Chapter 7

“Hello and welcome to the 63rd annual SMJHL Draft Combine ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor to have all of you great prospects who are interested in joining the SMJHL. Some of you will thrive and some will fizzle out before you even get started, but all of you are here for the same reason right now. You have a dream of joining the SHL someday and you know the first step to that is joining the SMJHL. For those of you who don’t know me I go by BadWolf and this is ACapitalChicago, we are the commissioners of the SMJHL. We are here because we want to see you all succeed in this league, we know you have the potential for it.”

“Hi everyone, once again I am ACapitalChicago and I’m going to be going over what events will be held today. For the first half of the day we will be working on ice. You’ll be taking some line rushes with your assigned linemates, then we’re going to have you do the skate test, for those who don’t know that is skating the length of the rink twice finishing with a sprint to the center line, then we will have lunch around 1 PM where you will get to bond with your fellow draftees, when you come back from lunch we will do our off-ice portion of the combine, including grip strength, max bench press, standing long jump, vertical jump, pull ups, the pro-agility test, the Y-balance test, the Wingate test, and VO2 max test. Around 6 PM we will be having dinner and general managers and scouts from every SMJHL team will be at dinner. Tomorrow will be the scrimmage match to wrap up the combine and you will have the rest of the day tomorrow and the day of the draft to interview with different scouts and GMs to try and raise your draft stock. Are there any questions?”

Rolf immediately throws his hand in the air and begins waving it around frantically.

“Yes, Rolf?” An exasperated ACapitalChicago points at Rolf.

“Will there be potty brea—“

“Any other questions?” BadWolf pipes up cutting off Rolf, “No? Great, let the combine begin!”

Drakocarr and Brent seem to be a good fit together, and thankfully very little communication is needed for them to figure each other out on the ice. Their defensive pairing is teamed up with the line combination of Lesgo Brandon at left wing – a little on the shorter and leaner side of a hockey player Lesgo stands a little over six foot tall and looks to be under 200 lbs he is wearing a new era Winnipeg Jets jersey as his practice jersey and has a stylish beard and short haircut- who is known for his exceptions passing and athletic ability, Sisyphus Embrose at center – he is slightly bulkier than Lesgo but just about the same height wearing a Buffalo Sabres jersey and black breezers – known for his all around balanced style of play that focuses more on puck possession than anything, and Ivan Lacksamus at right wing – roughly about the same height and weight as Sisyphus, Ivan has medium length brown hair and a slight mustache, he is wearing a Washington Capitals jersey and blue breezers – also known for his exceptional offense and athletic skills, and equally well known for his atrocious offense Ivan also played as a draftable free agent last season so he has more practice hours than any of the other 4 skaters. The goalie taking their rushes is Evert Jansson – he is six and a half feet tall at least and with the goalie pads on appears to be a solid wall of a man – well known for his positioning and reflexes Evert is the highest touted goalie prospect in the draft.

“Good work guys, I think we’re looking pretty good in front of the scouts, every pass has been tape to tape and I’m straight vibing. Picking up what you guys are putting down if you know what I mean?” Ivan lets out a laugh juggling the puck on his stick, “what do you think Lesgo, you just scored twice in a row? Are you straight vibing?”

Lesgo laughs, “Dude I don’t know what you’ve been doing, but maybe we should real back the “vibes” until we are drafted. I’m feeling good though, as long as Drako and Brent keep hitting me with these outlet passes, I’m going to keep putting them in the net!”

“I mean I don’t mind doing some of the defensive work guys, but don’t forget in the scrimmage if you turn it over to get back. I mean scoring goals is fun but having goals scored on you sucks.” Sisyphus chimes in with his two cents.

“Yeah, yeah Sisyphus, don’t be a vibe killer. Tell him Drako, we vibing over here.” Ivan commands.

“I mean I don’t want to clean up all the messes either, guys. Don’t turn over the puck deep and we won’t have problems.” Drakocarr reasons.

“Oh shoot, I think it’s lunch time!” Yells Evert from the other side of the ice, yanking his skates off and gesturing to a catering order of Panera Bread being brought through the front doors.

“TIME FOR THE SKATE TEST, ALL PLAYERS PLEASE ASSUME THE POSITION! GOALIES MAY LEAVE THE ICE NOW FOR LUNCH!” A voice rings out over the PA system.

“See you guys, I’ll save you some seats!” Evert skates off the ice and practically runs to where they are setting up lunch.

Drakocarr gulps and skates to the end of the rink along with his linemates. They line up along the blue line arms touching the glass behind the net.

3 – 2 – 1 BEEEEEEPPPP

And they take off, immediately it becomes the Lesgo and Ivan show. The two wingers are racing as fast as they can down the ice. Sisyphus is a good ways behind them, then bringing up the rear and just trying to keep pace with each other are Brent and Drakocarr. Finally the hardest drill in all of hockey is over. All of the skaters are doubled over sucking in air at the red line.

The announcer comes over the PA one more time “We are going to announce the top five skaters out of everyone, without their times. In fifth place we have left defenseman San-Sam Emerson from Incheon, South Korea. In fourth place we have center Emerson Porzingis from Liepaja, Latvia. In third place we have right defense Drew Ekstrom from Espoo, Finland. In second place we have left wing Lesgo Brandon from Edina, Minnesota, United States of America. And in first place with our fastest time of the day we have right wing Ivan Lacksamus from City, Switzerland. Congratulations to all of our prospects so far! You guys are doing great! Lunch is served!”

Drakocarr grabs two premade catering lunch boxes from Panera and sits down at a table with Ivan, Lesgo, Evert, Rolf, and Ergo. He opens the first box and starts devouring a tuna salad sandwich.

“Man, I told you guys—I’m the fastest guy in the draft, bout to be the fastest in the SMJHL,” Ivan brags, biting into a turkey sandwich, “look I mean I’ve already played against these guys for half a season, y’all can’t expect to be on my level!”

Lesgo quips back: “Bro I’m just saying you’ve never played against me. And this is just practice, when I’m in a game and I have something to play for, you wouldn’t be able to touch me. Besides I bet Drako would knock you on your ass in front of the net so being fast is cool and all but how are you going to score when you’re sitting on the ground? Tell him Drako! You would beat his ass!”

“I don’t want to beat anyone’s ass,” Drako whispers shyly.

“Drako, that is not what a good hockey player says, you’ve got to be ready to beat someone’s ass any minute. What if they’re getting ready to score on Evert over here? You got to knock the shit out of them, make them sorry you know?” Ergo pipes up over her fuji apple chicken salad.

“I’m not saying I won’t beat anyone’s ass, I just don’t want to, I’ll do what I have to do to protect my goalie.” Drako responds defensively.

“Okay whatever you say, don’t get your panties in a twist now. I’m just saying the more fun you have out there the more fun the fans have watching us!” Ergo laughs “You do want the fans to want to watch you play, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course I do. I understand what you’re saying, I just find more joy in a good solid hit than a fight.”

“Wow you’re crazy, my favorite thing to do is punch people in the face.” Says Rolf, calmer than ever before eating a dry baguette.

“Yeah you say things like that and he’s the crazy one?” Evert teases.

“Hey I didn’t say I like people shooting 100 mph pucks at me, that’s really crazy Mr. Goalie.” Rolf chirps back.

The six prospects sit joking and having fun for the next 30 minutes until lunch is over.