Risk vs. reward as NHL teams assess Russian prospects at camp to dispel concerns entering draft
The NHL draft is later this week and there are a handful of Russian prospects who could be picked
If NHL general managers and most scouts are unable to enter Russia to rate the talent in person, player agent Daniel Milstein figured, why not bring his draft-eligible prospects to North America?
That was the case earlier in June, when Milstein and several agents with Russian clients held their own combine in Florida, which he said attracted representatives from all but one of the league’s 32 teams. He has previously held pre-draft camps, but this was the first open to all NHL teams.
“I had a full house,” Milstein told The Associated Press, declining to say which team did not attend. “Talent-wise, and you can quote me on this: I’m not sure that we had any less talent than the actual NHL combine.”
That might be a stretch, given the annual NHL combine held in Buffalo, New York, two weeks earlier featured nearly 100 prospects, including Boston University’s Macklin Celebrini, who is projected to be selected first by San Jose when the draft opens in Las Vegas on Friday.
