Jerry Forton was scouting long before he became one for the Buffalo Sabres in 2014.
It’s part of the job for any NCAA hockey coach. Forton’s nine-year stint as an assistant coach at Niagara University began in 1995 when the Purple Eagles were still a club team. He helped the program transition to Division III, then Division I, and celebrated with head coach Blaise MacDonald when Niagara won its first NCAA Tournament game in 2000.
Forton moved on to UMass Lowell, then Harvard before he joined the Sabres as an assistant coach. The impact he’s made in the decade since earned the University at Buffalo graduate a promotion recently from director of amateur scouting to assistant general manager.
“He’s been around a long time, and he’s had a lot of different roles in the hockey world,” Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams told The News. “We just felt that he’s done a really nice job leading [our amateur scouting staff] and, honestly, the way our scouting staff, amateur and pro, function day to day won’t change at all. It’s really just promoting him to getting involved in more conversations, from roster discussions and stuff like that.
“The timing of it, felt like, OK, focus on the draft, then rolling into the next phase of the offseason. Even going into the 2025 draft, he’ll still be overseeing our amateur scouting staff.”
The Sabres’ drafts the past four years have been lauded by analysts as among the best in the NHL. In the first round, they have selected Jack Quinn, Owen Power, Isak Rosen, Matt Savoie, Noah Ostlund, Jiri Kulich and Zach Benson. They also have had encouraging results with second-rounders JJ Peterka, Anton Wahlberg and Prokhor Poltapov.
Vsevelod Komarov, a fifth-round draft pick in 2022, won a second consecutive Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League championship this spring after he was named the league’s top defenseman. Two other late-round selections, Tyson Kozak and Nikita Novikov, have excelled with Rochester.
A scouting staff’s odds of having success increase with more high picks. The Sabres had five first-round selections between 2021 and 2022, beginning with Power going first overall. But the club also has had to navigate some significant challenges, like the lack of information on some prospects because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and they are seeing encouraging results from players drafted in rounds two through seven.
The Sabres also had to replenish their scouting staff once pandemic-related restrictions were lifted across the globe, and they shifted roles in the department in 2021 once Jason Karmanos joined Buffalo as associate general manager.
Forton has led the Sabres’ past three drafts since he was elevated to director of amateur scouting in 2021. He runs a staff of 11 scouts and collaborates with an analytics department led by Sam Ventura, the Sabres’ vice president of hockey strategy and research. Forton distills the information collected by both sides and leads debate-filled meetings in which the team builds and finalizes its draft rankings. He also scouts throughout the year, traveling to international tournaments such as the IIHF Under-18 World Championship or cross-checking a prospect that an area scout identifies as a potential pick.
The Sabres want Forton’s expertise involved in their pro-scouting efforts. He’s seen players across the NHL develop from teenage draft-eligible prospects into professionals and stars. Forton can speak on how a player has improved and whether he’s capable of accomplishing more in Buffalo.
“It’s putting more resources at this time into our pro scouting,” said Forton. “I don’t think anything has to change. It’s operating fine as it is. It’s giving it a little bit more of my time put into that area. Not that we don’t have this documented in the organization over the years, but it brings a little continuity with the history of some of the players I may be very familiar with and may bring a different voice in that area since I followed some of those guys around for a few years.”
Jeremiah Crowe is still listed on the Sabres’ website as their director of pro scouting. Karmanos also travels to scout potential acquisitions, and the team hired longtime NCAA coach Brad Dexter to work in the department. Their scouting reports, along with the data and recommendations from Ventura’s staff, will be pivotal for the Sabres this offseason as they try to upgrade their NHL roster through trades and free agency.
Forton’s focus now is on the draft, which will be held June 28-29 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The Sabres own eight picks, including No. 11 overall, and, like every other team, must complete their rankings this week. Forton traveled to Florida this week to attend an agent-organized combine for Russian prospects who were not invited to attend the NHL’s event in Buffalo earlier this month. The Sabres were able to see those prospects work out on and off the ice, and they have met with Russian players during the week of the draft the past few years.
The scouting staff is aware that the Sabres may trade their first pick, move down in that round or accumulate another pick. Forton must be ready for every scenario.
“A lot could change, even within the first round,” he said. “There could be something that happens where we swap picks as part of a trade, we move down, could pick up an extra pick but lose a higher pick. So we’re constantly talking about just getting the list in the right order all the way through because you start spending too much energy on a certain group of players that you think is in your pick and there’s surprises every year.”
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Jerry Forton was scouting long before he became one for the Buffalo Sabres in 2014.
It’s part of the job for any NCAA hockey coach. Forton’s nine-year stint as an assistant coach at Niagara University began in 1995 when the Purple Eagles were still a club team. He helped the program transition to Division III, then Division I, and celebrated with head coach Blaise MacDonald when Niagara won its first NCAA Tournament game in 2000.
Forton moved on to UMass Lowell, then Harvard before he joined the Sabres as an assistant coach. The impact he’s made in the decade since earned the University at Buffalo graduate a promotion recently from director of amateur scouting to assistant general manager.
“He’s been around a long time, and he’s had a lot of different roles in the hockey world,” Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams told The News. “We just felt that he’s done a really nice job leading [our amateur scouting staff] and, honestly, the way our scouting staff, amateur and pro, function day to day won’t change at all. It’s really just promoting him to getting involved in more conversations, from roster discussions and stuff like that.
“The timing of it, felt like, OK, focus on the draft, then rolling into the next phase of the offseason. Even going into the 2025 draft, he’ll still be overseeing our amateur scouting staff.”
The Sabres’ drafts the past four years have been lauded by analysts as among the best in the NHL. In the first round, they have selected Jack Quinn, Owen Power, Isak Rosen, Matt Savoie, Noah Ostlund, Jiri Kulich and Zach Benson. They also have had encouraging results with second-rounders JJ Peterka, Anton Wahlberg and Prokhor Poltapov.
Vsevelod Komarov, a fifth-round draft pick in 2022, won a second consecutive Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League championship this spring after he was named the league’s top defenseman. Two other late-round selections, Tyson Kozak and Nikita Novikov, have excelled with Rochester.
A scouting staff’s odds of having success increase with more high picks. The Sabres had five first-round selections between 2021 and 2022, beginning with Power going first overall. But the club also has had to navigate some significant challenges, like the lack of information on some prospects because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and they are seeing encouraging results from players drafted in rounds two through seven.
The Sabres also had to replenish their scouting staff once pandemic-related restrictions were lifted across the globe, and they shifted roles in the department in 2021 once Jason Karmanos joined Buffalo as associate general manager.
Forton has led the Sabres’ past three drafts since he was elevated to director of amateur scouting in 2021. He runs a staff of 11 scouts and collaborates with an analytics department led by Sam Ventura, the Sabres’ vice president of hockey strategy and research. Forton distills the information collected by both sides and leads debate-filled meetings in which the team builds and finalizes its draft rankings. He also scouts throughout the year, traveling to international tournaments such as the IIHF Under-18 World Championship or cross-checking a prospect that an area scout identifies as a potential pick.
The Sabres want Forton’s expertise involved in their pro-scouting efforts. He’s seen players across the NHL develop from teenage draft-eligible prospects into professionals and stars. Forton can speak on how a player has improved and whether he’s capable of accomplishing more in Buffalo.
“It’s putting more resources at this time into our pro scouting,” said Forton. “I don’t think anything has to change. It’s operating fine as it is. It’s giving it a little bit more of my time put into that area. Not that we don’t have this documented in the organization over the years, but it brings a little continuity with the history of some of the players I may be very familiar with and may bring a different voice in that area since I followed some of those guys around for a few years.”
Jeremiah Crowe is still listed on the Sabres’ website as their director of pro scouting. Karmanos also travels to scout potential acquisitions, and the team hired longtime NCAA coach Brad Dexter to work in the department. Their scouting reports, along with the data and recommendations from Ventura’s staff, will be pivotal for the Sabres this offseason as they try to upgrade their NHL roster through trades and free agency.
Forton’s focus now is on the draft, which will be held June 28-29 at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The Sabres own eight picks, including No. 11 overall, and, like every other team, must complete their rankings this week. Forton traveled to Florida this week to attend an agent-organized combine for Russian prospects who were not invited to attend the NHL’s event in Buffalo earlier this month. The Sabres were able to see those prospects work out on and off the ice, and they have met with Russian players during the week of the draft the past few years.
The scouting staff is aware that the Sabres may trade their first pick, move down in that round or accumulate another pick. Forton must be ready for every scenario.
“A lot could change, even within the first round,” he said. “There could be something that happens where we swap picks as part of a trade, we move down, could pick up an extra pick but lose a higher pick. So we’re constantly talking about just getting the list in the right order all the way through because you start spending too much energy on a certain group of players that you think is in your pick and there’s surprises every year.”