Pierre Allard: NHL Combine testing just one piece of the puzzle

MONTREAL - The Canadiens' sports science and performance staff is collecting valuable numerical data on top draft-eligible players from across the globe at the 2018 NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo.

The team's director of sports science and performance, Pierre Allard, is charged with leading the team's efforts to analyze the information from the various movement and fitness tests prospects participate in following individual interviews with team reps, including general manager Marc Bergevin and assistant general manager Trevor Timmins.
Allard's primary goal is to interpret the data collected on-site and create a "dashboard" or player profile, assessing a prospect's main qualities and strengths, along with identifying any potential areas of concern.
The Canadiens will conduct their data analysis in partnership with the University of Montreal's Department of Kinesiology and associate professor Jonathan Tremblay Ph.D., an exercise physiologist and data scientist.
"It's like if you're driving on the highway and you've got five lights popping up on your screen, I guarantee that you're going to stop at a garage to see what's going on. We create a 'dashboard' for every player to see how many lights pop up, and if they're important or not," explained Allard, who will be taking part in his eighth NHL Combine with the Habs. "The 'dashboard' opens the discussion about players. Are we seeing in their fitness what we saw on the ice? Or, are there any lights popping up that we should investigate a little more prior to drafting a kid? Then we can use that info to help the player if we end up drafting him. It shows us the kinds of things we're going to have to work on with him."

In short, Allard's player profile makes the fitness testing data easier for the Canadiens' scouting department to analyze to help in the decision-making process leading up to the NHL Draft in June.
"Our job is to take something very complex and make it understandable for our scouting staff to read. When they just see tons of numbers, they want to know: Is he good at this? Is he good at that? We answer any questions the scouts may have," said Allard. "After that, they are the ones who make the decisions. You can't base whether or not you're going to draft a player on testing alone. You need the input of the scouts. If you only base your decisions on the NHL Combine, you will make a bad decision."
In other words, the way prospects perform at the NHL Combine isn't the be-all and end-all in the selection process. All things considered, it really comes down to how they perform on the ice.
Allard believes that a host of different factors can affect a prospect's performance during the testing portion of the annual event that may ultimately lead to sub-par results.
"It's tough to base your decision on just one day at the NHL Combine with everybody around. There might be nerves, or he might've had a bad night, maybe he didn't sleep well," explained Allard. "It's one day in the life of a kid. It's like going to an exam. You can study every day for two years in a row and you get there and you have a mental block that day. It doesn't mean that you don't know the information; it's just on that day you couldn't remember things for whatever reason."

That being said, the 45-year-old former French Olympian notes that prospects typically generate similar numbers across the board.
"When I started eight years ago, there was a huge difference between the top ones and the lowest ones. Now, everyone is kind of the same," mentioned Allard. "You get some guys who pop out a little bit more on certain tests, but the players all come to the combine in shape."
Certain characteristics are key
Admittedly, Allard is intrigued to see the results of some tests over others. A prospect's ability to generate power - and sustain it - is a primary area of interest.
"There are more and more power-related tests because hockey is a more explosive sport. For me, a hockey player is a sprinter on ice, and what separates a good player from an average player is his capacity to repeat high-intensity sprints," shared Allard. "Every team is looking for players that can be explosive and repeat it shift after shift, night after night."
Teams across the league are also looking for players with good mobility and agility, which, according to Allard, is a sign of good things to come.
"Hockey is more about speed now. It's being played faster and faster. The change in direction is very fast and so is the transition. A guy with good mobility can have a better range of motion," indicated Allard. "A better range of motion means you have a better capacity to develop your power and your skating. But it's all probability."

When the Canadiens do draft a prospect, that player will report to Development Camp in July, which is where things "get interesting" from a measurement standpoint.
"We'll run the players we draft through the same tests that our pro players will do in September. Then, you can compare their power output to Brendan Gallagher or their explosiveness to Paul Byron. If he's already good in those areas, we're going to see it by comparing his score to our NHL players' scores," explained Allard. "You'll be able to see how far he is from being at an NHL level."
Best advice
While the testing aspect of the NHL Combine offers organizations a measure of insight into a prospect's overall fitness level, it is merely a snapshot in time of a player's off-ice performance.
In other words, teams aren't just coveting players with strong fitness results and Allard is adamant that doing so would be a mistake.

"I'm not going to suggest we draft a player just because he's in good shape," concluded Allard. "I can take any 17-year-old kid and he might kill all the tests. But, if he doesn't know how to skate… well… that's why these results are most useful as a 'dashboard.'"
This article, which first appeared on canadiens.com on May 23, 2018, has been updated in conjunction with the start of this week's NHL Scouting Combine.