Monday, September 13, 2010

Prendergast Joins Hockey Canada

Hockey Canada has formally announced the hiring of Kevin Prendergast as the new Head Scout for the nation's U20, U18 and U17 programs. The long time scout and former Assistant GM of the Edmonton Oilers is on the job immediately as he heads south to the Calgary head office for meetings tomorrow.

The position came open last month when Al Murray was hired by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

After talking with a few NHL teams over the summer without finding a new employer, Prendergast says the opportunity with Hockey Canada arose very recently.

"I'd sort of resigned myself to not doing anything [this winter]," he told The Pipeline Show, "It's my third go around with them and every time has been a great experience and I expect this time won't be any different. It's going to be a lot of fun but it will also be very different from what I am used to. It goes back to my roots from when I started with NHL Central Scouting and I'm really looking forward to it."

You might be wondering how it's different than what he'd be doing with the Edmonton Oilers for the last two decades where he was a scout, head scout and Assistant GM during his tenure.

"Now it's just amateur kids, Guy, and just Canadians," he pointed out. "It's funny because I was going through rosters and everything this morning and now I have to be concerned with doing a background check just to see if this player is an American or this other guy is Canadian."

One thing is for sure, with having the World Junior Championship, the World U18 Championship, the Ivan Hlinka tournament and the World U17 event... there won't be much time off.

"It's a lot more work than I thought it was; it just never ends but I have a lot of friends in the business and I know I will get a lot of help. I know people throughout all three junior leagues and the college ranks so I think it's going to be a lot of fun."

Kevin Prendergast will be a guest on The Pipeline Show tomorrow night, if you have a Hockey Canada question for him, feel free to email us at

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