Pre-combine combine an on-ice test

The 2025 IIHF Men’s U18 World Championship doesn’t start until next Wednesday, but teams are already settled in Frisco and deep into their preparation for their final tournament in this age category. Next up, the World Junior Championship, but that’s a long way away and no one here is thinking about that.

As part of the prep, and in an effort to expand the importance of the tournament, all teams are participating in a mini-combine of sorts, off-ice and on, over the next couple of days. Today, for instance, the Swedes took to the ice to perform a series of skills which were measured and timed.

Each player wore a wristband and “signed in” prior to doing each drill. It started off simply. First, a little lateral drill through gates, almost like slalom skiing. Then a sprint to the far blue line, forwards, and then backwards. And then the same three drills but with pucks. 

After that came a more intricate slalom course, with and without a puck, forwards, backwards. For the players, this is their first time doing these drills, so the results today aren’t important so much as they establish a baseline for future testing. For the top prospects, that next time will come at the end of June as part of the NHL’s Entry Draft combine proceedings. 

Some 30 of the top 64 prospects for the upcoming draft, from Europe and North America, will be playing at the U18s starting next week. Two of that number, Swedes Eddie Genborg, 18, and Milton Gastrin, 17, took part in today’s testing. They agreed the last drill was the most challenging—slalom, backwards, with puck. 

“I think I fell three times! It was awful,” Genborg said. 

“The toughest part is that when you mess things up like we did, you have to do it a few more times than anyone else,” Gastrin added good-naturedly.

Players won’t know their results right away, but when they do it will have some value all the same.

“It’s fun to compare results with the other guys, but I don’t think it means very much if you do better or worse than anyone,” Gastrin acknowledged. “But a lot of teams look at skating for player evaluations, so it definitely means something.”

Genborg agreed. “You do it to challenge yourself, and to try to get the best result. Of course, you want to show the scouts you’re good at these drills.”

Gastrin is ranked number three on the NHL’s Central Scouting chart of European players for the upcoming draft, and Genborg is not far behind at number six….