2023 NHL Draft Diary: Brayden Yager

Brayden Yager of Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League will file a monthly draft diary for NHL.com this season leading up to the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on June 28-29. The 18-year-old right-shot center (5-foot-11, 166 pounds), No. 11 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters eligible for the 2023 draft, had 78 points (28 goals, 50 assists) in 67 regular-season games and 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 10 WHL playoff games.

BUFFALO -- Hi, hockey fans. I'm here at the 2023 NHL Scouting Combine this week.

I flew with the guys from Saskatoon into Toronto, and then we bussed to Buffalo and got in Sunday. It was good to see everybody again and kind of get familiar with some new faces.

The interviews started Monday. I had 22 total, and it was kind of broken down through the five days. There wasn't too many the first couple days, which was kind of nice. Just get a feel for what the interviews are, kind of that whole process.

Wednesday was a big day; I had nine interviews, including the [Detroit] Red Wings.

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That's the big one, because of (general manager Steve Yzerman. Also (director of amateur scouting) Kris Draper and (assistant GM) Shawn Horcoff are in there, but "Stevie Y," he's one of the great players of the game and in history. I got to ask some questions at the end of the interview and try to learn as much as you can from a guy like him, he's one of the most accomplished NHL players. Getting to talk to him is super cool.

For any player coming in here, it's like, " 'When you do Detroit?' 'When do you get to talk to Stevie Y' kind of thing. That's kind of the big one.

A lot of the interviews went really well, I thought. I really liked [the] St. Louis [Blues]. I went out for dinner with [the] Pittsburgh [Penguins], and I really liked them, and I think [the] Washington [Capitals] as well, I felt pretty good about those three. [The] Chicago [Blackhawks] as well, they were my first one and I thought that they were pretty chill, pretty casual. I really liked how that one went as well.

The only strange question I got was from [the] Montreal [Canadiens]. Both my parents worked in federal corrections, at the jail. Montreal's sports psychology doctor, he asked me, in honor of your parents, what if your teammate comes up to you one day and he tells you that he shoplifted at a store, and then the next morning you look in the newspaper and see that somebody else went to jail for shoplifting and he was a part of the same group as your teammate. He asked what I what I would do, and I just said nothing, I wouldn't throw my teammate under the bus kind of thing. After I answered it, they kind of just smiled. It was kind of a fun question, I guess.

We did the Vo2 Max bike test on Friday and I thought I did really good. I think I went for 12 minutes or so.

Then Saturday was the real testing. I was in the 9:30 (a.m.) group so I got up about 8:15, had a quick shower and myself and (forward) Koehn Ziemmer from Prince George went down to the gym in the hotel and stretched. I had a little protein bar, didn't want to eat too much. I've heard stories about the Wingate bike test and you never know if it's going to come back up or not.

The testing was good. I'm pretty confident in my athletic ability and I think I did pretty well for the most part. Obviously you want to do really good and prove that you're a competitor and show them that you can get good scores and whatnot. But I think for the most part, you kind of just try to focus on yourself and try to do the best you can.

I did 12 pull-ups, which was pretty good. And I think the vertical jump was also pretty good.

We have a fan bike at our gym and it's pretty similar to the Wingate. Sometimes we'll go for like 20-30 seconds full-out. It's always a grind doing it, seems like a pretty long 30 seconds, but it's worth it.

This one was different, with the trainers screaming at you, but I liked it. I think it kind of pushes you a little bit harder when you get guys kind of screaming at you. And they're doing it for your own good and trying to try to help you out. The way that they're yelling at you, it's in a positive way and they're telling you really push yourself, keep going, that kind of thing. I think it kind of gives you a little extra boost.

Next for me is some time back home in Saskatoon and right back into my training. I'm trying to put as much strength on as I can before the draft and obviously depending on what team you go to, you can be going straight from the draft to the development camp. So I'm trying to put on as much strength as I can and just prepare myself.

And obviously enjoy the whole process. It's coming up quick, so it's pretty exciting.

Thanks for reading, everyone. The next time we talk will be after the big day in Nashville.

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