2019 NHL Draft: Jayden Struble stands out at combine
The 2019 NHL Draft Combine has just wrapped up in Buffalo. While neither Kaapo Kakko or Jack Hughes participated in the fitness testing, Jayden Struble finished at the top of almost every event.
Ranked 48th overall among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting, Jayden Struble is a name you likely haven’t heard before. The 17-year-old draft eligible defenceman tore up the fitness tests at the 2019 NHL Draft Combine.
Struble is set to play next season with the Victoria Grizzlies of the British Columbia Hockey League and is committed to Northeastern University of the NCAA. This past season, Struble played in the USHS prep league with St. Sebastian’s School, where he picked up ten goals and 30 assists in 28 games.
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He finished first in the Wingate test, which measures a player’s anaerobic fitness by having them pedal as hard as they can on a bike. He also finished first in the bench press test, which was measured based on how much power a player could produce when benching 50% of their body weight.
Struble also finished first in the grip strength test, which is defined as “The athlete adjusts a hand grip dynamometer to his hand size, fully extends his arm and squeezes the dynamometer as forcefully as possible. The test is conducted on both hands.” He was able to reach 160 pounds with his left hand, and 170 with his right hand on this test.
Finally, Struble finished first in the standing long jump, jumping 117.8 inches, just slightly beating out goaltender Spencer Knight, who was able to jump 117 inches on this test.
The standing long jump test is described as, “Athlete stands with feet slightly apart with toes behind the jumping line. Using an arm swing to assist, the athlete jumps as far as possible.”
Next. 2019 NHL Mock Draft. dark
If teams didn’t already have their eyes on Struble as someone they can select in the later rounds of the draft, they almost certainly will now, as those fitness test results are rather eye-catching.