Zeev Buium may be more NHL-ready than most people expected, while Sam Dickinson and Zayne Parekh may now squarely be on Utah's radar.
While most eyes of the day were on Macklin Celebrini Saturday at the NHL Draft Combine, Utah general manager Bill Armstrong had his eyes on several defensive prospects.
Most expect Utah will go with a draft-and-stash defenceman at no. 6 in the draft on June 28, and while ESPN predicted Saginaw's Zayne Parekh to go to the Beehive State, NHL.com experts were split on Denver's Zeev Buium or London's Sam Dickinson.
(Not going to lie, picking Buium would be cool, especially for a guy that has a tattoo of his championships so far on his forearm -- major flex.)
However, Buium was likely the most impressive physical defensive specimen at Saturday's combine, with 16 consecutive pull-ups (!) and it makes you wonder if that makes him jump up into the top five in the draft.
On the other hand, Sam Dickinson checked in with the ninth-longest wingspan of 78.75 inches, and maxed out at 6.92 watts/kilogram on the bench press.
And while Zayne Parekh didn't register in the top-10, he still has a lot of upside, as you can see in this highlight video courtesy of NHL Draft Pros on YouTube:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2t7orl1Jck[/embed]
You can see why Utah has such a difficult decision coming up in the draft.
Do they want to go with upside in Parekh? Or do they want to go after a physical specimen like Dickinson? Be ultra-aggressive and go after Buium?
Now, assured, the combine numbers never tell you much about a player's hockey IQ, and it's clear all three have the smarts.
It's just when it comes down to it, you've got to go what fits best -- and Bill Armstrong's got little time left to figure it out.
Courtesy of Sportsnet, check out the top ten performers from the combine here.