Lindstrom, Basha named to NHL Combine
Buffalo, NY – Two eligible Tigers for the 2024 NHL Draft are headed to Buffalo, New York to participate in the NHL Scouting Combine at KeyBank Center and LECOM HarborCenter in Buffalo beginning Monday.
Cayden Lindstrom (Chetwynd, BC) & Andrew Basha (Calgary, AB) are two of the 100 players invited to the combine.
Lindstrom was named the Top CHL Prospect going into the draft after a shortened sophomore season with the Tigers where he scored 27 goals and 19 assists in 36 games, while Basha had a career season in his third season with the Orange & Black scoring 85 points (30 goals, 55 assists) in 63 games.
“The NHL combine is the final showcase event before the NHL draft and it’s a week full of interviews, medicals and fitness testing where the players get to interact with NHL personnel and the NHL clubs get to learn as much as possible about the future stars of our game,” says NHL Central Scouting Director Dan Marr.
There will be 62 forwards, 35 defensemen, and three goalies attending the combine. All are listed in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings of North American and International skaters and goaltenders.
NHL Central Scouting will again provide an app for all the attending prospects to download to their mobile device. It contains all the information they need to navigate the gamut of interviews with NHL teams, and medical and fitness testing.
“We were testing it out a little bit (in 2023) and it worked very well for us,” NHL Central Scouting’s David Gregory said. “There’s all kinds of different things going on at the same time … interviews, testing, and players have to be fed and housed.
“The app was a really nice tool to allow us to say, ‘OK, this is where this person needs to be’ or ‘Here’s how we can get a hold of this person.’ It’s going to be something I’m sure will continue because it’ll be hard to go back to the old way after having the advantage of this tool.”
Teams can have 1-on-1 interviews with prospects at KeyBank Center from June 3-7. The medical examinations will take place June 5, and seven of the 11 fitness tests will occur at HarborCenter on June 8 (standing height/wingspan, horizontal jump, force plate vertical jumps, bench press, pro agility test, pull ups, Wingate Cycle Ergometer test).
No player can test until clearing the medical screening.
The combine, which will run June 3-8, gives the 32 NHL teams physical and medical assessments of the top prospects ahead of the 2024 draft at Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28-29.
