Hockey Scouting Report 2004: Over 430 NHL Players

Who knows if there will be hockey in 2004-05 with a lockout looming and a work stoppage nearly certain? If there is hockey, this or the next version of Sherry Ross's book will be the best guide available to fans that want to know something about the players on their team. Over the years there have been a lot of these kinds of books but Sherry's has lasted longer than most. I haven't found a preorder ticket for a 2004-05 version, so maybe she's burned out and not going to do another. Pity if so, for her book brings insights into player profiles other books lacked. An example: her projection for center-left wing Ray Whitney prior to last season: "Whitney has the ability to be a consistent 20-goal 45-assist scorer in the right circumstances." Whitney signed with the powerhouse Detroit Red Wings prior to the season and finished with 43 points in 67 games, which extrapolates to 53 points in 82 games. This isn't Ross's 65 point projection, but she had him on the roster of Columbus, where he'd have been a second line center with power play time. In Detroit he was a part-time player with little power play time and still piled up more than 50 points. The book also proves that Ross, like other "experts", can pitch the occasional lemon. Her projection for Brad Richards, the No. 2 center on champion Tampa Bay that was the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs: "Richards scored 12 points more (74 total) than he did during his breakout season of 2001-902. This is about his ceiling." Apparently not, since Richards piled up 79 in 2003-04 and topped it off with an incredible playoff where he scored another 26 points including scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal. Even when she missteps, Ross is exciting and brings an edge to player profiles that isn't available anywhere else. Her book is a compendium for fans that want inside information on players in other cities. I hope there is hockey again this winter and I hope Sherry Ross publishes a new version of this valuable book.

This book, in my opinion, is basically a gift from Sherry Ross to the diehard hockey fans of the world. I read and re-read mine all the time during the NHL season, to keep up on the many players as they appear in the games I watch or listen to. Thank you, Ms. Ross, for this wonderful handbook on the ever-changing group of men whose talents are truly the main attraction to the great game of NHL Hockey.