Richmond’s Lukas Dragicevic was invited to the 2023 NHL Scouting Combine event earlier this month.
The six-foot-two, right-shot defenseman Dragicevic with the Tri-City Americans was invited as one of 106 prospects to take part in the showcase event just before the NHL Draft.
The NHL Combine, presented by Adidas at KeyBank Centre and HarborCentre in Buffalo, ran from June 4 to 10 and is described as a “rite of passage” by Dan Marr, vice president of NHL Central Scouting.
“The NHL combine is the final showcase event before the NHL draft and it’s a week full of interviews, medicals and fitness testing where the players get to interact with NHL personnel and the NHL clubs get to learn as much as possible about the future stars of our game,” said Marr in a media statement.
It gives the 32 NHL teams physical and medical assessments of the top prospects ahead of the 2023 NHL draft at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville from June 28 to 29.
Dragicevic was ranked 18 among North American skaters in the 2023 NHL Central Scouting's final rankings for the upcoming NHL Draft.
During Dragicevic’s first full-time Western Hockey League season in 2021-2022, he scored 32 points (6-26-32) in 62 games and was the highest-scoring 2005-born defenseman. In his 2022-2023 season, Dragicevic recorded 75 points(15-60-75) in 68 games. He also set a new Americans franchise record with a 27-game point streak from Oct. 14 to Dec. 30, according to the Tri-City Americans website.
Dragicevic was also one of four 2005-born defensemen on Hockey Canada’s roster for the World Under-18 Hockey Championship, where he scored three points (1-2-3) in four games.
