BUFFALO, N.Y. — The top prospects for July’s NHL Draft were in town this week, but don’t mistake all that crazy testing that you see on Friday and Saturday as why they were here.
What the teams are here for is to get the chance to sit down with any of the 96 players that were here and to find out about them.
Teams want to do a deep dive into what makes players tick, and many of the questions aren't even about hockey. One player was asked if he had a betting app on his phone.
Shane Wright is likely to be picked as one of the first three picks by either the Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, or Arizona Coyotes and is considered by many to be the top prospect this year. He was one of the players who the Canadiens took out to dinner, but is that a trap?
If you're Wright, are you thinking, what do I order? Is it OK to order the expensive steak, or will that make me look bad?
Wright said, “I mentioned to them that I was kind of looking at the steak because it’s pretty expensive, it was like 60 bucks, but they said, ‘Go ahead, go have it.’ So I made sure it was all right before I ordered, so it was all good.”
Wright was also asked what 25 multiplied by 25 is.
In their draft years, Casey Mittelstadt and Sam Bennett were skewered by the media because they couldn’t do a pull up. Well, teams couldn’t care less. Bennett scored 28 goals for the Florida Panthers this season and was taken fourth overall by the Calgary Flames. The Sabres took Mittelstadt eighth overall.
What happens in the testing is not going to affect a player's draft rating at all. Most general managers don’t even stay for it. The testing is for the strength and conditioning coaches so that if a team drafts one of those players, they can hit the ground running as to what kind of training this player will need to make them stronger and quicker.
As you know, Terry Pegula is a hands-on owner. He was in town for the combine as he always is because he likes being in on the interviews. He also wants to know about these players and he’s not afraid to tell Adams what his impressions are on the character of a player.
I remember on the football side of things, Pegula was very impressed with how Josh Allen handled himself.
Don’t forget in the NHL, you’re drafting 18 and 19-year-olds. You have to try to project how big they're going to be when they’re fully grown. I remember last year after Isak Rosen was taken, Sabres director of amateur scouting Jerry Forton said they looked at Rosen’s parents to see how much they could expect Rosen to grow from what is being called a generous 165 pounds.
They have to judge how much these prospects can improve on the ice too. In many cases, it’s going to be three or four years until a guy drafted this year will even get an opportunity to play in the NHL, and when they do, they will be a much different player than they were in this past season.
Good examples are Erik Portillo and Devon Levi. With both going back to school this season, it will be four years for Portillo and three years for Levi to even start their pro careers, and when they sign, it’s very unlikely that they'll start in Buffalo. They will need time in Rochester.
Another example is Linus Ullmark didn’t become an NHL regular with the Sabres until six years after he was drafted, so that’s what an NHL scout has to deal with.
The NHL Draft is in Montreal July 7, 8.