The Avalanche on Wednesday named Nick Pryor their director of amateur scouting. Pryor had served in the same capacity for the Penguins since July 2021.
Pryor, 33, had led the Penguins' scouting at the amateur levels in both North America and Europe leading up to the past three drafts. Under Pryor, the Penguins drafted defenseman Owen Pickering (first round, 2022), goaltender Sergei Murashov (fourth round, 2022), forward Zam Plante (fifth round, 2022), defenseman Nolan Collins (sixth round, 2022), forward Luke Devlin (sixth round, 2022), forward Brayden Yager (first round, 2023), defenseman Emil Pieniniemi (third round, 2023), forward Mikhail Ilyin (fifth round, 2023), forward Cooper Foster (sixth round, 2023), forward Emil Jarventie (seventh round, 2023), defenseman Kalle Kangas (seventh round, 2023), defenseman Harrison Brunicke (second round, 2024), forward Tanner Howe (second round, 2024), defenseman Chase Pietila (fourth round, 2024), defenseman Joona Vaisanen (sixth round, 2024), forward Mac Swanson (seventh round, 2024) and defenseman Finn Harding (seventh round, 2024).
Pryor filled the void left by former assistant general manager Patrik Allvin, who previously oversaw the club's amateur scouting efforts. Before joining the Penguins, Pryor spent eight seasons as an amateur scout with the Flyers, focusing on NCAA and USHL players.
Earlier this month the Penguins named Wes Clark the vice president of player personnel, a newly-created position to oversee the amateur, professional and college/European free agent scouting departments. The intention was for Pryor to remain in his position and report to Clark, who also will work with player development and scouting advisor Trent Mann and director of professional personnel Andy Saucier. Pryor had remained around the Penguins after the draft and after the hiring of Clark, working with the rest of the hockey operations staff during the team's development camp.
Before coming to the Penguins, Clark worked most recently as the Maple Leafs' director of amateur scouting. Clark first served as Toronto's assistant director of player personnel before his promotion to director of amateur scouting under Kyle Dubas. Clark also formerly worked at the OHL's Soo Greyhounds connection with Dubas. Dubas named Clark the Greyhounds' director of hockey operations in his first season as the Greyhounds' general manager, and later promoted him to the Greyhounds' director of player development.
"Having worked with Wes for many years, I have a deep trust in his ability to identify talent, lead staffs, advance our scouting process and methods, learn from mistakes to improve processes and to challenge my own thinking and planning on a near daily basis," Dubas said of Clark upon his hiring.
Given that Clark has extensive experience managing an amateur scouting department, he could presumably take over the role for the time being. But given that the plan was for Clark to also work closely with pro scouting -- an entirely different department -- the Penguins could potentially add a new director of amateur scouting to replace Pryor and work under Clark.
