Draft combines work out of a prospect’s mind, body
TORONTO — Justin Pogge passed his own test. He didn’t leave breakfast in one of the many buckets scattered around the room of an airport area hotel.
r“It was close,” he said. “I am just happy I did not puke.”
rPogge is a 6-foot-3, 183-pound goalie with Prince George of the Western Hockey League. The NHL’s Central Scouting Service has him ranked 8th among North American goalies for the NHL Entry Draft in Raleigh, N.C., in late June.
rPogge was one of about 105 draft prospects invited by the NHL to an airport hotel for four days of physical and mental evaluation that concluded over the weekend. The tests are conducted by a team of exercise physiologists who set up a circuit of tests that included everything from body-fat measurement to grip strength.
rPogge was physically spent after he finished the 90-minute process which concluded with two grueling tests on stationary bikes — one that measured short-term muscle power and endurance over 45 seconds, and another, lengthier test known as “VO2MAX” that measured the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to muscles over a longer period.
rThe second test was particularly harsh, as the players had their feet taped to the pedals of a stationary bike, then were told to pedal as furiously as possible for a half-minute, while a computer monitored the decline in their speed over that period.
r“Not fun,” said Pogge, who beamed about not leaving his latest meal in the bucket. The same could not be said for some of the other prospects.
rPogge wasn’t alone in the basement ballroom.
rAbout 60 scouts and a handful of general managers, along with about dozen or so strength and conditioning coaches from NHL clubs, watched the players go through the tests. Some worked on laptops while others filled notebooks with notes.
rWhen a top prospect checked in, he got far more attention than Pogge was afforded.
rThere were lined up six deep when Russian Alexander Ovechkin, who is expected to go first overall to the Washington Capitals, took his turn to go through the tests. Capitals GM George McPhee kept a close watch and took notes as Ovechkin went from exercise station to exercise station.
r“This is a real valuable week for us to sit down and have a good interview with kids and try to figure them out,” McPhee said. “Then to watch them and see if they compete at these exercises, we’ll have a better feel for our draft.”
rPogge stood in the back of the room as Ovechkin broke out in a sweat.
rPogge had a restless sleep Friday night, knowing he was scheduled for the tests the following morning. As he made his way to the room, “I was thinking you never give up so you might as well try as hard as you can.
r“It is nerve-racking when you first walk in here and then you get all the tests done,” he said. “I think they (NHL types) are looking at your work ethic and if you ever give up. They want to make sure you are working hard so you might as well give them a show.”
rPogge’s draft stock was likely not affected by the test results. His ranking as the eighth-best goalie in North America was based on what he did on the ice with Prince George.
r“No player has ever made or lost a roster spot because of this process,” Phoenix General Manager Mike Barnett said. “You can’t put too much emphasis on it. We’re not looking for rocket scientists here.”
rBut the tests’ data can serve a purpose.
r“If you know a player as a good hockey player on the ice and he comes in here and fails, I don’t know that that’s going to alter [his rating],” says Frank Bobello, the director of Central Scouting. “But if you sort of wondered about a player — if he doesn’t have a good physical presence on the ice — then he comes here and shows you how well he can lift weights and do the [aerobic test] and so on, that takes away a lot of the doubts in your mind.”
rAnother aspect of the combines is that it provided GMs like Barnett and McPhee the opportunity to interact with the prospects, which is something they really don’t get a chance to do during the NHL season.
rBesides the testing, teams use the time to conduct interviews with the prospects. Pogge met with 21 teams over the course of three days.
rSome of the questions were redundant. Every prospect gets asked about his family, but every now and then, a team would lob a curveball and then wait to see what the response would be.
r“They just try to pick your brain and see what kind of person you are off the ice,” said Pogge.
rL.A. Kings GM Dave Taylor sees a lot of value in coming to Toronto for the testing.
r“This is just another tool and it makes a lot of sense to have everybody doing uniform testing so you can compare one player against the other,” he said. “I find it valuable to at least sit down for 15 minutes or 20 minutes with each kid and get to know them a little bit.”
rBarnett agrees.
r“It gives you a little more insight where they are development wise. You do not want to lose sight of the fact we are looking for hockey players and not politicians. They are so well-schooled by their agents with appropriate responses to questions.”
rBack to Pogge.
rAs he left the room, he glanced back to the stationary bike and chuckled as a wannebe NHLer looked like he was going to faint.
r“Get the bucket,” he said. “I don’t think he is going to make it.”
rPogge was right.
r-Story Courtesy of Alan Adams | NHL.com columnist
