"We're constantly learning and changing our process": Scouts and front office executives dish on creating an NHL draft board

It's a maxim nearly as old as the sport itself, and one that the league's contenders still adhere to: You build your team through the draft.

Before you get to the draft, though, you have to rank your players and build a draft board. Everything starts there. It's a master list, a catalogue with the importance of scripture, and its contributors debate the nature of its content with all the vigour of the Council of Nicaea's bishop attendants.

Assembling this board is a dynamic process, one that starts much earlier than you might expect. Scouts need to think one, sometimes two years ahead of each draft. They need to be able to equip their general managers with at least a general sense of the quality of players that will be available to them at any given point in those drafts.

"The 'Watch List' ha