The Buffalo Sabres held their own scouting combine for the first time in 2011, just after Terry Pegula took over the team. The idea was to augment the information the team gathered at the NHL Combine by adding their own tests which included on-ice workouts. The Sabres brought in a few dozen prospects that year and tested them over a four-day span.
The Sabres Draft Combine was an idea the scouting department had for a while but due to budgetary constraints of the previous owner never came to fruition. At his introductory press conference in February, 2011 Pegula stated that "there is no salary cap in the NHL on scouting budgets and player development budgets. I plan on increasing...our budgets" and he followed that up four months later with the inaugural Buffalo Sabres Draft Combine.
For three years the team held their own combine--culminating with 75 invitees in 2013--before there were howls from other GM's about an "unfair competitive advantage."
"GMs are concerned," wrote Dan Rosen of NHL.com back in March, 2014, "that teams are bringing in too many prospects for medical testing and interviews in the time after the official scouting combine run by NHL Central Scouting, which takes place in Toronto in late May." At the time there was a small fine if teams brought in prospects for physical testing between the Combine and the Draft.
Big-market Washington Capitals GM George McPhee said, "Ideally what we want is one combine where everybody gets their information and it's equal for [all] teams." There was no mention of a team like the Caps with the financial wherewithal to do as they pleased while dominating the old Southeast Division for seven years running. But the league agreed, “The GMs overwhelmingly feel that this is an area where clubs should be put on a level playing field with a common set of rules,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told The Buffalo News via email at the time.
GM's voted 23-6 to get rid of team combines.
“My argument was that drafting players is hard enough,” Sabres GM Tim Murray told John Vogl of The News. “It’s your future. It’s a huge part of the organization, drafting the right players. Every piece of information you can get is helpful.
“Certainly, the majority didn’t agree."
Having the financial resources as well as a facility like HarborCenter opening up would have been a huge bonus to the Sabres franchise. But instead of the team having this all to themselves, the NHL moved the NHL Combine from the stuffy convention halls in Toronto to downtown Buffalo and the event which took place this past week got strong reviews.
"The appeal of moving to HarborCenter in Buffalo was that we could have everything all under one roof," said Dan Marr, Director of NHL Central Scouting. "The comments I've been getting from the teams here is that the concept has worked very, very well."
Even though the NHL Scouting Combine had been in Toronto, "The Centre of the Hockey Universe," logistics demanded that that scouts and prospects be shuttled to different areas of the city for testing. With three large arenas within a football field of everything as well as a hotel right on HarborCenter's doorstep, shuttles were virtually unnecessary save for medical testing which took up only one of the six days.
“It’s much easier,” said Greg Royce, the Sabres’ director of amateur scouting who previously attended Combines while working for Ottawa and Nashville. “It was cramped quarters, and you’re crammed into a hotel room trying to meet the players and the air is stale. Now it’s fresher air, a little cooler. Everything’s wide-open at the HarborCenter for the testing. Before they’d have it down in the hotel lobby basically, and you’re craning your neck to see what the players are doing. Here, the sightlines are fantastic.”
Sabres President Ted Black was happy with how things transpired this first time knowing full well that there would be kinks while also knowing that they'll have the opportunity to fix them for the 2016 Combine which will be held in Buffalo as well. "The feedback that we’ve received from the league, from the prospects, from the teams has been all very, very positive, especially the veterans of this event, the ones who’ve seen it before and see how different this is,” Black said late this week. “The fact that everything is in such a wonderful location – in Canalside and HarborCenter – has really made this a spectacular event, certainly through the first half of it.”
Could the league eventually make the Combine synonymous with Buffalo? Black is optimistic, but kept it in perspective. "I hope it’s an event that the league is very proud of and we play a part in growing it into something very special,” he said. “We’re very anxious to hear from other teams, from Central Scouting what can we do better. That’s an advantage to having something like this over multi-years because you can improve it."
One of the things the league is seriously considering is on-ice testing which is something that Buffalo's fully equipped for. “I’ve always wanted to have that element,” Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said on Saturday. “This is all great. These guys can be as impressive or not impressive as whatever. But they can’t play if they can’t skate.”
A big hurdle to on-ice testing was the facilities in Toronto. Being in a convention center ball room meant having to ship everything and everybody to yet another site. That problem is solved as HarborCenter and First Niagara Center are home to three NHL-size rinks complete with seating.
Another aspect has some prospects with and "unfair advantage" over their peers because there are a multitude of leagues, including college, that end their seasons at different times.
Former Buffalo GM Darcy Reiger who's now AGM for the Arizona Coyotes disagreed with the notion that those who ended the season later would be in better shape than those who finished sooner. "So as long as you have that understanding and build that in, there's value," he said.
Regier is intimately familiar with on-ice testing as he was the GM in Buffalo for the three years they ran their own team combine.
Consensus second-overall prospect Jack Eichel, who should be headed to the Sabres after they use that pick to select him had a fantastic combine yet was all about on-ice testing. "I mean, we play the game on ice, it makes sense," he said, noting that the NFL combine includes on-field skill testing. "It wouldn't surprise me if that was in the future."
Eichel and consensus first-overall prospect Connor McDavid pick have been linked for over a year and will be so for many years to come. McDavid is a much more fluid skater as opposed to Eichel's power but it would have been interesting to see how they stacked up against each other and the rest of the prospects. Having on-ice testing would have only added to their burgeoning rivalry. At least for the media and fans.
But, for now, it'll need to wait another year and hopefully the Sabres will get the opportunity to show how easy it is for the NHL to incorporate that as a part of the 2016 Combine, just like the ease with which they were able to accommodate the 2015 Combine.
SCOUTING COMBINE RESULTS
| McDavid | Eichel | |
| 97.3" | Standing Long Jump | 115" |
| 19.488" | Vertical Jump | 26.181" |
| Left: 4.43 Right: 4.53 | Pro Agility | Left: 4.48 Right: 4.24 |
| 9 | Bench Press | 16 |
| 6 | Pull Ups | 9 |
| 17.49 | Wingate (Bike) | 17.42 |
| 10:15 | VO2 max (bike) | 12:15 |
Of note on Eichel, Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet.ca had this to say as one of his three combine takeaways:
"The biggest achievement of Connor McDavid’s career might be making Jack Eichel look like a consolation prize. If the Massachusetts native were in any draft other than the Mc2015 version, we’d be talking about how long-suffering Buffalo fans were finally getting their savior. Eichel has an ease about him, the way the most natural of athletes — oh, what the heck, let’s use comparisons like Mario Lemieux and Guy Lafleur — do.
A lot of kids look like they’re trying to melt steel with their eyes before performing one of the fitness tests, Eichel just sort of saunters up to a line, then throws down a jump or rips off a series of pull-ups that — even without exact measurements or greater context — make an impression on any observer.
And even in an age where these youngsters are more and more equipped to handle hoards of media, Eichel seems especially unbothered by the whole scene. There was huge demand on the kid’s time at this Western New York event, it being a slam dunk and all that Eichel will be drafted second overall by the Sabres in a few weeks. He responded by serenely answering question after question — even cracking few jokes — before taking his leave.
Sabres fans, I think this is all going to work out just fine."
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