The Arizona Coyotes have hired a new director of pro scouting, announcing Alan Hepple today. Hepple comes from the Colorado Avalanche, where he served as the director of amateur scouting and was responsible for selections including Cale Makar, Bowen Byram, and Alex Newhook over the last few years. Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong released a statement on the hire:
We are very pleased to welcome Alan to our organization. Alan is extremely knowledgeable and is an excellent talent evaluator. He played a very important role in building the current Colorado Avalanche roster and we are thrilled to have him lead our professional scouting department.
The Coyotes are rebuilding a scouting department that has been embroiled in several scandals recently. In August 2020, the team was stripped of a 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 first-round pick for scouting violations that included physical testing of prospects prior to the combine. The 11th overall pick later this month will be skipped because of those sanctions.
Just a few months after that discipline was handed out, the Coyotes used their first 2020 draft choice (111th overall) on Mitchell Miller, a defenseman out of the USHL. Miller’s assault conviction for bullying and abusing a Black, developmentally disabled classmate, which had been made known to every NHL team prior to the draft, quickly made international headlines, leading to the team eventually renouncing his draft rights entirely.
Those mistakes were made under the previous management regime (or during the period when Armstrong could not interfere, based on his prior commitments to the St. Louis Blues), but will still cast a dark shadow over the Coyotes for the years to come. They basically missed an entire draft class in 2020, with Carson Bantle now their highest-selected player last year (142nd overall).
Armstrong is working diligently to bring in new faces to the department, and Hepple is the newest hire that comes with an impeccable resume. Though he will now work with the pro scouts, it’s hard to imagine he won’t have a positive impact on the organization overall.