Quantifying Character: The Missing Link in Prospect Evaluation

In a recent episode of The Art of Team Building on the Glass and Out Podcast, Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin made it clear: whether it’s the draft, free agency, or trades —

"Character is the number one criterion."

-- Bill Guerin, GM Minnesota Wild

Guerin emphasized that high-character players:

• Put everything into their development

• Behave like professionals

• Care for teammates and play for each other

• Do the right thing at the right time

• Accept different roles without resistance

Many NHL organizations echo this philosophy. Yet despite its importance, character remains the most under-measured and misunderstood variable in prospect evaluation. There’s surprisingly little discussion about how character is actually identified, measured, and translated into long-term performance. The league average success rate for NHL teams at the amateur draft typically falls in the low 20’s.

The Selection Equation: Skill + Character = Prospect Rank

From decades in human resources and our work with NHL teams, we’ve seen that the best organizations use evidence-based processes to reduce bias, mitigate risk, and improve selection success.

Selection is a two-part equation:

• Technical Variable: Quantitative data, scouting reports, game stats, combine results, on/off-ice testing

• Character Variable: Often qualitative, subjective, and inconsistently gathered

Errors in selection most frequently occur on the character side. Why?

• Technical data is abundant and discrepancies are easy to spot

• Character data is sparse, anecdotal, often biased, and discrepancies are hard to detect

• Interviews and due diligence lack specificity and linkage to key performance requirements

• Psychometric assessments offer useful insights, but standard reports often lack the depth to connect traits to role-specific standards

The Missing Piece: Quantifying Character

At CoreFive Analytics, we specialize in bridging this gap. Our approach turns character analytics into a strategic asset to acquire and develop the human capital needed to build resilient, high-performing organizations.