Over time as competitive sports evolve, (in this case collegiate ice hockey) so do the elements surrounding the recruitment of players.
Schools hire agencies, have their own recruiting department(s), send out coaches and scouts etc to monitor perspective players of interest. The disposition of scouting players varies and one person's opinion is almost never the same as another. Unless of course the player scouted has such a high level of talent that everybody in the nation is already aware and has the same interest.
Whatever the case, there's so many different platforms available today to enable the ability to monitor players without having to be on location physically. We've all heard the success stories of actors, singers and some sports stars who leveraged the use of sites like youtube, vimeo as well as personal websites to showcase their talent.
The million dollar question is, do agencies, coaches, scouts and other recruiters put any value into a players highlight videos to showcase their talent, personality and overall ability?