Upcoming SMJHL Draft and Combine
With 8pm quickly approaching hockey players from around the world are ecstatic for one of the most exciting times of the year, The SMJHL Draft. Today dozens of young mens lives will be changed and hockey careers begin as they hope to be drafted. The talented and hardworking general managers and scouts of 14 junior hockey teams have been tirelessly contacting players and studying statistics of dozens of talented potential prospects in hopes to selecting the missing pieces to help turn their programs in to a championship team or to help continue their league wide domination.
Hockey players aren’t the only ones that are excited though, thousands of hockey fans wait eagerly in hopes to see their favorite players get drafted to their favorite teams and hope that their teams will be the ones to draft some of the star players that will undoubtedly slip to the later rounds.
The SMJHL Draft Combine is also a very exciting event that takes place today and is an important factor for many general managers when deciding who they would like to select with their very valuable picks. The SMJHL Combine is very similar to the NHL Combine however many would consider the prospects in the SMJHL combine to be far superior physically and on the ice. The combine, like the NHL combine consists of multiple tests to help determine the capability of the athletes to play such high level hockey some of the NHL combine tests that the SMJHL is based on are described below:
Windgate: this is a power and endurance test where the athlete pedals as hard as they can for 30 seconds. This replicates the length of a normal hockey shift and is vital to see not only the leg strength and power of the athlete but their stamina as well.
VO2: This is another test on a stationary bike which helps test player stamina and determines how athletic an individual by looking at the oxygen content of the air they exhale throughout the test.
Pullups: Pullups helps measure strength and is a test on how many times an athlete can pull themselves up when hanging by their arms.
Agility Tests: Many agility tests can be performed but the most common of which is a 5-10-5 meter shuttle run where the athletes starts in the middle, sprints 5 meters to one side, back 10 meters in the opposite direction, then back to the starting line. This helps test speed and agility which are both very important factors general managers will be looking for.
Bench Press: Bench press is a weight lifting exercise where athletes are asked to chest press certain amounts of weight depending on their body weight as many times as they can. This is another important test of strength.
Standing Long Jump: another test to determine leg strength, the athletes stand on a line and are told to jump as far as they can without moving.
Wingspan and Height: These measurements are taken to determine how tall the athletes are as well as how long their arms are.
Grip Strength: a device is attached to each of the players hands to determine how strong the athletes can squeeze which is important in hockey and relates to shooting power.
Y Balance: This is a balance and mobility test where the athlete stands on one foot and has to reach as far as they can in each direction. This is incredibly important because hockey and skating requires immense amounts of balance.
Functional Movements: The last of the test is used to determine how mobile the athletes are. Athletes are tested in hurdle step, in-line lunge, shoulder mobility, deep squats, trunk stability push-ups, rotary stability and the active straight leg raise. These are tested to find imbalances in athletes because major imbalances can lead to injury in the future. These also help test flexibility which a lack of can also lead to injury.
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