2014 NHL Draft Combine May 26-31 aka the Pull-Up thread

[puckedoff]

Teams interview players that they may one day encounter in trade negotiations as well. Maybe 3 years down the road the Oil are offered one of those 2nd round draftees for JShultz.

[sureLoss]

NHL ‏@NHL 6m
Gang's all here. #NHLCombine selfie with @Jake_Virtanen, @ritchboiii, @MDalColle71, @SBennett93 and @EK5Colts. pic.twitter.com/uRJM3jQqEn

[Racki]

Ritchie looks to be in good shape. He's starting to shake that "pudgy" look he's always had

[nik-]

but his twitter handle is ritchboiii, so it erases any positives

[sureLoss]

Finally have physical testing tomorrow.

Description of the tests can be found here:
http://www.topendsports.com/sport/ic.../nhl-draft.htm

[ignite09]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Finally have physical testing tomorrow.

Description of the tests can be found here:
http://www.topendsports.com/sport/ic.../nhl-draft.htm

This is what I'm looking forward to, still think Draisaitl comes in at over 6'2 215. Would also be nice to see Bennett at 6'1 180+ if the Oilers do take the German.

[sureLoss]

Reinhart thinks he is NHL ready thanks to Team Canada WC camp exp:

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=721226

Once that sinks in and Reinhart goes about preparing for his first NHL training camp, he will draw from the experience he had in early May with Canada's world hockey championship team. The Kootenay Ice forward thinks he's ready for the pros because he joined Team Canada for its training camp and exhibition game against Switzerland in Zurich.

"I got a little taste of it at the international level for a couple days in Switzerland," he said Friday at the NHL's annual scouting combine. "It was pretty amazing to see how I handled practice one compared to practice three and really picked up the pace and felt comfortable pretty quick out there."

Reinhart had to think quick well before he ever stepped onto the ice. He got the call from Hockey Canada on Friday night and needed to decide whether to get on a plane to Europe Saturday afternoon.

"It was a pretty quick turnaround to kind of drop everything and go over there," the 18-year-old centre said. "It was a tough decision at the time but really turned out to be a positive experience. It's really paying off right now."

Reinhart didn't have much more to prove. He had represented Canada the under-18 world championships twice, winning gold in 2013, and then was on this past year's world-junior team.

Named WHL player of the year for putting up 105 points in 60 games with the Ice, Reinhart is third among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting's final rankings.

But it didn't hurt Reinhart to show what he could do surrounded by players who will soon be his peers. He already knew Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly, Flames centre Sean Monahan and Canucks defenceman Jason Garrison, but being on the ice with them in that environment was a different story.

"He didn't look out of place," Team Canada coach Dave Tippett said in a phone interview Friday afternoon. "He carried himself like a pro player. He picked up the things we were trying to do in the drills very well. The biggest thing you could tell, and it's probably a little bit because of his upbringing — he wasn't intimidated by the situation at all and just jumped in there and played."

Even though Reinhart was an extra forward for the exhibition game, Tippett liked how he made the most out of his eight or nine minutes of ice time. Had an injury occurred before the team left Zurich, there was some discussion about adding Reinhart to the team, which would've made him the youngest by two months over Nathan MacKinnon.

[sureLoss]

Virtanen interviewed with 24 teams including Vancouver and the Flames:

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/h...705/story.html

[Vulcan]

Reinhart's invite to the WC never seems to be mentioned and I'm glad Sureloss brought it up. It shows in what high regard Sam is held at by the upper echelon and in his own words how he is able to up his game. I'd be very happy if he gets picked by us. He should make the NHL next season as he has nothing to prove or learn in the WHL.

[sureLoss]

Toni Rajamäki ‏@Trajamaki11 6h
Kasperi Kapanen on jutellut 26 NHL-seuran kanssa Combine-tilaisuudessa #nhlfi #kalpa

Translation: Kapanen interviewed with 26 teams.

Mike Morreale @mikemorrealeNHL
Kasperi Kapanen: "[Florida] said they wanted to get me there because I'd help [Aleksander Barkov] with his English."

[Poe969]

Is Ekblad 10ft in front of the other guys??? His head looks huge compared to them!

[djsFlames]

WC camp or not, Reinhart's had 3 good seasons in the WHL already, and shown a steady increase in production with each year. After a 105pt / 1.70+ PPG season, another season would just be excessive. Just like Gaudreau and college hockey, he's outgrown the league.

[JurassicTunga12]

The Leafs website has a bunch of interviews with the players at the combine: http://video.mapleleafs.nhl.com/videocenter/console

Reinhart, Draisaitl, Bennett, Ekblad, Dal Colle, Virtanen, Fleury, Ritchie, Perlini, and McCann.

[FlameZilla]

Originally Posted by Poe969

Is Ekblad 10ft in front of the other guys??? His head looks huge compared to them!

I assume Ekblad is taking the selfie. Using the powers of deduction gifted to me by years of watching detective dramas I can tell you that he is therefore closer to the camera than the others.

[sureLoss]

Picture gallery of the functional movment test:

http://flames.nhl.com/club/gallery.htm?id=45990

[sureLoss]

Oilers have setup a nice live blog for the physical testing. Gives the times each prospect is going to be tested and will have interviews after each group is done:

http://oilers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?...|EDM|prospects

[sureLoss]

http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?...medium=twitter

The likes of Conroy, amateur scouting director Tod Button, general manager Brad Treliving and president of hockey operations Brian Burke -- mix in several other scouts -- will interview with 63 players over the course of four days.

At the other end of the table, some players will meet with all 30 teams over the 96-hour stretch.

It makes for some great interviews, Conroy admitted.

“Anytime you come, there are always some great stories, you have fun with the kids,” he said. “They were all different, but they all know how to handle themselves. I was thinking if I was 17, 18 back doing this, I don’t know what I would’ve said for answers.

“I thought they handled themselves well and I thought if anything, they’ve all helped themselves.”

It’s getting harder, though, for teams to dig.

Players are coming into the combine more polished, making the work of Conroy, Burke and Treliving more difficult.

“They come in here pretty prepared,” Treliving said. “I know they spend some time with their representatives and go through this process in a mock basis. They’re prepared for a lot of the questions that you may come at them with.

“The number of poor interviews is getting less and less. These kids are mature. They’ve gone through this process, the top kids have gone through it for the past couple of years.”

It’s tough to judge, Conroy admitted.

“I think sometimes when they’re just scripted and you feel like they give definitions to answers, I like when they’re just themselves and they show what kind of person they are,” he said. “If they’re outgoing, bubbly like they say, ‘Hey we’re a jokester’ and they’re pretty serious in the interview, you wonder if it’s just an act or if he’s really being himself.”

Whether or not a player is being genuine or not isn’t necessarily easy.

[sureLoss]

http://oilers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=721312

“I know the Oilers are a bottom team right now,” Ekblad said. “They have a lot of heavy offence and they do have some great defencemen there, some great young guys who are going to do some damage in the future. Of course I would be ecstatic to be a part of that kind of organization and the amount of history that organization has. However, of course I don’t really know what’s going to happen at this point. I can’t really comment too far into it but I’d be ecstatic to play anywhere in the NHL next year, including the Oilers.”

[Ring of Fire]

47 minutes ago
tsnscottcullen: GMs spotted early this morning: Don Maloney, Jarmo Kekalainen, Brad Treliving
Retweet | Follow

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

1. Why should the NHL entry draft go beyond 4 rounds? There are only 120 prospects that the NHL teams are interested.

2. Are there any stats available on how many players don't get invited to the combine and make it to the NHL?

3. Johnny Gaudreau (#104 pick) was not at the 2011 combine. Only 102 players were invited. Did the Flames interview / test him before drafting him?

Of the 17 Guys drafted after Gaudreau in the 4th round 6 were invited to the combine 11 were not. 5 of the 11 not invited played their draft year in Europe.

Guys attending combine drafted in the 4th round after Gaudreau:

Michael St. Croix #106, Colin Jacobs #107, Olivier Archambault #108, Tobias Rieder #114, Marcel Noebels #118, Zach Yuen #119.

Did the Flames pull a fast one? They were obviously interested in Gaudreau but did not get him invited to the combine.


4. Would the NHL be okay with teams having their own on ice physical testing for players outside the 119?

Not sure how I missed this when it was first posted.

1. To say the NHL teams are only interested in 120 prospects because that is how many where invited is bad logic. NHL central scouting invites the prospects that it thinks the most teams will be interested in. They don't invite guys they project to be late round picks because they know only a handful of teams will be interested. If there was an unlimited budget and infinite time to run a combine I am sure every draft eligible prospect would be invited.

2. No stats I am aware of, but I would assume a higher percentage of prospects that went to the combine became NHLers because the prospects that are invited are ranked higher than the ones that aren't.

3. Don't think the Flames tested Gaudreau before drafting him, or at least they didn't bring him back to Calgary to do any testing. In his post draft interviews Gaudreau said he was interviewed by the Flames scouts a few times.

Up until this year NHL teams didn't have a say in who was invited to the combine. It was all decided by NHL central scouting:

Unlike previous seasons, the player invitation process was revised to enable NHL clubs an opportunity to participate.

"It's a change from past practice of invites being solely based on Central Scouting's final rankings," Marr said. "Research has shown over the last decade that an average of 78 invites to the Combine were selected in the top 100 at the NHL Draft.

"For the 2014 Combine, a two-stage process was adopted. In the initial stage, the top 75 players on Central Scouting's Players to Watch List were invited [at an earlier date] and the final stage involved the NHL clubs voting in the remaining 45 players. The number of invites increased this year."

Gaudreau was ranked the 193rd NA skater by central scouting. Those other guys you listed were ranked much higher, that's why they got invites and Gaudreau didn't. Not a conspiracy theory by the Flames to sneak a player by the other teams.

If anything Tim Harrison is more of a "pull a fast one" by the Flames. They had to stop the draft for 10 minutes so Tod Button could go up to the NHL registry and give Harrison's information because the NHL had no data on Harrison.

4. The article I posted from CBC earlier said that any prospect that wasn't invited to the combine could be physically tested by NHL teams.