20240601-combine-preview

BUFFALO – Hockey’s best prospects have descended on KeyBank Center and LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo, NY for the 2024 NHL Scouting Combine presented by adidas from June 3-8.

The next crop of NHL talent – 100 prospects, to be exact – is slated to participate in the annual event in upstate New York, looking to impress teams’ different brasses. Top prospects including Macklin Celebrini, Artyom Levshunov and Cayden Lindstrom are in attendance.

The NHL Scouting Combine gives teams a chance to evaluate prospects’ mental capabilities and physical performance through interviews and a variety of tests, helping scouts gather comprehensive data ahead of decision-making time at Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28-29.

Meanwhile, for the players, the combine serves as a milestone event on their path to the next step in their careers and is the last exit before the NHL Draft.

The 65 forwards, 32 defensemen and three goalies invited to this year’s event have already established reputations, but the experience provides these talented young hopefuls with the opportunity to make their names the name clubs have circled heading into the draft in about a month’s time.

Prospect interviews, medical assessments, and physical testing are the main happenings throughout the week-long affair. Here is a brief schedule of the week, according to Mike Morreale from the NHL Draft Class podcast and NHL.com:

DATE
WHAT'S HAPPENING
June 3-7
Teams can interview players one-on-one.
June 5
Medical assessments are to run concurrently with interviews. Players cannot participate in physical testing until they clear their medical screening.
June 8
Seven of the 11 fitness tests will take place at LECOM Harborcenter: standing height/wingspan, standing horizontal jump, force plate vertical jumps, bench press, pro agility test, pull-ups, and the Wingate Cycle Ergometer test.

Canadiens vice president of hockey operations, Jeff Gorton, general manager, Kent Hughes, and directors of amateur scouting, Martin Lapointe and Nick Bobrov are among those expected to be on site south of the border representing the CH.

The Habs’ executives are likely to get a look at the team’s upcoming fifth-overall pick at the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft, this week in Buffalo.

Who that player will be? Only time will tell.

The Canadiens own 11 additional picks – 26th, 57th, 70th, 78th, 102nd, 130th, 134th, 166th, 198th, 210th and 224th – for a total of 12 heading into this year’s event in Sin City.

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