There's a lot of detail you could go into about modes, chord-scales, unusual scales and so on. However, before getting into that, can I just say that in my view it would be best it the pianist was as completely in command as possible of all the "ordinary scales".
By that I mean majors in all keys, over several octaves, and similarly minors of all types (natural, melodic and harmonic) as fluently and rhythmically as possible. After all, you can argue that all the modes are just a re-working of those: same notes, different order, even though some may finger them differently. Chromatics are good too, and I'm now very grateful to my early piano teachers for making those the basis of my technique, though I'm sure I wasn't at the time! Blues scales are indispensable too.
Of course, all the other scales, such as whole-tone, diminished, Lydian b7 etc are great, and sometimes necessary, but they are, to some extent the "icing on the cake", in my view.
Blog looks great, Duncan! Glad to see you haven't lost your zeal in the art of jazz.
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