“During the winter I’m gone a lot,” Giese said. “I checked my Marriott account last night—I stayed about 150 nights. Lot of time on the road. Lot of time in hotels.”
Giese has three assistants—one in Minnesota, one in Michigan and one in Boston—who help him scout in the U.S.
“I’m the point guy in the U.S. for us now,” Giese said. “It’s fun. For the first four years, there was a guy above me, and I learned a ton from him.
“Then he decided to go the college coaching route in Denver, so that opened up the opportunity for me to take it and run with it.”
That’s far from the beginning of his scouting life. Giese, who first started playing when he was 4, was the goalie for the Janesville Bluebirds while in high school.
His interest in scouting began when his favorite NHL team (at the time)—the San Jose Sharks—traded some veterans for prospects. He began researching the prospects, and the scouting bug bit.
The 2006 Craig graduate got his first scouting job with the Jets—the Janesville Jets. Owner Bill McCoshen hired Giese after they met with then-head coach Dane Litke.
Giese was the sole scout and recruiter for the Jets for two seasons from 2010-2012.
He also did some work with the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League as a scout/talent evaluator. He went to Sweden as part of a College Hockey Sweden program to spread the word about the USHL and NCAA hockey to Swedish players.
That exposed him to European hockey.
Giese joined the Winnipeg Jets in August of 2012 as a Midwest regional scout. In four years, he worked his way up to the head U.S. scout.
He doesn’t plan to stop there.
“My dream would be to be a scouting director someday,” he said. “I really love what I do. I want to grow in my role.”
