Mark Seidel has left Las Vegas, but the controversy he helped create has not stayed there.
The Barrie Colts' director of scouting and player personnel was connected to the departure of longtime broadcaster Jeff Marek from Sportsnet, according to a report published last week in The Athletic.
“The story in The Athletic and the subsequent attention has been very unsettling,” Seidel wrote in an email to BarrieToday, “because everyone agrees that I did nothing wrong with any of the drafts that I have covered since 1996, including (Las Vegas).”
Seidel declined to be drawn in on what transpired between him and Marek, but he attempted to provide background on his long association with junior hockey and scouting in a series of texts and an email with BarrieToday, as well as a phone conversation.
During that time, Seidel has held a series of positions with Ontario Hockey League clubs, contributed to various media outlets and ran his own scouting service, North American Central Scouting, mostly through his robust feed on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Confronted with negative information that could have given people pause to consider his actions not only in Vegas but in various jobs over the years, Seidel had a curious way of remembering events. Speaking in vague and often banal generalities, Seidel attempted to explain the details behind his many job changes, and his struggles with addiction before finding a measure of stability in Barrie with the Colts.
In a voluminous email, he described friendly relationships with certain hockey people he previously worked for who had already provided BarrieToday with information at odds with his telling.
And though he disagrees with the characterization, Vegas was not the first time that Seidel has raised eyebrows of NHL officials and personnel.
“The assertion … that the NHL has had previous issues (with me) is completely incorrect in my opinion,” Seidel said in response to a query from BarrieToday, while acknowledging that he once received a cease-and-desist letter from the league for using its logo to promote his scouting service.
Seidel maintains that he remains in good standing with the NHL as “an accredited media member.”
Seidel briefly served as a scout for the Minnesota Wild. It ended after other Wild scouts raised the alarm about his presence on their staff. When senior Wild management looked into those concerns, it was revealed that Seidel was not attending nearly the amount of games he should have been, which he acknowledged in a conversation with BarrieToday. He was dismissed by the Wild shortly thereafter.
Seidel told BarrieToday he was in the midst of addiction issues that started when he was prescribed OxyContin after multiple knee surgeries. He added that he’s been clean since 2013 after quitting “cold turkey.”
“I didn’t perform to my expectations,” he said of his brief spell in Minnesota. “The Wild had their concerns, too, but they were extremely gracious in my time there.
“I have certainly made mistakes in the past and some serious ones when (my) addiction was bad and I’m not a saint, but I think most people would say I’m a good person (who has) done the right things since 2013," Seidel added.
At the junior level, Seidel has worked for the Owen Sound Attack, Erie Otters and Niagara IceDogs, as well at least one other independent scouting service that, generally, ended quickly and often badly. Through all of it, he has operated his own service – for which he received the NHL’s cease-and-desist letter – that ranks NHL Draft prospects each year.
Seidel’s brief tenures with other OHL teams changed when he began working for current Barrie Colts general manager and head coach Marty Williamson, first in Niagara. Williamson, whose two Colts stints have been sandwiched around time with the IceDogs and Brock University, then brought Seidel to Barrie about five years ago.
The Athletic story published last week, written by Katie Strang and Dan Robson, said that Marek’s parting from Sportsnet came after it was determined that he revealed proprietary draft selection information to Seidel, who promptly posted it to his social-media feed before the picks were made public.
An attempt to contact Marek for this story was unsuccessful.
Seidel’s posts on X/Twitter attracted the attention of both the NHL and Nevada gaming authorities. Seidel was then confronted by those authorities and made to show that he wasn’t sending any information to questionable sources who could benefit from illegal betting.
Reached by phone last week, Williamson, who said he witnessed the Vegas exchange Seidel had on site at Sphere, also played down the incident.
“(Mark) has his scouting thing,” explained Williamson, in reference to Seidel’s North American Central Scouting X feed. “He was tweeting out the picks that I guess he was getting from Jeff Marek, they’ve had a (working relationship) for years … (Nevada authorities) wanted to make sure that none of that information was getting into the wrong hands.
“'Seids' gave them his phone and gave them his code so they could look through it. They checked it and made sure everything was fine and then they let him go," he added.
It is not unusual for various stakeholders – broadcasters, media, agents, etc. – to get the identity of draft picks a minute or two before they are formally selected.
What was notable about the case involving Seidel was that he was in Vegas, where strict rules governing betting were in place that night. The NHL and Nevada gaming authorities became uncomfortable how and why Seidel was posting such accurate information, because generally most people who are aware of it keep it under wraps until draft selections are announced.
According to The Athletic, the NHL wanted to get to the bottom of how Seidel came by the information. Subsequent investigation revealed the Marek-Seidel connection and the broadcaster was soon out of a job.
For his part, Williamson confirmed that Seidel is still employed by the Colts, that he has performed his scouting duties admirably and that he knew nothing of any untoward conduct by Seidel until asked about it by a reporter.
Indeed, evidence of Seidel’s work was on display in Vegas because forward Cole Beaudoin was taken 24th overall by the Utah Hockey Club. Beaudoin, with Seidel playing a role in his selection, was drafted by the Colts in the OHL Priority Selection two years ago and has emerged as a dominating power forward.
Williamson also pointed out that Seidel currently has good working relationships with certain NHL teams, citing the Dallas Stars specifically.
As it turns out, the Colts recently selected Stars draft pick Emil Hemming, a Finn taken five slots after Beaudoin in Vegas, in the CHL Import Draft. Many observers doubted Hemming’s willingness to come to Barrie for the 2024-25 season, but Hemming is committed and expected to arrive in Barrie before he departs for Stars training camp.
In an ironic twist, it was around the time that Beaudoin was pulling on a Utah jersey on the Sphere stage and Hemming was doing the same with Stars colours that authorities on the ground in Vegas were searching out Seidel to investigate what he was doing with his draft selection information.
Williamson said that Seidel has been involved with the past three OHL drafts in his more senior role and as a regular scout since 2019. When the team took Parker Vaughan fifth overall this spring, Williamson handed his phone over to him to speak on the team’s behalf to a reporter.
Though the Colts are apparently happy to allow Seidel to continue to create social-media buzz and operate North American Central Scouting, many in the hockey world have found Seidel’s multiple and simultaneous iterations awkward, if not a direct conflict. Many people have also taken issue with how he couches information for his own benefit.
To be fair, reputations die hard, but many hockey people may now have even longer memories regarding Seidel given what happened in Vegas.
