Montreal Canadiens: Results from the Draft Combine have varying effects
By Omar L
The NHL Draft Combine is a way to get data on potential draft picks’ capabilities, but the Montreal Canadiens look at more ahead of their final decision.
Scouting is a long process. It takes years of viewings, notes, and the occasional gut feeling for a team to pinpoint certain players to invest in for their organizations’ future. Like with many teams, the NHL Draft Combine is one of those milestone evaluation markers. The Montreal Canadiens are no exception to this.
Seeing as how the game is one of the more physical professional sports, there is some weight behind the combine. Raw strength, agility, and stamina are some of the main things to come from the event. Additionally, there are other things such as wingspan and grip that could factor into a team’s thought process.
For example, a player’s wingspan will be important to note for a defenceman as that would effect their reach. A higher reach hints at more space they’ll be able to command on the ice making it harder for opposing players to work around them (as long as they had the skating to keep up).
Although a team can fill in the blanks on desired talent, the combine isn’t the be all and all of who a team should draft. Sometimes the top-ranked players heading into the draft don’t do as well as others.
Players such as Rasmus Dahlin, Filip Zadina, and Brady Tkachuk finished with some of the lowest combine scores. A team isn’t going to look at that and completely change their plans now. Dahlin could’ve had a 0, and I’d bet he’d still jump at the chance to announce that the Buffalo Sabres are selecting him first overall.
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The same thing happens every year. The 2014 Draft Combine had a lot of the players who went in the top 10 out of the top halves in combine scoring. It’s an asset.
Sometimes what teams look for is how a player moves on from their scores. That speaks a lot more to who they are than how they do on that given day. It shows drive, competitiveness, and character (I know), to acknowledge your faults and improve on them.
That’s one of the aspects of growing up, and it’s up the Montreal Canadiens to identify those individuals with those characteristics. In many ways, that ends up being the crucial find out of all those physical activities.
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