About the Over the Boards newsletter
I started Over the Boards in 2012 as an independent media entity to cover college hockey recruiting and amateur hockey prospects. Over the years myself and others scouted and provided coverage of the college hockey recruiting world. After taking a few years off I’m back to writing about hockey, although it will be a one-man effort now.
I have a few focuses for my time: college hockey recruiting, the Big Ten conference and American or NCAA-tied prospects in general. I’m writing about whatever I find compelling in hockey, from trends to commitments, games I’ve watched and a lot of rising prospects.
In the process of covering the recruiting beat, I’ll be writing about news and players from amateur leagues including the USHL, high schools and more. This season is my first paying attention to the women’s side of the game and I hope to cover that in time.
About me (Jasper Kozak-Miller) and www.tealhockey.net
I’ve written about college hockey recruiting extensively in the past for Over the Boards and other media outlets, including College Hockey News and Minnesota Hockey Magazine. Player evaluation has been a passion of mine since the age of fifteen and combining that with writing has proven to be a great fit. Over the years of writing about hockey prospects I’ve written about hundreds of future college players and many future professionals. Some of the players I’ve caught earlier in their careers include Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, Seth Jones, Brock Boeser, Zach Werenski, Colin White, Casey Mittelstadt, Brady Tkachuk, Ryan Donato and Clayton Keller.
My past scouting experience also included directing all of the operations for Over the Boards, which entailed managing a scouting staff based in multiple countries as well as putting on a prospects showcase, the Teal Invite, in 2015. Scouts in attendance featured head coaches from multiple top programs including then-NCAA-champions Providence College. Dozens of prospects would go on to Division 1 commitments and a couple would be chosen in the NHL draft as well.
I also recruited and coached a U16 team for the Teal Invite. That one-off group included talented players from all over the US, some of whom would go on to commit to Division 1 programs including Notre Dame, UMass-Lowell and Minnesota.
During that period, there was effectively no end to the hockey season and I needed to take a break. I started watching hockey much more in 2018, especially thankful for the advent of games being streamed with regularity and higher quality. In addition to this newsletter, you can find more of my work here, on YouTube as well as on my social media channels (@overtheboards)
