Everett's Ryan Murray set to impress at Combine

Defenseman Ryan Murray, No. 2 on NHL Central Scouting's list of the top draft-eligible North American skaters, served as captain of the Everett Silvertips in the Western Hockey League this season. The 6-foot, 182-pound native of Saskatchewan won a bronze medal playing for Team Canada at the 2012 World Junior Championship and was also the second-youngest player to ever appear for Canada at the Men's World Championships. Despite his busy schedule, Murray will submit two blogs for NHL.com during the 2012 NHL Scouting Combine this week in Toronto.

I finally arrived at the NHL Combine on Tuesday night and began the interviewing process on Wednesday. It's been quite a year. I just returned from the Men's World Championships in Finland and Sweden and that was a pretty incredible experience. Just going over there and being able to meet those top guys and playing with them was something very special.

One team gave me a personality-type test, wanting to get to know me a little better I guess. Other teams have done this with me before, but they either came to Everett or sent me the stuff in the email.

During the interviews, everybody has their scouts and guys in the rooms, and everyone has a little bit of a different tone or attitude toward the questions their asking. But everybody has been really nice. I've heard some horror stories in years' past about the Combine, but luckily nothing like that has happened to me.

I haven't received a whole lot of whacky questions. But one team did ask if they were wasting their time seeing me. I just said, 'I hope not.' I haven't prepared much for the bike tests scheduled Friday. I just got back from Europe last Friday and took a few days off this week. I was working out a little bit to keep in shape.

I hope to learn from this experience and having an opportunity to talk to the scouts is great. They all have their own opinions of you and what they thought about you during the year, so it's just good to hear some feedback regarding your play. The feedback has been good and the scouts have been kind. There have been questions about my family and what kind of player I feel I am.

I have never met [top prospect] Nail Yakupov [of Sarnia], but I'll probably meet him in New York when we go over there. I'll most likely get to see him here at the Combine as well.

When I learned that Edmonton won the draft lottery, it really didn't faze me too much. It really doesn't have much to do with me. I know [the Oilers] need a defenseman, but at the end of the day, anything can happen on draft day. I just take as a grain of sand, and not make a big deal about it. I don't have any expectations.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading. I'll file one more blog after my fitness test on Friday.