The 2024 NHL Draft Combine gets underway this week at Buffalo’s Harborcenter. This year, 100 prospects will attend the annual event to interview with teams, go over medicals and complete fitness testing.
Headlining this year’s edition of the Combine is projected number-one pick Macklin Celebrini. But behind him, the top defensemen in this draft as well as other top forward prospects will make their case to teams that they should be the ones drafted in a certain spot.
While there isn’t much mystery as to which team Celebrini is expected to go to, he still has things he’d like to show at the Combine. That’s where we’ll begin our top headlines of the week in Buffalo.
The Celebrini Show
As soon as the San Jose Sharks won the NHL Draft Lottery, it became a foregone conclusion that they’d use the first pick to draft Celebrini. GM Mike Grier confirmed as much when interviewed after the lottery draw. It’s a neat hometown story as Celebrini’s father Rick works for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. He is now expected to stay in the Bay Area.
Celebrini will still go through the interview process as well as the process for medicals and fitness testing. Other slam-dunk top-overall picks such as Connor Bedard last season and Connor McDavid in 2015 all went through the motions.
Think of it as a rite of passage for the prospects even though Celebrini doesn’t have anything to prove from a draft-slot perspective. He will give the Sharks a first-hand look at where he is at with his fitness and medicals. Other teams will request an interview with him as well as part of their due diligence process.
One of the possible stories coming into the Combine was if Celebrini would return to school next season. But will Will Smith recently signing his ELC, this suggests the Hobey Baker winner would sign his ELC this summer and be a top contender for the Calder Trophy in 2024-25.
Top Defensemen Take Center Stage
The 2024 NHL Draft will be remembered beyond Celebrini for the number of top defensemen available. Among those who should hear their names called early are Michigan State’s Artyom Levshunov, Denver’s Zeev Buium, Saginaw’s Zayne Parekh, London’s Sam Dickinson and Calgary’s Carter Yakemchuk. There are others but we’ll get to them a little later in this piece.
This Combine will potentially put some separation between these top defensemen. Not only are there a handful to pick from, they each bring a little something different to the table. Not only will it be interesting to see who goes where, but it will be interesting to see if a team values a certain aspect of one defenseman over another. It’s very possible a team outside the top-10 could land one of these players.
What we will try to get from the Combine is what teams wanted to know about these players. Imagine you are a team like the Chicago Blackhawks. At two, they have a choice to make. Do they take a highly talented forward such as Ivan Demidov or do they take a potential cornerstone defenseman in Levshunov? Then the domino effect afterwards will shape how the first round unfolds.
Other Top Headlines
Here is a list of some of the other stories we will be watching this week in Buffalo. We will be on site Friday afternoon when select top prospects will speak to the media. Then we’ll be with you early Saturday morning as we watch the Fitness testing and speak to the prospects afterwards. Only when a prospect’s medicals are cleared will they be allowed to partake in the fitness testing. Should someone scheduled drop out, we will pass along.
- The Russian factor: We mentioned Demidov above as a potential target for the second-overall pick. Anton Silayev is another top prospect that could go early. Both are not on the list for Buffalo this week. There has been a ban on Russian and Belarusian players from attending. How will teams factor them into their lists and how have they been able to scout them? That will be interesting to find out.
- The injured: Two other defensemen that have big weeks ahead of them are Adam Jiricek and Aron Kiviharju. Both are coming off significant injuries. Both are on the list for this week in Buffalo. Expect each to have to answer many questions about their injuries. Cayden Lindstrom will also hear his name early and had an injury during the season. How will teams factor that into their decision to draft?
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- First-round goalie?: It’s not often that we hear about the potential of a goalie going in the first round. Our head of scouting Peter Baracchini thinks there’s a chance. Owen Sound goalie Carter George is one of three goalies on the list for this week. Baracchini says George’s U-18 performance has him in his first-round conversation. Mikhail Yegorov and Eemil Vinni are the other two goalies scheduled to be in Buffalo.
- Technology unleashed: It was tried a little bit last year. Now in 2024, prospects will have access to a mobile app that will help them keep everything straight throughout the week on their busy schedules. Interview times, medical testing, where to be when for fitness testing and more will be accessible for a prospect directly through this app provided by NHL Central Scouting. Will be curious to hear the feedback from prospects.
- Questions anyone?: We will try to get to the bottom of who asked the strangest question and get some of the responses to it. This trend has quieted down some in recent years as prospects have said the questions have been more standard. We’ll see who had to stick their hand in the toilet for the $10 bill instead of grabbing the $1 bill from the toilet seat just as an example.
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