Niagara IceDogs Mark Visentin and Freddie Hamilton spent this past week at the NHL Draft Combine in Toronto, completing one-on-one interviews with a number of NHL teams in the first few days, followed by a day of vigorous physical testing which saw the prospects put through tests in order to gauge their fitness, strength, agility, explosiveness in various areas.

While the interviews obviously are an important part of the combine and take up the majority of the players’ time, the physical tests are the main event of the Draft Combine, attracting the majority of the media and fan attention.

With staff from numerous media outlets in attendance, tweeting, blogging and conducting interviews about the players’ results and experiences, the fans were able to follow the physical tests throughout the day.  All this was happening while the prospects were being watched and graded by strength and conditioning coaches, scouts and general managers from each of the NHL's 30 teams.  The physical testing is certainly a tough way for the prospects to finish up what is a long week for them.

The most publicized of the physical tests are the two bike tests, with the Wingate test and the VO2 Max test.  Both bike tests push the prospects to their absolute limit, with some prospects pushing themselves to the point where they vomit.  That combined with the yelling that occurs to encourage the players to push themselves, leads to the bike tests drawing a great deal of attention.

Other parts of the physical testing the prospects go through include the standing long jump, hand eye coordination testing, push/pull strength tests, grip strength tests, curl-ups, push ups, bench press, upper body power testing, vertical jump, leg power, jump mat testing, body fat measurements and wingspan measurements.

Both of the IceDogs at the combine did well at the combine, with Visentin really excelling at a couple of the physical tests. 

Of the 100 prospects at the combine, Visentin finished tied for second in the standing long jump, with a jump of 114.5 inches, just 1.5 inches behind John McFarland’s 116 inches, which was the best jump in years at the combine, and almost a full foot over the average standing long jump of 102.8 inches.

Then in the hand eye coordination test Visentin was able to pull off the fifth best test result of all the prospects.  The result made Visentin one of only two goalies to place in the top ten of the hand eye coordination test.

With the 2010 NHL Draft Combine now finished the prospects, along with the NHL scouts and general managers now will turn their attention to the upcoming 2010 NHL Draft coming up June 25th-26th at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.  The scouts and general managers will use the information gained at the combine as one of the final puzzle pieces for their draft plans where their selections will help launch the careers of the next wave of NHL players.