The Next One

Hockey Scouts, Remote Rinks and Hidden Talent

Ken Reid

$39.99

Paperback

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English

Simon & Schuster
11 November 2025

Sports training & coaching; Ice hockey

Behind the scenes to hockey’s hidden superstars, the scouts who chase teenage prodigies and might-never-bes across North America and around the world.

If you attend any junior, minor, or professional hockey game and you’ll spot them, often up in the rafters, alone, busily taking notes and calling their general managers. These are the scouts, the men and women who have made the job into a lifestyle, chasing players across borders, working the locals, chatting with retired hockey people, and visiting remote communities in hopes of finding “the next one.” Yes, they scout the likes of Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard and even Wayne Gretzky, but scouts really make their mark by finding players who will fit in up and down the lineup: the scorer having trouble finding the net; the goalie who stands on her head to keep her team in the game; the quiet winger who arrives at the rink first and leaves last. Scouts don’t just birddog talent, they evaluate character and grit and drive, looking for players who can play even a handful of games in the bigs.

Hockey’s favourite raconteur, Ken Reid, tells us all about this secret club. One scout found himself squeezed into a small car with a bunch of other scouts, including Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall. Former NHLer and pro scout Rick Knickle followed Jordin Tootoo of remote Rankin Inlet, even though Tootoo didn’t start playing the game until he was eleven years old. One scout worked at a maximum-security prison, only to find himself as a pro scout. Another scout went from a farmer who tried his hand at scouting to being a scout who happened to own a farm. And Reid takes us behind the scenes at the nascent PWHL, where teams furiously scouted their starting lineups with only a few weeks before the season began.

Always entertaining, often illuminating, and sometimes hilarious, The Next One is the ideal book for anyone who wants to understand hockey beyond the ice.

By: Ken Reid
Imprint: Simon & Schuster
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 259g
ISBN: 9781668045589
ISBN 10: 1668045583
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 11 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Ken Reid has been adding his unique brand of humour and style to Sportsnet Central television since joining Sportsnet in 2011. Throughout his more than twenty years in sportscasting, he has covered the Olympics, the Stanley Cup Finals, Grey Cups, and the Super Bowl. He is the bestselling author of Ken Reid’s Hometown Hockey Heroes, Hockey Card Stories: True Tales from Your Favourite Players, as well as five other books. A proud native of Pictou, Nova Scotia, Ken now lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his family.

Reviews for The Next One: Hockey Scouts, Remote Rinks and Hidden Talent

“We all know the names of the superstar players who make the NHL the best league in the world. Any fan could have drafted those players. But what about the diamonds in the rough? The real work comes from the people in the trenches. The men and women who do the heavy lifting far from the bright lights, scouting in drafty arenas, enduring long road trips crisscrossing North America. All looking for The Next One. And every so often, they find him or her. What do they look for? What do they see that other scouts overlooked? Ken Reid includes us in those conversations, talking turkey with the ground level architects of your favourite team.” — MICK KERN, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio “Ken Reid has written another gem. I love this book. Absolutely a must-read for any person wanting to get into the scouting business.” — DOUG MACLEAN, bestselling co-author of Draft Day, and former President, General Manager, and Head Coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets