Alan Hepple named Coyotes new Director of Pro Scouting

The Arizona Coyotes and General Manager Bill Armstrong are starting to make some hires.

Last week, the team announced the hiring of André Tourigny as the team’s new head coach. Today it was the announcement that Alan Hepple had been named the new Director of Pro Scouting.

Hepple spent the previous 19 seasons with the Colorado Avalanche and was named the Directo of Amateur Scouting on July 1, 2015.

While Hepple was serving as Director of Amateur Scouting, the Avalanche drafted Bowen Byram (2019), Alex Newhook (2019), Cale Makar (2017), Tyson Jost (2016).

They also drafted Martin Kaut at 16th overall in 2018. He hasn’t found his footing yet and has split the past two seasons between the NHL and the AHL.

If you’re interested in his draft evaluations, he spoke with Ryan S. Clark with The Athletic before the 2019 NHL Entry Draft offering his thoughts on some of the top prospects not named Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko. It’s too early for most of the discussed players, but it will be interesting to see how things shape up.

The Avalanche have had a few big hits at the draft, but not many outside of the first round. But Tyson Jost and Cale Makar were huge picks for Colorado, even if the Avalanche skipped over Jakob Chychrun to draft Jost.

An Avalanche blue line with Jakob Chychrun and Cale Makar would be terrifying.

Hepple will have a lot of work ahead of him, with the Coyotes needing to restock their blue line. The Coyotes currently have only Jakob Chychrun, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Ilya Lybushkin signed for next season, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson is rumored to be on the trade block.