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NHL Draft Combine 2025

rocketdan9 said:
Nice.

Bear and McQueen on the list.... is interesting.

I imagine they won't be able to perform in many of the tests. Especially Bear.
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The main part of the combine is the interviews. But that’s the part we don’t get to see so it’s oftentimes overlooked.

But yeah, they’ll be officially weighed and measured (think that happens on Wednesday?) and may go through some of the exercises. Like Bear obviously isn’t doing the standing long jump but don’t see why he couldn’t do the bench press. But they can nope out of anything they want.
 
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STL fan in MN said:
The main part of the combine is the interviews. But that’s the part we don’t get to see so it’s oftentimes overlooked.

But yeah, they’ll be officially weighed and measured (think that happens on Wednesday?) and may go through some of the exercises. Like Bear obviously isn’t doing the standing long jump but don’t see why he couldn’t do the bench press. But they can nope out of anything they want.
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Like the NFL combine, the main part is the physicals.
 
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Only one Finn invited (Lasse Boelius), really surprising that Max Westergård didn't get the invite as I feel that he is our best first time eligible prospect for this barren year.
 
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Grinner said:
Like the NFL combine, the main part is the physicals.
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For the public? Sure. I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of reactions here on Friday when the testing results start to come out. But for teams and players, the interviews are much more important.

Unlike the NFL Combine that’s for 22-24 year olds, the NHL Combine is for 17-18 year olds. Unlike the NFL Combine, NHL teams aren’t drafting for next season. They’re drafting for 5+ years into the future. While it’s nice if a prospect shows well in the physical tests, the results of teenagers don’t mean a ton. Remember how Sam Bennett couldn’t do a single pull-up at the Combine back when he was 17? There were all sorts of fan reactions to him being weak, soft etc. Now he’s considered one of the league’s biggest badasses. And there aren’t even any on-ice tests. It’s all gym stuff. Some of it can certainly correlate to on-ice performance but not remotely to the same level as the NFL Combine.

The fitness results can matter a bit if someone does extraordinarily well or extraordinarily poorly, or if someone shows amazing or horrible effort (regardless of actual result) but otherwise it’s really just used to evaluate where a kid is at in his development curve, what he needs to work on going forward, how much runway he has etc.
 
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STL fan in MN said:
For the public? Sure. I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of reactions here on Friday when the testing results start to come out. But for teams and players, the interviews are much more important.

Unlike the NFL Combine that’s for 22-24 year olds, the NHL Combine is for 17-18 year olds. Unlike the NFL Combine, NHL teams aren’t drafting for next season. They’re drafting for 5+ years into the future. While it’s nice if a prospect shows well in the physical tests, the results of teenagers don’t mean a ton. Remember how Sam Bennett couldn’t do a single pull-up at the Combine back when he was 17? There were all sorts of fan reactions to him being weak, soft etc. Now he’s considered one of the league’s biggest badasses. And there aren’t even any on-ice tests. It’s all gym stuff. Some of it can certainly correlate to on-ice performance but not remotely to the same level as the NFL Combine.

The fitness results can matter a bit if someone dies extraordinarily well or extraordinarily poorly, or if someone shows amazing or horrible effort (regardless of actual result) but otherwise it’s really just used to evaluate where a kid is at in his development curve, what he needs to work on going forward, how much runway he has etc.
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Physicals are not intended for the public. They're there to examine all the major prospects in the same facilities using the same procedures and medical personal.
 
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Grinner said:
Physicals are not intended for the public. They're there to examine all the major prospects in the same facilities using the same procedures and medical personal.
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Ok, you mean the medical testing. Sorry, I thought you were referring to the fitness tests. Yeah, that’s important too. They all have to pass the medical testing to be able to do any of the fitness tests. Hopefully nobody’s career comes to a hault like it did for David Carle years ago. It was at the combine where it was discovered he had a heart defect and he was forced to retire. At least he’s become an excellent coach.
 
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NHL Draft Combine has begun with players arriving in Buffalo for the start of interviews and eventually testing.

www.nhl.com

Top prospects for 2025 Draft arrive in Buffalo for Scouting Combine | NHL.com

Projected No. 1 pick Schaefer looking forward to ‘creating relationships’ ahead of meeting with 16 NHL teams
www.nhl.com www.nhl.com

I'm sure this will be lively with the annual gym-bro talk about curl reps and people who don't know what a metronome is. Fun.
 
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Chainshot said:
NHL Draft Combine has begun with players arriving in Buffalo for the start of interviews and eventually testing.

www.nhl.com

Top prospects for 2025 Draft arrive in Buffalo for Scouting Combine | NHL.com

Projected No. 1 pick Schaefer looking forward to ‘creating relationships’ ahead of meeting with 16 NHL teams
www.nhl.com www.nhl.com

I'm sure this will be lively with the annual gym-bro talk about curl reps and people who don't know what a metronome is. Fun.
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Lol. Martone’s wooden, backyard goalie named Jeff is hilarious. 🤣

And yes, absolutely can’t wait to have the discussion on how so and so only did X amount of pushups and thus they’re super weak because we don’t understand the real reason is they just got off the timing of the metronome a bit so they didn’t count…
 
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STL fan in MN said:
Lol. Martone’s wooden, backyard goalie named Jeff is hilarious. 🤣

And yes, absolutely can’t wait to have the discussion on how so and so only did X amount of pushups and thus they’re super weak because we don’t understand the real reason is they just got off the timing of the metronome a bit so they didn’t count…
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E1F9CF4CD2B3AF63648BFEE27B226049A2DC9F1B


My childhood inanimate object goalie was a trash can that I named Khabibulin.

-------------

One combine workout story I enjoy was it being a factor in a counterintuitive way when they were deciding between Drew Doughty and Zach Bogosian. Kings GM Dean Lombardi would later remark how if you only saw their combine workouts, Bogosian looked every bit the part of an elite athlete while Doughty was out of shape.

But they thought that if Doughty was doing well in the OHL while being out of shape, there might be some untapped upside if they got him on a regular workout routine. Whereas Bogosian might already have been 90% towards his physical peak. Although that logic doesn't always pan out (Steve Bernier).

I remember a 2007 draft video that the Blues posted where they had their strength coach work with a few prospects. He wouldn't have known which kid was a potential top 10 pick vs. a day 2 pick, but he would write up a report about where each prospect was physically. Definitely would be interesting to chat with a strength/conditioning coach. I remember reading that it was somehow known that 2011 draft prospect Reece Scarlett was going to have issues putting on muscle and he ended up going a bit later than some had projected. He seemingly had the frame but it looks like those muscle/weight projections were correct.
 
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VIPettersson said:
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I feel kind of bad lol

At some point I'm sure they get sick and tired of it all.

The league should change the process. Have each of these prospects come up to the podium. Answer 10 basic questions in front of execs or team rep. "What have you been doing since the hockey season ended etc.".

Then whichever team wants to have a more in depth interview can do so. Cutting down from 30 to 10 interviews (example).
 
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rocketdan9 said:
I feel kind of bad lol

At some point I'm sure they get sick and tired of it all.

The league should change the process. Have each of these prospects come up to the podium. Answer 10 basic questions in front execs or team rep. "What have you been doing since the hockey season ended etc.".

Then whichever team wants to have a more in depth interview can do so. Cutting down from 30 to 10 interviews (example).
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Gets them used to answering the same questions after every game
 
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Kevin Musto said:
I'm shocked there's that much interest in Cam Reid
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Maybe it’s the opposite. The lower a player is projected to get drafted, the more teams that have the chance to draft said player. Therefore, there are more teams looking to interview and learn more about the player, as opposed to just 1 team for the projected first overall(assuming the isles are going to draft Schaefer). 30 team interviews is basically the whole first round.
 
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