The man with the plan when it comes to the Lightning’s draft prep

TAMPA — John Rosso jokingly calls himself a slow learner, because two players he scouted in the amateur ranks — who eventually made it to the NHL — didn’t immediately stand out to him. But maybe it’s Rosso’s attention to detail and personable nature that have made him a valuable scouting asset to the Lightning over the past 13 years.

“I really wish I could just watch a kid once or twice and have a good feel for it,” Rosso said with a chuckle. “Some guys are really good that way. They watch your kid two or three times and say, ‘I like this, I like this, that’s not going to work,’ and they can make a read off it. I’ve never been a fast learner. It takes me a really long time to try to figure it out and then I still don’t come to a great answer usually, but at least you feel more comfortable and educated throughout the process.”

At the age of 46, Rosso has worked his way up to the top of the Lightning’s amateur scouting department ranks. Starting in 2011, he cut his teeth as an amateur scout, then went to the organization’s pro scouting department. And after last year’s draft, Rosso was named the Lightning’s director of amateur scouting.

The NHL draft Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas will be the first one overseen by Rosso. The Lightning currently have five picks, but don’t have a selection until the fourth round unless they trade up.

Scouting is not an exact science, especially in the amateur ranks where the player pool is so vast worldwide and scouts aren’t just projecting the draft-eligible players, but also gathering opinions on players down the pipeline.

“The amateur schedule is just so different from the pro schedule,” Rosso said. “The pro schedule wraps around the trade deadline and free agency. So you have multiple goals that you’re trying to hit and you’re working towards. And then with the draft, you have one goal. It’s less than 24 hours basically that all your work goes toward. It’s like the Super Bowl. Whether you have 12 picks or whether you have two picks, as an area guy, you can get someone that you like. And maybe no one else thinks he’s great, but you love the kid that you got in the sixth round.”

And after spending the previous four years on the pro scouting side as the Lightning’s assistant director of player personnel, responsible for scouting the NHL’s Western Conference and western AHL teams, Rosso returned to the amateur side starting from zero. Preparing for this week’s draft, he really had to lean on his staff of 10 area scouts.

“And a lot of the guys that I came in with on the amateur side in 2011, are still on the amateur side and still in Tampa Bay. So the cohesiveness of the group is, I think, to our advantage,” Rosso said. “I think that trust factor is really big — to have open-minded discussions on players. They’re just kids and they change a ton.”

Blue-collar roots

When Rosso first joined the Lightning in 2011, he was assigned to be the team’s Minnesota-area scout, responsible for high schools in the state and the USHL junior league. He was constantly on the move, driving to prep games on Tuesdays and Thursdays, USHL games on the weekends.

Rosso gained the blue-collar reputation, someone who wouldn’t just watch a ton of games, but also networked to find everything he needed about the players he was watching, not just their skills on the ice but who they were as a person.

“You can get a feel of a player off video and from analytics, but there’s just some things that you have to be in the rink to see,” Rosso said. “It’s a relationship business, and you’re trying to get a feel for them. They’re still young kids. They’re still growing into young adults so they change, their personalities change. So that’s what you’re trying to figure out — the human side of it, too.”

Luke Strand, the head coach at Minnesota State who was Lightning left wing Cole Koepke’s USHL coach in Sioux City, said Rosso set himself apart from other scouts.

“He was a grinder,” Strand said. “So he found time to make sure he got his eyes on guys. I also would give him a ton of credit for being a good listener. ...(The Lightning) have got the best one, in my opinion, in John Rosso.”

Searching for the next ‘Bolt’

The core of the Lightning’s championship teams was built around high draft picks: first-rounders like Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy, as well as second-rounder NIkita Kucherov and third-rounders Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli. But from a scouting perspective, it’s finding players in the later rounds who may have gone overlooked that might be more rewarding.

Rosso started scouting Lightning defenseman Nick Perbix and Koepke when they were high schoolers. Both were late bloomers, and it took multiple years of following them for Rosso to project them. The Lightning selected both in the sixth round, and both made it to the NHL. Rosso said that he didn’t write reports on either player when he first saw them play, but the more he watched them, the more they drew his interest. The key, in many ways, was identifying certain attributes in players that Lightning scouts see in players they simply label as “Bolts.”

“The best way I try to describe it is the same way that I tried to tell our guys when we’re trying to judge the character of a 17-, 18-, 19-year-old kid,” Rosso said. “Do you want them as your teammate? Some guys are just like, ‘I’d love to play with that guy,’ or the other way like, ‘I’d rather have that guy on my team rather than play against him because he plays so hard.’ ”

Working in the pro scouting department has helped Rosso search for those players. And the continuity throughout the organization, from the amateur scouts on up, also helps identify the kind of players the Lightning covet.

“Watching guys play for Tampa and guys who come up through (AHL) Syracuse, you’ve watched so many players over the last some of these guys’ 12, 13 years, you have a Rolodex in your head of, ‘OK, that’s what makes a Bolt.’ But it’s not ‘Hey, here’s 10 bullet points to explain what a Bolt is.’ Guys at this point know it really well, and once you spot it a couple of times, it’s really easy for someone who’s joining the staff to get a feel for it.”

NHL draft

Sphere, Las Vegas

Friday (Round 1): 7 p.m., ESPN

Saturday (Rounds 2-7): 11:30 a.m., ESPN+

• • •

Sign up for the Sports Today newsletter to get daily updates on the Bucs, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.

Never miss out on the latest with your favorite Tampa Bay sports teams. Follow our coverage on Instagram, X and Facebook.