Four T-Birds attend the NHL Draft Combine

The junior hockey season came to end on the ice last week with the Oshawa Generals taking out the Kelowna Rockets at the Memorial Cup in Quebec. For the draft-eligible players, the focus now turns to the upcoming NHL draft.

After a full season of being evaluated, the top prospects gathered in Buffalo, N.Y. this past week for the 2015 NHL Draft Combine. It was their last chance to be prodded and questioned by the 30 NHL clubs before heading to the draft on June 26 in Sunrise, Fla.

Four members of the Thunderbirds were in Buffalo for the combine as Mathew Barzal, Ryan Gropp, Keegan Kolesar and Ethan Bear are all expected to be selected in this year’s draft. There was no on-ice work but all the prospects were put through some rigorous physical testing.

How much these tests translate into NHL success has yet to be determined. Last year, Sam Bennett of the Kingston Frontenacs failed to complete one pull-up, which made for some entertaining headlines. That didn’t keep the Calgary Flames from selecting him fourth overall in the draft, nor did it keep them from calling him up at the end of the season, when he potted three goals in the playoffs.

The players are tested on things such as their body fat, vertical leap, anaerobic fitness and, of course, their cardio strength. The latter is the high-light – or most dreadful – component of the test. You may have seen these tests – also known as the VO2max tests – on Gatorade ads. The athletes have an oxygen mask strapped to them as well as a heart monitor and asked to go all out on an exercise bike for as long as possible.

Kolesar was the best T-Bird in the cardio test and only two other prospects bested his time. Ryan Gropp finished in the top 10 in four of the other events over the week, which included the standing long jump and vertical jump.

Barzal is the highest ranked prospect among the T-Birds contingent and he, and his knee, were certainly a hot topic at the combine. Barzal told NHL.com that he met with 25 NHL clubs over the week and that the health of his knee was discussed in each of the meetings.

“I obviously wanted to prove the knee isn’t affecting me in strength areas, jumping, that kind of stuff,” Barzal told NHL.com’s Adam Kimelmen. “Thought I did a pretty good job with that. I’ve been training hard for this. My knee felt great this week. Felt good the whole time.”

Seattle fans are aware of Barzal’s knee injury that caused him to miss 28 games this last season. He returned to the lineup in January and was strong down the stretch. After the season Barzal joined Team Canada for the U-18 World Championships, where he led the Canadians in scoring with 12 points in seven games. There are some scouts that feel his stock is rising thanks to that performance.

Depending on what scouting service you read, Barzal is predicted to go anywhere from the sixth overall pick to No. 11. Gropp is considered to be a second-round selection with Kolesar and Bear being looked at in the third and fourth rounds.

The four that were in Buffalo may not be the only T-Birds who get drafted this year. There is a chance that Alexander True and Turner Ottenbreit could still be selected in the late rounds as well.

Like most drafts in sports, the NHL’s is a crapshoot and there is no saying who will get drafted and where. None of the scouting services view these players as often as the actual NHL teams do, so the rankings you see online are not the same as the clubs’ draft boards.

Where will the Seattle players go? We’ll have to wait until June 26 to find out.

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