Today's the start of fitness testing at the draft combine, where all the thrilling stats and visuals emerge.
But as
Sports Illustrated's Allan Muir reminds us, the players are a lot less fearful of the VO2 Max test, which is running today, than they are of the interviews with management teams, which happened earlier in the week.
Click here for the story.
Said one scout:
No one is getting drafted because of how high he jumps or how fast he pedals a bike or how many reps he does on the bench. But there’s a chance to make an impression. You want to see what they can do. I like to say it’s more about reading between the lines than the actual readings.
The scout says teams use the interviews as their last-chance opportunity to make decisions on the players they want to draft.
Sometimes the character just shines through and after the kid leaves the room we look at each other and say ‘That's our guy.’ Other times, it’s too much. I’ve seen kids cry. I’ve seen them say stupid things they probably wish they could take back. We’ve [written off] players [as a result of these interviews.]
But that's why we do the homework. [Better to be] surprised before than after we’ve [drafted] a kid.
It's a lot of pressure for a bunch of 17 and 18-year-olds who probably haven't learned to articulate their thoughts very well beyond stringing together appropriate hockey cliches as needed. I saw an interview with 24-year-old Hart Trophy nominee John Tavares on TSN's "That's Hockey" earlier this week that followed the same formula—and he's been in the NHL for six seasons!
I wonder how he held up under that scrutiny when he was drafted first overall in 2009 or if, like Connor McDavid, his hockey pedigree was just so strong that the Islanders couldn't fathom the idea of taking anybody else?
Speaking of TSN, their broadcast crew has been recruited by NBCSN to do draft coverage while we'll be watching on Sportsnet here in Canada.
Here's the link to TSN's always well-researched (but still highly subjective) draft rankings for this year.
Whaddaya know? At 23, where the Canucks are schedule to pick, it looks like they might have a choice between two Swedes from Farjestad: center Joel Eriksson Ek or defenseman Oliver Kylington.
Eriksson Ek has climbed signficantly since midseason in both the TSN and Central Scouting rankings. He's 6'2" and while he certainly needs to fill out, so do most players at that age. TSN's Craig Button praises Eriksson Ek for his two-way game and hockey sense, but says he needs to work on his shot and his offensive consistency. His current NHL comparable is said to be Derick Brassard.
Button has high praise for Kylington's skating and says he has vast skill. The big knock? Effort—dialing in to make the most of the talent he possesses.
If the Canucks are looking for a defenseman, another option is the Tri-City Americans' Brandon Carlo, who's ranked at 22. He's much bigger than Kylington—6'4" instead of 6'0" and about 20 pounds heavier that Kylington and is said to be a decent skater, but he comes with a big warning sign when it comes to the prospect of delivering offense.
TSN compares Carlo to a Braydon Coburn type, while Kylington earns a comparison with Keith Yandle. Two very different types of defensemen!
Here's a little more on Carlo heading into the Combine, from the
Tri-City Herald:
A physical shutdown defenseman who can log big minutes, Carlo had four goals and 21 assists in 63 games. He also played in the Top Prospects Game, played for the United States at the World Junior Championship, where he served as an assistant captain, and played in the CCM/USA Hockey All-Americans Prospects Game last September and recored two assists.
Back home, Ed Willis finds hope for Canucks fans looking for a successful rebuild without a major tank when he breaks down the roster of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Willes kind of glosses over the fact that the Lightning did start finding their way out of purgatory with two tremendous building blocks already in place: first-overall pick Steven Stamkos from 2008 and second-overall pick Victor Hedman from 2009. But he's right when he identifies the Lightning's relatively poor record of first-rounders to date since Steve Yzerman took over as general manager in 2010.
That being said, they got some traction from Vladislav Namestnikov this year and I'm certainly not prepared to write off Jonathan Drouin just yet. As we've discussed so many times, these players need time.
The biggest takeaway from the Lightning model might be that Yzerman has now been at the helm for five seasons. Tampa Bay made the final four in 2011 before losing out to Boston in the Eastern Conference Final, then crashed and burned—missing the playoffs for the two subsequent seasons.
Yzerman might not have been under the microscope the same way that Jim Benning is here in Vancouver, but he still needed time—and one fantastic deal for disgruntled captain Martin St. Louis—to get his team to where it is today.
Trades, free agent signings, lower-level draft picks and finding a number one centre in undrafted Tyler Johnson. It's not your conventional approach, but it looks like it's paying dividends now, and into the future.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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