Smaht Scouting is a Boston, Massachusetts based ice hockey scouting consultancy firm. We provide several detailed NHL Draft prospect reports for public consumption. In addition, we provide junior, minor, and professional teams with scouting consultancy. Once a team identifies a prospect, Smaht Scouting creates a thorough scouting report for the team.
Management Team
Josh Tessler, Founder & Director of Scouting
In April of 2020, Josh Tessler founded Smaht Scouting. Tessler is dedicated to providing reports on NHL Draft prospects and reports on prospects for teams across the globe.
Prior to Smaht Scouting, Tessler scouted for Dobber Prospects and Future Considerations Hockey. In addition, he ran his own blog site, Puck77 and wrote for a few different hockey blogs including Editor In Leaf, Bruins Diehards, WingsNation and JetsNation.
Tessler graduated from Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts) in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He also obtained a Business Analytics certificate from the University of Pennsylvania-Wharton (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) in February of 2020. Currently, he is working towards earning his MBA at Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts).
If you would like to follow Josh Tessler on Twitter, his handle is @JoshTessler_.
Alexander Appleyard, Amateur Scout
Alexander Appleyard is a British sports journalist who for the last two years has split his time between Scandinavia and England.
He has covered the Philadelphia Flyers for The Athletic for the past three years, specializing in prospect coverage. Before that he wrote for Sons of Penn and Along the Board/Pucks and Recreation, where he provided analytically driven content alongside prospect reporting.
His passion for scouting centers around European prospects, with an onus on Sweden. Outside of hockey journalism he works in the grassroots sport and physical activity sector.
If you would like to follow Alexander Appleyard on Twitter, his handle is @avappleyard.
Austin Garret, Amateur Scout
Austin is a Buffalo Sabres fanatic and has been writing about the NHL Draft for Die By the Blade since 2015.
He specializes in NCAA and US-based hockey but pre-COVID spent many a night in Southern Ontario scouting the OHL.
Currently residing in Western New York where he parents a Dmitri Rashevsky Super Fan as well as two other young ones with his wife.
If you want to follow Austin on Twitter, his handle is @BMaster716.
Nathan Hutchinson, Amateur Scout
Nathan is a Brock University Sports Management graduate with a passion for hockey and player development. He began scouting the NHL draft as a hobby before wanting to make it a career. He currently works as a Video Analyst for the Hockey Analytics company Stathletes. He resides in St. Catharines, Ontario, and focuses majority on his scouting on the North American leagues.
If you want to follow Nathan on Twitter, his handle is @hutch1760.
Gray Matter, Amateur Scout
Gray lives in Montréal and has been a hockey fanatic all his life. He enjoys keeping an eye on prospects, seeing what they each bring to the game, and watching them bloom into great NHL players.
He looks forward to bringing his insights and perspectives to the team.
Gray will be focused on prospects in Finland & Russia.
If you want to follow Gray on Twitter, his handle is @Grismatter.
Colin Macdonald, Amateur Scout
Colin ‘Spoked Z’ Macdonald is a hockey writer/amateur scout who currently resides in Boston, MA.
Before joining Smaht Scouting, Colin had focused primarily on the Minnesota Wild prospect pool. He reports on those prospects in conjunction with The Sota Pod podcast, featuring as the show’s Friday segment ‘Judd’z Budz.’
In his new role with Smaht Scouting, Colin will be focusing on NHL Draft prospects based out of Sweden. He looks forward to bringing his insight to the team & (hopefully) creating a bit more buzz around some of the lesser-known/under-appreciated prospects in the Swedish junior ranks.
If you would like to follow Colin on Twitter, his handle is @spokedz.
Tom Watson, Amateur Scout
Tom Watson was born and raised in Scotland, and now resides in British Columbia. He is a hockey fanatic after playing his whole childhood.
He is keen to apply his perspectives and insights as part of the Smaht Scouting Team.
He is primarily focused on the Western Hockey League.
Daniel Haurin, Amateur Scout
Dan currently lives in Northern Virginia, having played hockey for local clubs in the area growing up as well as a couple of years with WVU’s ACHA teams.
Having lots of family from the Bucks County PA area, Dan has been a lifelong Flyers and Philadelphia sports fan.
Although he is relatively new to scouting, he has had an interest in following prospects for years now, with a particular interest in players playing in European leagues.
Iván Ortiz, Amateur Scout
Iván lives in Barcelona, Spain, and works as a market analyst during the day and now as an amateur ice hockey scout at night. He started writing about the NHL Draft in 2011, creating his own Draft guides with limited access to player videos. From there, his interest in the sport grew, leading him to write for various websites about the NHL and participate in podcasts. He worked rinkside with Barça’s ice hockey team and the RFEDH, helping in various roles. He enjoys analyzing the sport and scouting future young stars, but what he loves most is watching games of his beloved Colorado Avalanche.
Thomas Gagné, Amateur Scout
Thomas was born in rural eastern Quebec in a small town of around 3000 people called New-Richmond. Hockey’s always been a passion for him, following the NHL closely from a young age and playing until midget level. Now, Thomas is studying to finish his bachelor’s degree in economics and political science at Laval University and plans to go to Montreal after that to earn a degree in sports management. As much as Thomas loves hockey, he finds time for other sports, like skiing in the winter and occasionally playing soccer in the summer.