![]() ![]() ![]() "The Canucks organization has been great in that sense, supporting us and making sure we are around our families. When he has a couple weekdays off when he's not on the road for extended periods, he falls into the school drop-off and pick-up routine with his wife Nicole and his children - Nora, 10, Jordan, six, and Charlotte, four. Golding says he couldn't do what he loves without his family's support and support from the organization. It's most interesting when you speak to people like the equipment manager or athletic therapist," he said. "You're looking for an unbiased, straight answer. As a general rule, he doesn't talk to a player's agent. He also speaks to several people around the player to round out his impression and looks for consistency of character and what that projects to be as well. He assesses a player's on-ice performance two ways: where they are now and where they can be in three or four years. It's given me context, and I can lean on the historical knowledge of the Ontario Hockey League," he said. "My experience in the OHL has given me a network. The Storm won the OHL championship in 2019 and Golding made the jump to the Canucks that same year. During his 12-year career with the Guelph Storm, head coach Scott Walker and general manager Mike Kelly noticed his knack for hockey knowledge gave him his start as a scout for Western Ontario. He played growing up and knew he wanted to work on the business operations side. A Guelph native and self-proclaimed hockey nerd, he obsessed over the NHL Draft and prospect evaluation at a young age. Golding has a unique perspective, and his Ontario hockey knowledge is deep. in Oshawa - and still be home by the end of the night," he said. "One of the quirks about working in Ontario is that we can sometimes do double-headers - 2 p.m. Seeing as many games and players as possible while having it make sense geographically and monetarily, is like a game of Tetris. There's kind of a code, that we can call each other at late hours and across time zones when we're on the road, even if one of us is sitting at home."īuilding a schedule of games to attend and prospects to see is one of the toughest parts of the job. "The drives feel shorter when you're able to make a call even at a late hour, to talk hockey or anything else. "I'll call my wife or other scouts and we'll talk our way through the storm," Golding shared. To avoid trucks on the highway he pulled off onto the side roads and called fellow Canucks scout Pier-Alexandre Poulin to talk about players and their scouting lists for the last hour of his drive. Earlier this year he was driving from Cornwall to Ottawa, snow coming down and piling up on the roads, that turned a one-hour trip into three. ![]() It's always safety first, but there are times when you unexpectedly hit a snow storm and you're white-knuckling it." "There are times when you're stranded, if you're at a game in a city and you have a hotel booked somewhere else. "For someone who loves hockey, it's awesome." "It's a privilege to travel around and go watch hockey games," he said. To some, this would be a major inconvenience, but Golding takes it all in stride. He needed to get the interview, even if that meant he was stuck at the rink for a while and it added hours to his trip home. Mid-way through the game he got wind of a storm brewing, but he didn't want to try and outrun it. He arranged an interview with a player after the game and had plans to head home shortly after. Like many nights from September until May, Canucks' area scout Phil Golding was at a rink in North Bay, Ontario, watching a prospect. ![]()
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