Kids at the NHL Draft Combine: underestimate the interview at your peril

Selecting players in the NHL draft is a bit like buying a new car. There are so many options available from all over the world and they all have pros and cons. How do you determine which is the best? How do you even compare the quick-accelerating and stylish sport coupe from Germany with the comfortable and fuel-efficient sedan from the U.K. or the roomy and rugged SUV from the U.S.? Do you opt for the car that will get you from point A to point B the fastest or the one that you feel provides the most safety and security for your family? And when you are looking back 15 years later, which car will have stood up the rigors of the roads and climate the best?

Assuming price is not an issue, you simply pick the car that ticks the most boxes for you. It’s the same with 18-year old hockey players. You have players from different nations, playing different positions, in different hard-to-compare leagues, each with strengths and weaknesses. Some ooze speed and skill, others size and strength and some have neither but find a way to get consistent results. Deciding which of those is the best available is a matter of opinion. Knowing what they will be as players two years later, let alone 15, is just an educated guess. So you establish the best evaluation criteria you can, and the player who ticks the most boxes will ultimately be put forward ahead of others. It’s an inexact science to say the least.

You wouldn’t buy a car without looking under the hood. And you shouldn’t draft an NHL player without taking a long, hard look at his internal makeup. What are the player’s values, his thoughts about teammates and coaches, his goals and his motivations? Who does he aspire to be? What does he fear? Are there are any factors from his upbringing that might give you clues as to his ability to overcome adversity? Knowing what makes a player tick will give you the best opportunity to assess whether he will have the will, determination and work ethic to achieve the ultimate goal of a sustained career in the NHL.

Only a handful of the best players will make the NHL and stay there on talent alone. For most, it’s about the willingness to put in the work and sacrifice to improve, adjust, adapt and, frankly, survive. That’s why trying to understand the mental and emotional side of a player’s psyche becomes crucial.

That’s where the NHL Combine comes in, the best opportunity for NHL front offices to kick the tires on players before they make their investments.

The Combine is an attempt to provide a holistic assessment of draft-eligible players to all teams in a fair and equitable manner. There are three main components: a physical testing / fitness component, a medical / psych evaluation and the individual player–team meetings. If it was a beauty pageant, the Combine would be the swimsuit competition and the “I just want world peace” interview.

The fitness testing gives all teams a uniform set of data points about the player. Height, weight and other body measurements are the most basic, plus a series of tests that measure attributes like strength, agility, jumping ability and aerobic capacity. Teams are not permitted to do any fitness testing or measurement of players outside of the Combine period, as the Arizona Coyotes will tell you. Their violation of those rules resulted in their having to forfeit a second-round pick in 2020 and a first-round pick in 2021.

Every team will have a different view on the importance of the physical testing and whether it impacts their draft strategy. It’s hard to glean much about a player’s future hockey career from how much they bench press at 18 years old. It might actually favor the players who haven’t worked out much, because teams will see more potential in a weakling who can play than a similar-ability kid who already has adult strength. In my estimation, most teams will put much more stock in the interview portion of the Combine.

The interview process has the top players cycling through 20-minute chats with each of the teams that may have interest in drafting them, in a format somewhat akin to speed dating. Some teams prefer a casual chat led by the GM, while others may prefer to have their sports psychologist lead the meeting and dive right into serious questions. In recent years, players have received pretty thorough “training” in how to approach their Combine interviews, so you hear a lot of well-rehearsed, scripted answers. Asking unique or non-standard questions is the best way to throw a player off-guard so that you get true insight into the way they think.

In this day and age, it’s important to ask tough questions about whether the player has been in trouble or has skeletons in his closet. The game doesn’t need any more black eyes, so confronting sensitive issues up front is prudent and responsible. When I was part of the Canucks’ staff and we questioned Mitchell Miller on his transgressions, it was uncomfortable but necessary.

For the last two years, the player interviews were conducted virtually. Teams were allowed longer interview periods and players could take the interview from their bedroom, their kitchen or wherever they felt most comfortable. It was much less intense and daunting for the player than the small interview space at Buffalo’s KeyBank Arena. As much as NHL teams might want to be in the same room with the player so as to be able to read energy and body language, the virtual interviews provided an opportunity to go a little deeper and ask more probing questions since the player wasn’t being pulled out for the next interview as quickly as he got there.

In 2022, it’s back to the live interviews in Buffalo. Regardless of the format, the interview is more important than the players will ever know. When it comes down to two kids that are a coin flip on skating ability, speed, instincts, playmaking and shot, the interview is the deciding factor. The kid that showed well, expressed confidence, made eye contact, answered questions thoughtfully and thanked everyone on the way out will get the nod. Seems simple, but you would be surprised how many of these kids can’t hold eye contact, have no self-awareness and give answers that have us shaking our heads.

One thought for players going through the Combine – when the front office asks you what your NHL goals are, don’t start in on individual awards and scoring ambitions. Tell them it’s to win a Stanley Cup. It’s never the wrong answer.

Talent on the ice is always the biggest part of any player assessment, but the information learned at the Combine can be the ultimate difference-maker. It just may determine whether the team drives away with the Audi, the Jaguar or the Chevy.

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Chris Gear joined Daily Faceoff in January after a 12-year run with the Vancouver Canucks, most recently as the club’s Assistant General Manager and Chief Legal Officer. Before migrating over to the hockey operations department, where his responsibilities included contract negotiations, CBA compliance, assisting with roster and salary cap management and governance for the AHL franchise, Gear was the Canucks’ vice president and general counsel.

Click here to read Gear’s other Daily Faceoff stories.

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Kids at the NHL Draft Combine: underestimate the interview at your peril

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