Sudbury native Steve Rachkowski has apparently identified that perfect sweet spot, the role that combines his innate love of hockey scouting with his long-identified sports administration specific skill-set.

Now in his eighth year with his current employer, the graduate of both St Benedict Catholic Secondary School and the Laurentian University Sports Administration program recently saw his job title amended to Senior Manager for NHL Central Scouting.

“There is a lot of managing and distributing of information as well as facilitating key events in this new role,” noted the 34 year old former AAA hockey talent who actually suited up with the Laurentian Voyageurs men’s soccer team during his university days. “As part of my new responsibilities, I am the major point of contact for all of the NHL clubs and their personnel: scouting directors, assistant GMs, general managers.”

Just to be clear, the Director of NHL Central Scouting is none other than Dan Marr, the man who has held the position since 2011 and overseas all of the on-ice talent assessment. While Rachkowski still feeds his “inner scout” with some of the aspects of his job, there is no doubt that his new job also plays to many of his strengths.

“My role with Central Scouting has always required a high level of attention to detail and a lot of multi-tasking,” he said. “I’ve always been involved with updating player information, ensuring the accuracy of data and statistical information on our website and in our resources that we provide to NHL clubs.”

When it comes to the NHL Draft, including his first at the helm recently in Montreal, Rachkowski is at the forefront of ensuring that things do not slip through the cracks. “I now oversee the entire process of the pre-approval process,” he said, alluding to a whole lot of work that remains completely unseen to the bulk of any the most rabid fans of young hockey prospects.

“We’re identifying, with our staff, all of the prospects that are deemed eligible to be drafted. There is a very specific process to confirm the accuracy of the player details: spelling, date of birth, eligibility status and player details like shot and position.”

Administrative hiccups on draft day do not reflect well on any professional sports league.

“I work very closely with (NHL) Central Registry,” said Rachkowski. “There are quite a few hands involved to ensure we have a very successful draft.”

If all of the above sounds somewhat mundane – and there is little doubt that some of the process surely is – there is a wonderful payoff for the Lively native, both on draft weekend as well as through the other duties that fill his work portfolio.

“I’m actually in a great spot physically at the draft, just in front of the stage, next to the Central Registry station,” he explained. “We are not overly busy with the first round, so it’s nice to kind of sit back and enjoy and watch the draft unfold.”

Make no mistake: a love of talent assessment remains part of the Steve Rachkowski package.

“While the scouting side is not my number one priority, I still make an effort to get out and be seen in the rinks, to try and get a handle on the up and coming players,” noted the young man who also mixed in a little football on the side during his time with St Benedict Bears athletics and now lives in the GTA, arguably the best spot in the world to have a finger on the pulse of up and coming hockey prospects.

“I still do quite a bit of isolation scouting,” added Rachkowski. “It’s a service that we provide to the NHL clubs. You can watch specifically just one player’s shifts throughout an entire game. You can essentially watch three games with one player in the time it would take you to watch one full game live.”

“It really gives me a good opportunity to evaluate a player and get a good read on their strengths, their areas for improvement.”

Still with players’ strength, Rachkowski is also now the individual who heads up the NHL Draft Combine Testing. This year, in particular, proved challenging as some prospects were still active at the Memorial Cup even as Rachkowski and company worked with the clubs to ensure that the scheduling of events meet their needs and wants, all while working with players and agents to schedule travel to the combine.

And then, of course, there is the actual pragmatics of the testing to take into consideration.

“We actually have a combine committee that includes some personnel from across the league as well as our director. There has been an evolution of the combine since I’ve been involved. They always tweak it and tinker it and make changes to try and get the best evaluation of these players.”

Notably, the bench press, which at one time involved the maximum number of reps at 80% of an athlete’s body weight, has now morphed to just three maximum efforts at 50% of the body weight. “The measurement is of the force that they can push off the bar,” said Rachkowski. “We try and take into consideration what the teams are wanting.”

While it might be easy to define the role of Central Scouting within some very narrow parameters, nothing could be further from the truth. “We’re just a massive resource to all of the NHL clubs, well beyond the game reports and player evaluations that we provide,” suggested Rachkowski.

“It’s a lot of the meat and potatoes of the information that is required for the scouts to be able to go out and do their job. It’s a massive component that not a lot of people outside of the NHL realize that Central Scouting plays a big part in.”

Pride and appreciation are paramount to the northern product who absolutely could also see himself working for a team some day. “I am in a very privileged position and I definitely don’t take it for granted,” noted Rachkowski. “The NHL has been a terrific place for me to grow and develop my career with Central Scouting – and I’m surrounded by an amazing group of people.”

“I continue to develop my relationships with the clubs – there are future possibilities – but I’m just in a really good spot, right now.”