Eagles' Hanifin to prove work ethic at NHL Combine

Noah Hanifin, No. 3 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of the top North American skaters eligible for the 2015 NHL Draft, completed his freshman season at Boston College in Hockey East in 2014-15. The 6-foot-3, 203-pound left-shot defenseman had five goals and 23 points 37 games. He also represented the United States at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship. He had eight goals and 33 points in 45 games for the United States National Team Development Program under-18 team in 2013-14. The native of Norwood, Mass., has offered to maintain a blog for NHL.com leading up to the 2015 NHL Draft in Sunrise, Fla. His latest entry comes from the 2015 NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo.

Hello everyone.

I arrived in Buffalo for the NHL Scouting Combine on Monday afternoon at about noon. It was a good flight in and since I had nothing scheduled that night, caught up with some of the guys who were here. I had two interviews on Tuesday and have 13 total interviews for the week.

The interviewing process is definitely done to retrieve some background information, but they do push you a little bit. The general managers or scouts will ask you some tough questions just to see how you react. I think that's a good thing. They need to get a better feel for the players. And from our perspective it's nice to get to know some of the scouts on the teams. It's been a great experience so far.

There haven't been too many odd questions that have been asked. There are a lot of general questions like, 'Are you a serious kid?' Questions like that are awkward to answer but I thought I did a good job so far. I just want the teams to get to know who I am. I want them to know that I'm a competitive player and I can really help their organization. I'm a physical player as well, and I want to do well in that area because I'm competitive.

My Boston College coach, Jerry York and associate coach Greg Brown were over my house the other day to discuss my future. It's a big decision with the draft coming up. I'm basically just holding off on committing one way or the other; I'm waiting to talk to the team that drafts me. I'll discuss it with that team, my parents, coaches and advisors.

I am definitely looking forward to the fitness tests. I did the bike tests once. I've been training for them but haven't used the exact bike we're using at the Combine. But I have done the bikes before and feel comfortable going into it.

I guess only time will tell. Until next time, thanks for reading.

Follow Noah Hanifin on Twitter at: @nhanifin