DRAFT: Davidson, Staff Getting to Know Top Prospects at Scouting Combine

Before the Chicago Blackhawks take the Draft floor on June 28 in Nashville, Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson and the hockey operations staff will watch some of the top NHL prospects participate in the 2023 NHL Scouting Combine this week in Buffalo.

Outside of watching players showcase their physical skillset compared to the rest of the draft class in fitness testing, the prospects on hand will have the opportunity to sit down with the teams before the 2023 NHL Draft. For Davidson, this allows them to learn more about the players as people instead of their on-ice talents.

"I think we do a pretty good job already of knowing what the players are like and who they are from a character standpoint," Davidson said. "But it's always good for an additional set of eyes, additional set of ears, new questions to be posed to the players and just to meet them in person is some good value."

The NHL Scouting Combine welcomes 106 NHL prospects that takes place From June 4-10 at KeyBank Center and HarborCenter. Prospects will participate in one-on-one interviews with each organization's hockey operation staff, physical testing medical assessments and a series of fitness tests.

From Monday to Thursday, teams' head scouts and management will sit down with the players for the interviews before they take their physical testing. Between Friday and Saturday, team's strength and conditioning staff will observe the physical fitness portion ranging from bench presses, pro agility test and more.

Instead of preparing the same questions for every player, Davidson and the staff gather their information they collected to ask specific questions to each prospect. Some of the focus varies from topics but allows the prospects to tell the team their experience as a player and how they view the overall game.

"It changes a little bit depending on what our pre research and pre work has dictated, but we like to get a sense of what they think of themselves as players and how that stacks up with our belief, what they think they need to work on and then just trying to get a sense of their feel for the game," Davidson said.

The Blackhawks enter the 2023 NHL Draft with the first overall selection on June 28. The team entered the NHL Draft lottery with the third-best odds of receiving the No. 1 pick with a 11.5% chance.

As he enters his second combine as the team's general manager, Davidson feels he is more prepared heading into the combine with the position the team is in. As they take on the week-long event, he knows they have everything in place to go into the draft with confidence.

"At this point of the process, I think we had a lot of work that we did in June of last year that we're just ahead of the game this year," Davidson said. "So, I feel much more prepared with not only just the staff that we've have in place, but also just the information that we've got at this point. I feel we're in a really good spot and ahead of the game compared to last year."

Below is the schedule for this year's NHL Scouting Combine:

• June 4: Arrivals
• June 5-9: All 32 NHL teams are eligible to meet one-one-one with the players
• June 7: Medical examinations are to be held at KeyBank Center
• June 9: Media availabilities are to be held at 4:30 p.m. ET
• June 10: Physical evaluations begin at 7:30 a.m. ET