Senators at the 2024 NHL Scouting Combine

BUFFALO – Don Boyd and the amateur scouts have been down this road before.

“The [number one] thing is to put a face to a nameplate. See their actual physical size and through the interview process get to know them a little bit.”

Boyd, who has spent the last 11 seasons with the Senators, has a tremendous amount of experience in the hockey world; experience that has helped him be a leader for the Senators amateur scouts this season. Leading what will be well over 70 prospects to be interviewed through Ottawa’s portion of the 2024 NHL Scouting Combine gauntlet comes with that territory.

“The kids are all prepared. They are physically prepared, emotionally prepared. This is a business for them and they are showing it. There is a lot of professionalism around the interview process with these kids.”

Through the viewing process of watching games that the players are featured in, and then the interview and testing process at the Combine, the scouts begin to complete the picture of the athletes they’ve been studying over the last few seasons.

“You’re starting to build a profile, not just on the ice, but of the person. There are no more games now so you are trying to pull it all together and see where the players are going to fit into in our team group.”

It certainly isn’t an easy task, but it’s all a part of an incredibly important process which culminates in a moment of consequence come late June: Draft Day.

“We’ve got two and half weeks to go [until the Draft] and we are going to be calling names so we have to be ready.”