Busy morning and afternoon for the Preds scouts as they continued to put the final touches on the team's rankings for this year's prospects. The scouts also had interviews scheduled with a couple of prospects. After the interviews they re-evaluated the player's ranking among the team's list, tweaking the order around after each of the interviews.

In most cases, the scouts already know a lot about the prospect, so it is interesting to hear what they are looking for out of the 15-30 minute interview. Some scouts are interested in the answers the prospect is giving; using the interview as a time to genuinely learn more about the prospect. Other scouts are more interested in how the prospect handles himself; the kid's poise, personality, body language, maturity. In many cases the scouts are looking to see if the prospect's attitude in the interview matches the attitude they display on the ice. In some cases, scouts are looking to elicit emotion from a prospect -- in discussing one prospect's interview, the scouts commented on the "look in the kid's eyes" and how much the kid seemed to want to win and get better. It's not always the answers with the words that make a big impact in these quick interviews; often it's the non-verbal clues that seem to stick with the scouts longer.