Scouting Combine Gives Preds Final Chance to Meet With Top Prospects Ahead of NHL Draft

Jeff Kealty likens the interview portion of the NHL Scouting Combine to speed dating.

There isn’t necessarily a bell that dings once a team’s time with a prospect is up, but there is at least a proverbial horn to keep the tight schedule the Predators have all throughout the week in Buffalo, N.Y..

The 2025 edition of the Combine, held again this year at the KeyBank Center - home of the Sabres - and LECOM HarborCenter through Sunday, is an integral part of the preparation leading up to the NHL Draft, set for June 27-28 in Los Angeles.

Kealty, Nashville’s Assistant General Manager/Director of Scouting, is eager for Preds staff to get one last look at who they will eventually select at No. 5 overall - plus a few more picks - later this month.

“The hope is that you're confirming a lot of what you already know,” Kealty said of what he expects from the Combine from a Predators perspective. “You do a lot of background work building up to it, but I think the hope is that it all makes sense - that you did all this work on this kid, and that's kind of confirming it.”

That work began years ago when Nashville’s scouts stationed all over the world started watching promising young players with their respective junior teams in different locales.

At the Combine, which will see the top 90 NHL prospects invited to the event by the League, the Preds will not only get the chance to sit down with the players but also view their off-ice fitness testing sessions.

The Predators are scheduled to conduct approximately 75 interviews in 20-minute increments over the week in Buffalo to not only get to know the player’s interests away from the rink but also how they think the game and how that mindset might potentially fit with Nashville’s viewpoints.

“If you watch the kid play all year, a lot of times his demeanor [reflects the type of player they are] when you just sit across from him, just because you've been studying these kids all year,” Kealty said of the interview sessions. “You want to know about the kid personally, family and those types of things and what makes them tick, but I always like to ask them hockey questions, to try to get inside of their minds, how they think about the game and those sorts of things.”

The Preds will speak with most of the 58 forwards, 27 defensemen and five goaltenders attending the Combine, and after a week of more cerebral pursuits, the event will culminate with the the Maximal VO2 test on June 6 followed by the remaining fitness tests on June 7, including height/wingspan, horizontal jump, force plate vertical jumps, bench press, pro agility test, pull-ups and the Wingate Cycle Ergometer test.

While the assessments are important, Kealty knows keeping things in perspective is also paramount with those sorts of endeavors. One 18-year-old participant may simply be further along in physical development than the next, and just because someone may not be able to do 10 pull-ups this weekend doesn’t mean they won’t be a successful NHLer later in life.

“[The fitness testing] is a piece of the whole equation, but these are young kids,” Kealty said. “It's our job to try to forecast where they're going to be [when they’re] 25, 26 years old, but I also think it's important to remember that they are 18 years old. When I went through this process [when I was a player] at 18 years old, there's so many things you just don't know yet, so I think it's important to remember that. It’s a tough job, trying to guess what kind of player these kids are going to be, not necessarily what they are today.”

Because of the decentralized nature of the NHL Draft this year, the Combine will be the last time Predators brass see the prospects in person until those who are ultimately selected by Nashville arrive in Tennessee for the team’s annual Development Camp, set to begin on June 30.

By then, the Preds - who are currently scheduled to make four selections among the Top 35 picks of the Draft - will be able to look back on the Combine as the spot where they confirmed their beliefs of who they wanted to see in a Gold jersey at the end of June.

Stay tuned to NashvillePredators.com and @PredsNHL on social media for coverage from the 2025 NHL Scouting Combine through the weekend.

The Predators are the only club with three picks in the first 28 selections of this year’s Draft. Nashville also owns two picks in both the second and sixth rounds of the Draft, and one in each of the third, fourth and fifth rounds.

The 2025 Draft will be held at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The first round will be held June 27 (6 p.m. CT; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), with rounds 2-7 on June 28 (11 a.m. CT; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, SN1).

Join the Preds on Friday, June 27, starting at 5:30 p.m. CT at Bridgestone Arena to watch the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft. Find deals at our popular Used Equipment Sale, and test your skills with fun hockey challenges. Plus, enjoy photo ops, giveaways, special guests, and much more. Click here to claim your free ticket.