Nearly 100 top hockey prospects completed physical fitness assessments and individual team interviews at KeyBank Center and LECOM HarborCenter in Buffalo on Saturday, ahead of the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft.
Toronto Maple Leafs general manager John Chayka interviewed more than 65 players during the six-day combine.
His team secured the top selection in the draft lottery on May 5.
Top Prospect McKenna Remains No. 1 Pick Projection
Penn State left wing Gavin McKenna, measuring 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds, remains the projected No. 1 overall pick for the draft scheduled on June 26-27 in Buffalo.
“It's not every day you get a chance to make the first overall selection and to do it in a market like Toronto with obviously the tradition, and the history and the expectation of excellence, makes it really unique,” said Chayka, who was hired on May 3 alongside senior executive adviser Mats Sundin.
Chayka visited McKenna and his family at their home in Whitehorse, Yukon, prior to the scouting event.
“He's a small-town kid ... It's a remote area of the world, very peaceful, but beautiful.
And within that, I think there's some real resolve around who he is and what his career means to him and his family, and I find it impressive,” Chayka added.
McKenna is scheduled to travel west with five other top prospects on Sunday to attend Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes.
“It's going to be my first-ever Stanley Cup game so for it to be in Vegas, it'll be pretty cool experience and to experience with Keaton and those guys will be fun,” McKenna said.
International Prospects Face Unique Challenges
International skater Ivar Stenberg sat out the physical tests following a recent illness. He chose to participate only in the interview portion with 14 NHL franchises.
“Been sick pretty much lately,” Stenberg stated regarding his decision to opt out of the physical portion of the combine.
The 18-year-old forward recorded 33 points across 43 games in the Swedish Hockey League during the regular season.
“After the IIHF World Championship, I talked to my agents, my off-ice coach, and we decided that this is the best for me ...
to not do it,” Stenberg explained.
Despite skipping the drills, Stenberg expressed confidence that his performance throughout the season demonstrated his professional capabilities.
“It's going to maybe not look too good, but it's dangerous to do it when you're sick,” Stenberg remarked.
The forward highlighted his cognitive processing on the ice as a main strength for his transition to North American professional leagues.
“My hockey IQ for sure,” Stenberg said. “That's one thing that's pretty good, something that would help me.”
The 2026 combine introduced two new evaluation metrics: a 10-meter sprint and an isokinetic squat test to evaluate lower-body power without traditional free weights.
Professional Hockey Performance Organization president Matt Price noted that lower-body strength directly influences skating acceleration and puck battles.
“Lower-body strength is pretty darn important for skating and for the ability to battle in corners,” Price stated.
The electronic resistance machine adjusted loads dynamically based on the vertical force generated by each prospect during the movement.
“The harder you push, the higher the force output,” Price explained.
Prospect Casey Mutryn revealed that the Montreal Canadiens utilized unique psychological questions during their private interview sessions to evaluate player decision-making.
“If I’m the captain of a destroyer in the Navy during World War II, and your job is to destroy submarines, and there’s a submarine that you can destroy, but 10 of your crew members are overboard.
So if you destroy the submarine, you’re killing your crew members.
So they’re like, ‘Do you destroy the submarine, kill your crew members, or do you let the submarine go and save your man?’
I just said, ‘You gotta destroy the sub. That’s your job,'” Mutryn recalled.
Defenseman Tobias Trejbal also experienced unorthodox questioning from the Montreal staff during his interview segment.
“I remember Montreal asked me some weird questions.
Like, ‘If you were in the Sahara and there were two guys, one had a bottle of water and the other had a baseball bat.
What would you do? So, their guy told me, ‘I have a wife at home.
I have kids at home. Like, are you gonna really kill me?’
I said, ‘Yeah, your family is at home.
They’re safe, and I have my whole life in front of me, and I want to play in NHL, so I will smack you with the baseball bat,'” Trejbal said.
Prospect Alexander Command shared that his lifelong interest in North American hockey developed through an early morning routine established with his family in Sweden.
“We had 'NHL On The Fly' on every morning,” Command stated. “For 45 minutes before going to school, we'd watch game summaries and highlights while eating breakfast.”
The first round of the 2026 NHL Draft will commence on June 26 at 7 p. m.
Eastern Time, followed by rounds two through seven on June 27.
