2019 NHL Draft: Kaapo Kakko will not attend draft combine

Kaapo Kakko, the projected second overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, has decided not to attend the combine. How will this affect him?

In the midst of the Stanley Cup Final where most of the hockey world’s media attention is being directed, the 2019 NHL Draft Combine is scheduled to begin on Monday in Buffalo. While over 100 draft-eligible players were invited to this year’s camp, the big question isn’t who’s going to be there, but who isn’t going to be there. Although he was invited and is projected to be the second overall pick, Kaapo Kakko ended up declining his invitation.

Jack Hughes and Kakko are both returning from the World Championships in Slovakia, where Kakko’s Team Finland was victorious. After the United States was eliminated, Hughes was able to come back to the United States to prepare for the combine, while Kakko took a detour to Finland for a victory celebration.

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If he decided to attend the combine, his homecoming and victory parade would have been cut short. Kakko gave no “official” reason for his decision.

Many think the combine would have been an unnecessary formality for Kakko. After a dominant showing at the World Championships, World Juniors and Finland’s Liiga, scouts and NHL general managers have already seen enough of him to know the skill he possesses. Why fly across the world for glorified workouts, interviews and a media circus after you won your country a gold medal and are receiving a hero’s welcome back home?

So far, the decision hasn’t seemed to hurt Kakko. Kakko’s agent, Mike Liut, said that not only do the NHL teams at the combine understand, but they also support his decision.

No matter what justification is used behind Kakko’s decision to stay home, it’s a stunning reversal on what he said about the draft combine experience a few days prior in an NHL.com article, even if he was unfamiliar with the process.

"“I’m excited for the Combine,” Kakko said. “I’ve heard a little bit about the NHL Combine, but don’t know exactly what will happen; time will tell. I haven’t prepared in any way, because I’ve played so much hockey during the past weeks, so that’s where my focus has been.”"

The purpose of the combine is for NHL teams to get a one on one assessment of the draft-eligible players. With Kakko’s physicality, strength, and weaknesses well-known and documented, there’s little that NHL teams can learn from combine tests they didn’t already know.

It’s not like the old days when NHL brass rarely saw much of prospects before the combine and draft, and had to rely on scouting reports. In this day and age, it doesn’t matter if you were in Finland, Montreal or Los Angeles. You can easily turn on a TV or go online and see extensive documentation of Kaapo Kakko’s hockey prowess. The real downside is that Kakko won’t be able to participate in the one and one interviews.

Players at the combine are able to schedule direct, one on one interviews, with the teams that may possibly draft them. Hughes himself has 12 schedules. Though the interviews don’t have cameras watching them like the physical tests, these interviews are usually the first time team management could see for themselves and get to know the prospect they have learned so much about.

With Kakko’s draft stock as high as it already is, the interviews aren’t a make or break scenario they may be for a few lower tier prospects, who really have to put on a show and convince potential suitors while they should be drafted.

Who knows though, maybe an interview with Ray Shero would have convinced the New Jersey Devils to leapfrog over Hughes and take Kakko with the first overall pick. This would have been the first time the general manager first at the podium come June would get the first impression of them. After all, Kakko did say he wanted the Devils to seriously consider taking him with the first pick.

No matter how much it’s argued who’s the better prospect in Hughes or Kakko, Hughes has all the tiebreakers in his favor. For one, he’s a natural center, which always gets the upper hand over Kakko, who can play center but is usually utilized and shines in the spotlight better at right-wing.

Hughes is also a North American skater, with his career history well documented through the USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. No matter how good Kakko is, questions about him playing in Europe in a different league will always knock him down a notch on NHL draft lists.

Of course, the last time the New Jersey Devils had the first overall pick they chose the European Nico Hischier over the “safer choice” Canadian prospect Nolan Patrick. Two years later, it looks like the Devils made the right choice. It is worth noting that Hischier was in attendance at that year’s combine.

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In all likely hood, Hughes will still be drafted number one to the New Jersey Devils and Kakko will go the New York Rangers with the second overall pick. If you think Jeff Gorton is second thinking his choice because Kakko doesn’t want to run on a treadmill in front of him in Buffalo, not only are you wrong but the Chicago Blackhawks would be ecstatic to take Kaako at third.

The combine could have been the thing that edged Kakko from a top two pick to the first overall pick, and now it looks like his fate at number two is set.

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