When the NHL Scouting Combine kicks off June 4 at the HarborCenter in Buffalo, N.Y., two New Englanders will be among the draft hopefuls in attendance. The seven-day event has multiple parts to it. The physical tests are what most fans recognize as some of the drills are open to the public and broadcast. However,...
When the NHL Scouting Combine kicks off June 4 at the HarborCenter in Buffalo, N.Y., two New Englanders will be among the draft hopefuls in attendance.
The seven-day event has multiple parts to it. The physical tests are what most fans recognize as some of the drills are open to the public and broadcast. However, a big part of the combine is the in-person player interviews with NHL organizations.
USA Hockey National Team Development Program stars Will Smith (Lexington, Mass.) and Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) will be the only representatives from New England at this year’s scouting combine. The two Boston College recruits and NTDP linemates are projected to be top 10 picks at the NHL Draft in Nashville on June 28.
While Smith and Leonard are the only two players hailing from New England at the combine, there will be a slew of others with connections to the six states in the region.
There will be four other Boston College commits at the combine, for example. After BC’s six, Boston University is next with two. Maine and UMass each have one commit and UConn has a current player heading to Buffalo.
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Others with New England connections
- Drew Fortescue, D, USA NTDP U18 (Boston College)
- Jacob Fowler, G, Youngstown (Boston College)
- Michael Hrabal, G, Omaha (UMass)
- Gavin McCarthy, D, Muskegon (Boston University)
- Aram Minnetian, D, USA NTDP U18 (Boston College)
- Brad Nadeau, C, Penticton (Maine)
- Gabriel Perrault, LW, USA NTDP U18 (Boston College)
- Brandon Svoboda, C, Youngstown (Boston University)
- Matthew Wood, RW, UConn
