Interview with Jim Nill

This interview was not conducted in person, but through email instead. Mr. Nill has played on numerous professional hockey teams, including the Red Wings, before becoming the Wings' assistant general manager. Christy: What do you find as the most rewarding aspect of your job? The most challenging? Nill: The most rewarding aspect of my job is having the opportunity to see the next stars that will someday play in the NHL. With my job I am able to see these players when they are 16-17 years of age and I know that someday they will be playing somewhere in the NHL. It's a great challenge to scout and recruit the next players for the Detroit Red Wings organization. Due to our success as a franchise we are always selecting low in the draft where it is harder to find players, but it is a great challenge to find the next "diamond in the rough". Christy: How much of a change was it to go from a job being a professional player to scouting for future prospects? Nill: During my 12 years of professional hockey I played for the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Winnipeg Jets, and Vancouver Canucks. It was a huge change to go from playing to scouting. As a player you were always looking at players who were 20 to 35 years of age. In the scouting business you are looking at young men who are 16-17 years of age. Some have developed physicall and mentally, others have not, so you must try to project what they will develop into when they are 20-30 years of age. You are dealing with human beings and it is not always easy to figure people out. All different factors can affect their development, ie.. money, school, friends, family, outside influences, their commitment and drive, etc... It is not an exact science to figure out people. Christy: Pavel Datsyuk seems to have really stepped up this year following Sergei's leave. Who was it that 'found' Datsyuk? Did you have any role in his discovery? Nill: Hakan Andersson, our European scout was the first person to see Pavel. I was the person who drafted him and then I worked on his development after we drafted Pavel. Christy: What made them think Pavel was so special when other teams passed him up? Nill: Pavel had very good skills, but was very small and weak. When we drafted him he was 5'8" and about 145 pounds soaking wet. We liked his skills, but did not know if he would every grow enough and/or get strong enough to play in the NHL. As we can all see now he did develop. Christy: Has Pavel met or exceeded the team's expectations? Is he a big surprise? Nill: Pavel has exceeded our expectations, When we brought him over to play 2 years ago we knew he could play in the NHL, but we did not expect him to reach this level of stardom so quickly. Christy: After deciding that you would like to see a certain player (like Datsyuk) play for the Wings, what process or steps do you follow to get him on the team? Nill: Once we have drafted the player we monitor his development wherever he is playing. We analyze whether he is in a good environment to develop and monitor his progress. We watch the level of competition he is playing at, watch his strength development, and talk with the player to see if it is better for him to remain in his home environment or should he be somewhere else. There are all different factors to take into consideration. Once we feel that he is mature enough physically and mentally we must determine if he is able to play at either the AHL level (Grand Rapids) or do we feel he can step right into playing for Detroit Red Wings. The final piece of the puzzle is to get him signed to a contract. Christy: If you had to define your job and role in the Wings organization in a few sentences, what would they be? Nill: My job description is being in charge of all drafting and developing of players for the Detroit Red Wings. To continue the success of our franchise we must have a steady influx of young players developing in our system at all times. Christy: How often do you go on scouting trips in lets say a months time? How do you balance work and family? Nill: I am at a hockey game 5 nights out of 7 during every week from October to May. I travel to Europe 5-6 times a year for a week to 10 days at a time. I am fortunate that I make my own schedule so I am always around for any family function. Also I live in a great hockey location, there is every level of hockey around the Michigan area which allows me to be home every night. I am also very fortunate that I have a great family who can tolerate my travels and they are very indepedent.