rask so many years ago.
One of the ultimate diamonds in the rough has to be Tomas Kaberle. He went in the 7th round I believe.