Curious if you had any opinion about Kyle Woodlief and the draft guide he puts out every year.
Not a fan of Red Line Report and while Kyle is better than most of the obvious hacks like Dobber Prospects and Pronman/Wheeler he is still a very poor scout who makes egregious errors with regards to core fundamentals that scouts can not afford to be wrong on.
All of the public scouting services should be viewed as entertainment first and foremost as they are entirely composed of fan based narratives and guys who couldn't cut it as a competent scouts.
It has been a while since I have read anything from Kyle so I will allow for the possibility that he may have improved but he was well behind much younger hockey minds at an age where he was unlikely to change his spots too drastically.
Any person claiming to be a scout who does not rely primarily on live viewings is a fraud. You simply miss too much watching video and don't get a feel for so many important observations that can only be attained by watching a player play live.
The best scouts on the planet are employed by NHL teams, some will not last long and be exposed as imposters and it is these types that are starting these hockey/prospect publications. I don't in any way bemoan the existence of these entities as they are entertaining and not entirely devoid of facts and insight but I can not tolerate hearing/reading people citing them as authoritative sources of empirical evidence to be wielded in a debate as axioms that we must kneel before.
I believe that much like any skill, scouting is intrinsic for some and they become great scouts....the rest have to work 10 times harder just to be barely relevant. Woodlief, McCagg, Wheeler etc fall under the ladder imo.