150 Players Are Trying Out. How Do You Stand Out?

Right out of the gate, the first thing coaches notice is if you look the part. You can usually tell a hockey player in a crowd. The kind of clothes they wear, how they carry themselves, how they talk. It's not fair, but it's real.

One major mistake that most players make is that they don't look the part wearing their hockey gear. I should be able to stand you next to an NHL player and you look similar. If coaches see a player that looks like a pro that's messing up in a game, they tend to believe that the player's just having a bad day. If they see a player that doesn't look the part making a good play, they'll assume they're getting lucky.

Players don't realize that as soon as their car pulls into the rink parking lot, the coaches are watching. They don't have any other way of understanding a player's ability other than what they can see starting from that first moment.

Once you get past that, it becomes how you are in the locker room. How you warm up. How you interact with other players on and off the ice. How humble and respectful you are to the coaching staff, the front desk people, the Zamboni drivers, the janitors. Coaches are looking for a player to represent their team and their town. Everything matters when their name is on the line.

Here's what most people don't want to hear. Most coaches have already picked their team before tryouts start. A lot of these tryout fees are collecting spending money for the season. If you're trying to crack a lineup, you're like a salmon swimming upstream.

As a player, you have to understand this concept. It's much easier to dig yourself a hole if you have perceived value than to dig your way out. When a coach sees a player that looks like a mini version of a pro hockey player make a mistake, their mind tends to think it's just an off day. When they see a player that looks sloppy with ripped pants and baggy hockey socks, they have to ask themselves if they're willing to lose their job and move their family based on this kid.

They may only get to see you do something great in three games over a weekend. So you need to show them something.

If you're able to play in the style of the coach that's in front of you, that's going to go a long way.

If you have access to the technology we have today, you should absolutely research the coach. Find out everything you can about them and where they played. Try to adapt your style and practice to fit that. If they were a hard nosed grinder type, that's how you show up. If they were a goal scorer, you're shooting the puck. If they were a goal scorer and you're a defenseman, you're feeding the puck to your forwards and protecting those guys out front.

If you can find out what that team was missing last season and what they might be needing this season, and you can fill that spot, you stand a much better chance. It's important to remember that coaches are under a lot of pressure at this point in the season.

Brad Perry with Phil Esposito at the Celebrity All-Star game

The biggest mistake I see players making is not taking advantage of the coaches that are usually sitting on the benches behind them or standing on the ice.

I used to run a skills segment for a junior showcase in Minnesota for a couple years. They'd have Division I, junior, and some pro coaches behind the bench. I'd ask players, "What's the name of the coach behind your bench?" And they couldn't tell me. That was a missed opportunity.

If they had taken a little time to search that coach on HockeyDB and made some adjustments during their games to suit that style, they might've been picked up a lot easier.

Players underestimate who's listening and who's watching. When coaches or scouts are searching for players, they watch everything. How you sit and eat your lunch, how you walk down the hall, how you interact with the Zamboni driver. You will most likely be a representation of that team and that city. They need to know they have good people. That helps them keep their job.