Ken Reid is quickly becoming one of hockey’s best authors. I have enjoyed his writing in recent years – and he’s done it again with his latest book, “The Next One: Hockey Scouts, Remote Rinks and Hidden Talent.”
Reid’s book takes you to small-town rinks featuring players with big-league dreams. In his new book, Reid gives the reader a backstage pass to it all in what is certainly his most ambitious work to date. Reid’s book peels back the curtain on hockey’s hidden machinery — and he’s done it in a way that feels personal.
“The Next One” is more than a scouting book. It’s a love letter to hockey’s dreamers. It’s also a great book to get your favorite hockey fan in time for the holidays. And at $19.99 it also won’t dent your wallet.
Reid writes like he’s recounting a story over beers. His mix of humor with information – and like so many of his books do – carry a large dose of nostalgia. Even for readers who can’t tell a C-level prospect from a future Hall of Famer, Reid makes all of this very accessible.
“My biggest question is: Who are the men and women who make up the hockey scouting community? That’s what this book is all about,” Reid writes in the book’s introduction. “This book is not necessarily about what goes into scouting a player, although that’s in here, too, but it is about what goes into the making of a scout.”
At its core, “The Next One” is Reid’s homage to the unsung architects of this sport we all love. In fact, scouts are the ones — scribbling furiously in notebooks and catching flights between junior arenas – in search for the next Wayne Gretzky or Connor McDavid. What makes this book special is its balance. Yes, he tells you about scouts chasing the next superstar — those once-in-a-generation phenoms. He doesn’t stop there.
Reid is far more interested in the grinders, the late bloomers, the ones that other people might have overlooked. These are the players who don’t always come with hype, but they come with heart — and that’s exactly what many scouts are looking for across the U.S., Canada and Europe.
The book is littered with colorful stories of how players were discovered. One of Reid’s best chapters is his first. In it, he looks at how Borje Salming was discovered by scout Gerry McNamara in 1972.
Salming came to Toronto a year later. Reid, in his recounting, wrote: “Salming was coming off a World Championship where he had been the highest-scoring defensemen and had been named to the tournament’s All-Star team…Still there were doubters.”
There was no data analytics in those days. It was mostly intuition.
“I just used my judgement,” McNamara says in the book. “I thought I was a good assessor of players even before I started to scout. I always thought that I had a good eye for the game.”
Time proved McNamara correct. Salming turned out to be a star. He would go on to play 16 years with the Maple Leafs and an additional season with the Red Wings, recording 150 goals and 637 assists in 1,148 regular-season games. Salming was one of the first European players to make an impact in the NHL and is considered a trailblazer. The backstory on how Salming was discovered and how he ended up in North America sets the tone for this book.
These stories are emblematic of Reid’s broader point: Scouting isn’t just about finding talented players; it’s also about intuition. He doesn’t sugarcoat the loneliness or grind of a scout’s life, but he also doesn’t glamorize it. There’s grit — but also loads of purpose.
What “The Next One” is great at is offering perspective. It doesn’t promise to reveal who the next Connor Bedard will be (something card collectors would love to know), but does shine a light on the tireless people who believe they might. It reminds us that hockey’s future isn’t just born in NHL arenas, but in those small rinks scattered across the world.
“Sit back and enjoy these stories,” Reid writes. “Sure, they are hockey stories, but they are also people stories.”
Clemente Lisi is a lifelong Rangers fan who first started collecting cards in 1986. He collects both vintage and modern with a focus on rookie cards. Follow him on X/Twitter @ClementeLisi.
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